Customer Reviews

The Land Before Time (Sign Language Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This is one of those films that I expected to enjoy much less than many of my family's Disney favorites. As it turned out, both my children and my wife and I like the movie immensely.

The touching story of Little Foot, the last remaining member of his family of Brontosauruses (Brontosauri?), is a great adventure as well. He joins up with younger members of other dinosaur families as they all journey to the Great Valley in search of food.

Along the way they encounter hunger, thirst, earthquakes, and, not least of all, the dreaded Sharptooth. The feel of the dinosaur age is well presented and the characters are cute without being saccharine (and they don't sing!).

The lesson that friends can be friends even though they don't look like you or act just like you is a nice one for kids to see. The idea that working together is important for reaching a goal is also a valuable one.

Having owned a VHS copy of the movie, I was anxious to see the DVD. The result on this particular version is very dissappointing.

First, the version is full-screen with no wide-screen option. This seems to be a minor problem since most of the action seems to take place center screen. It would have been nice to have the option for widescreen, however.

Secondly, the color and brightness varies widely from scene to scene (and, more jarringly, sometimes within a scene). The opening scene, which starts underwater, is actually darker and less sharp than on the VHS version. In several quiet, close-up scenes the picture will be perfectly exposed and then the picture will shift to a darker look and then back. Very annoying. Various nicks and scratches appear throughout the film - it appears that no effort was made to clean up the video master at all.

There were also no extras on the disc at all, and at the price of this DVD, you would expect a little more than just the movie and chapter selections. Disney issued their first few DVDs with little problems like this: no widescreen option, varying degrees of video quality, etc. They however, have moved to a more consistent product over the last six months. Hopefully, movies like The Land Before Time will be given better treatment in the future. This one in particular deserves better than it got.

A lot of people are commenting about how negative and depressing this movie is. Well, not all kids are looking for a rainbows-and-cotton-candy kind of film. This was one of my favorite movies as a child. Sure, maybe I was a little aloof to what was really happening, but I found nothing depressing about the film. Yes, it's sad and yes the happy ending isn't a disney-type happy, but I'm sure that doesn't really matter to most kids.

I just recently pulled this video out to watch with my three year old daughter and a flood of emotions surged through my veins. What a masterpiece this truly is! Dinosaurs are a species of animals that have always had a dramatic allure and fascination in regard to younger individuals, and what better way to instruct children in the many aspects of life via a movie of this description? Although some scenes are a bit heavy (i.e. the extremely tragic death of Littlefoot's mother-- a scene that still brings tears to my eyes) there are many others that completely compensate. This movie is heart-warming. Children will definitely become attached to the five main characters in this story and identify with them-- the courageous leader Littlefoot, the tempestuous and firey Cera, the innocent and meek Ducky, the comedic and playful Petrie, and the silent and cute Spike. Complete with a gorgeous soundtrack, primarily the beautiful ballad performed by Diana Ross, this is a definitive film pertaining to all aspects of life, one to be enjoyed for eons.

One more day 'til it hits the street... God I hope it's in anamorphic widescreen!

~~~~~~~~~~~
Edited: It is NOT widescreen anamorphic!!! What a truck load waste of time and energy I spent stretching my neck waiting for this one! Shows very little care went into this DVD release by the studio. Evidently all they did was reprinting the material they already had from the VHS days and made DVDs out of it. Guess it wouldn't be as profitable to actually do some work and restore the original film for theatrical release before selling the DVDs for money. I'd give ZERO star if I could.

Don't need to add more that others have already said about the feature itself, but the DVD now that's another story.

I don't write many reviews, but I felt it my duty to let other buyers know before purchasing this DVD that quality is VERY VERY POOR !!! It's almost unwatchable in my eyes, especially if viewing a LARGE format WS projection system.

You were warned, buy it only for the content and not the DVD quality or special features, cuz there isn't any !!!!

Signed,
Disappointed

I'm absolutely baffled why any studio would let such a poor digitally transferred movie ever see the light of day on DVD. It's REALLY BAD.

My advice, don't buy. Force the studio to redo this DVD. Don't settle for such terrible quality.

I can live with this dvd being only fullscreen (that is supposedly its OAR) but to call this an Anniversary Edition & provide the worst special features ever on dvd is outrageous. Bluth/Spielberg/Lucas should sue Universal to have there names removed from this atrocity & replaced with Alan Smithee. You know when the first "special feature" is "how to use your remote control" that this disc was produced for children 1-5 years old. My 7 year old nephews turn their noses up at it. What a great movie. What a HORRID dvd presentation. Do what you like with the 101 sequels but give us a quality dvd of this classic original movie. PLEASE!

I have always loved this movie. Not only is it touching, fun and entertaining, but the animation and music are great! This movie is also a great way to remember Judith Barsi, the awesome young actress who provided the voice of "Ducky". And so I highly recomend this movie to all ages, young and old.

RIP Judith, you will never be forgotten.

This movie is my son's favorite movie. We only have 3... but he likes it more than Lion King and Finding Nemo. It seems like so many of these movies have the mother die in the begining but in this one it isn't that obvious that she dies to my 3 & 2 yr olds... so it doesn't upset them, yet. It's as if she just needs to rest for a little while.
The anniversary edition is nice because it has bonus material, my son loves the songs that are included from other movies. We will be purchasing a few more of the Land Before Time movies.

Before Littlefoot and company were turned into a shameless commerical cash cow there was the original Land Before Time. The story is simple, the art style unique, and the James Horner score perfect. This is one of the few movies from my childhood that I continue to watch, and though this is partly out of nostalgia it is also because the story is timeless and the execution near-flawless.

If you are a parent reading this review, this is the film to get, although some of the material may frighten or otherwise affect sensitive children. I still tear up at the infamous "mother" scene, which puts even Bambi to shame.

It saddens me every time a new Land Before Time sequel is introduced, as none come close to the quality of the original. (The new films are so bad that they need catchy third-rate sing-a-longs to get kids to watch them.) If I could give this movie ten stars, I would. So here they are: *********/10