The Land Before Time (1988)

(On TV, October 2019) I find myself curiously laconic in describing The Land Before Time. What you need to know is that it’s an animated film from Don Bluth, which was trying at the time to compete with Walt Disney as a purveyor of animated family films. It’s set in prehistoric times, with a young dinosaur trying to find a place to live after the death of his mom (oops, there’s the Disney touch right there) and making friends along the way. Despite the film’s claim to fame as having spawned no less than thirteen direct-to-video follow-ups to date, it’s also as bland as it’s possible to be. Aimed at kids and not badly made in any sense of the word, it’s a by-the-number exercise in family movies. Dinosaur fans will appreciate, even though the film inevitably doesn’t reflect the dramatic accumulation of knowledge in the field in the past 30 years. The film is almost exactly what you think it will be from looking at a plot summary or the box cover: a kid’s friend dinosaur adventure. Nothing more, nothing less.