The Land Before Time is a franchise consisting of American animated adventure family films centered around dinosaurs, including a theatrical movie, various straight-to-home video sequels, and a spin-off TV series. Based on an original story by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and distributed by Universal Pictures, the franchise began in 1988 with the eponymous film, directed and produced by Don Bluth and executive produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Its success spawned an additional thirteen direct-to-video musical sequels before expanding into other media including video games, soundtracks, and related merchandising. Notably, the additional movies and TV show did not include the collaborative participation of Bluth, Lucas, nor Spielberg.
The 14 films were released as a Complete Collection DVD set later on June 14, 2016.
Plot
The films follow the friendship of a group of young ornithodirans (four dinosaurs and a pterosaur) named Littlefoot (a male Apatosaurus), Cera (a female Triceratops), Ducky (a female Saurolophus), Petrie (a male Pteranodon), and Spike (a male Stegosaurus). After finding the Great Valley, they raise a carnivorous baby (a male Tyrannosaurus whom they name Chomper), survive a drought, a cold snap, and witness a solar eclipse. Throughout the films they embark on adventures, learning lessons about life, teamwork, and friendship along the way.
Films
Theatrical
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-streaming on Peacock
Television series
A spin-off television series based on the films began airing on YTV in Canada on January 5, 2007. It consisted of one season of 26 episodes, and officially premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on March 5, 2007, after the DVD release of The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers. The TV series takes place after the events of The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. It has since been collected and released on 6 DVDs, each containing 4 episodes, in the United States and the UK. The complete series was released on DVD in 2022.
Cast and characters
- D indicates an appearance as a character's disguised voice.
- S indicates an appearance as a character's singing voice.
In other media
Albums
- The Land Before Time (1988) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
- The Land Before Time: Sing-Along Songs (1997): Songs from the first four movies (movies I, II, III, and IV). The album was later released in a VHS format which included facts about the dinosaurs featured in the franchise.
- The Songs from The Land Before Time (1997): Songs from the first four movies (movies I-IV)
- The Land Before Time: More Sing-Along Songs (1999) Songs from movies V and VI (the last two of the first 6 movies) and An American Tail film series (movies III and IV).
- The Best Songs from The Land Before Time (2016) Songs from movies I, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI, and XIV.
Video games
The series has spawned 14 spin-off games, eight for PC, one for the Game Boy Color, two for the Game Boy Advance and three for the original PlayStation. The PC games are usually educational games aimed for preschool and kindergarten. Games for the Game Boy Color and Advance include The Land Before Time and The Land Before Time: Into the Mysterious Beyond, in which the original six characters must search for Chomper. Games for the PlayStation include The Land Before Time: Big Water Adventure, a spin-off of Journey to Big Water, The Land Before Time: Great Valley Racing Adventure and The Land Before Time: Return to the Great Valley. All characters in these games are voiced by Lani Minella.
References
External links
- The Land Before Time's channel on YouTube
