The Land Before Time

The Land Before Time is one of Don Bluth's early films so it goes without saying that it is wonderful look at and to hear. This story is very straight, and copied apparently by every dinosaur film to come after it, about a group of orphaned dinosaurs trying to find their home. Everyone always seems to name either Bambi's mother or Mustafa's deaths as that moment of complete devestation, for me it always has to be Little Foot's Mother, who we even see exactly when she receives the wounds which take her life. This film goes particularly dark, with Little Foot even having a moment where he seems to give up on life. Again though like the best of em when things it warm again it really seems so earned by what our characters go through. Each of the dinosaurs work and add something to the dynamic of the group, and there is some rather intense terror to be found in the villain Sharptooth. I will say the final third seems slightly rushed, apparently some of Sharptooths scenes were cut, but given what was left in those have to be terrifying. It's made up for climatic scene that should make most thrillers jealous though, which then leads to some well earned heartstring tugging by the end.
4.5/5