50 Fun Facts About The Land Before Time

The makers of The Land Before Time set out to create a dinosaur version of which Disney classic?

Bambi was the model, and reviewers duly called the finished film a sort of prehistoric Bambi. Like the fawn, Littlefoot loses his mother early and has to grow up fast.

Which real dinosaur is Sharptooth, the villain who hunts Littlefoot across The Land Before Time?

Tyrannosaurus is the species behind Sharptooth, the killer of Littlefoot's mother. The sequels went on to give the same nickname to many other meat-eaters.

Which singer performed If We Hold On Together, the end-credits theme of The Land Before Time?

Diana Ross recorded the ballad, which went to number one in Japan and became her biggest hit there. Britain only got it as a single four years after the film.

What name does Littlefoot give the baby sharptooth he hatches and raises in The Land Before Time II?

Chomper hatches from an egg the friends carry home by mistake. When two adult sharpteeth later corner the youngsters, they turn out to be his parents.

Why did Steven Spielberg have over ten minutes cut from The Land Before Time shortly before release?

Too scary for children was the verdict, with Spielberg picturing kids in tears in the lobby and angry parents. The trims left the film just 69 minutes long.

Which speech habit is the cheerful Ducky best known for throughout The Land Before Time films?

Saying things three times is Ducky's trademark, usually a triple yes or a triple no. She also tends to avoid contractions, which adds to her childlike sound.

What disaster splits the land and tears Cera away from her family early in The Land Before Time?

An earthquake, which the dinosaurs call an earthshake, cracks the ground open in the middle of Sharptooth's attack. It drops him into a ravine and scatters the herds.

How do Littlefoot and friends finally defeat Sharptooth at the end of The Land Before Time?

They drown him in a pond, toppling a boulder so that it drags Sharptooth into the deep end. Cera's last-second headbutt is what finally tips it over.

Which former Disney animator directed The Land Before Time as his follow-up to An American Tail?

Don Bluth quit Disney on his 42nd birthday to start his own studio. Its films became Disney's main competition through the 1980s.

Which restaurant chain gave away rubber hand puppets to promote The Land Before Time on home video?

Pizza Hut handed out the rubber dinosaur puppets when the film came to VHS. One of its adverts also preserves a line from a scene that was deleted from the film.

Which of Littlefoot's friends in The Land Before Time hatches mid-journey and hardly ever speaks?

Spike is the youngest of the five friends despite being the largest. Ducky watches him hatch, names him, and her family goes on to adopt him.

The Land Before Time's animators studied footage of elephants and which other living animal?

Giraffes joined elephants as living models for how big four-legged animals move. The crew also toured natural history museums in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

Which relatives does Littlefoot rejoin on reaching the Great Valley in The Land Before Time?

His grandparents are waiting in the valley and raise him from then on. Across the whole series their names are never given.

What forces the dinosaur herds to set out for the Great Valley at the start of The Land Before Time?

A famine has left the plant-eaters with almost nothing to graze. The herds trek toward an oasis that they have only heard has been spared.

What skill does Petrie finally master while battling Sharptooth in The Land Before Time?

Flying finally clicks for Petrie when a blast of air from Sharptooth's nostrils lifts him off. He later shows the new trick to his family.

Why does Cera's father stop her playing with Littlefoot near the start of The Land Before Time?

Their kinds keep apart, he insists, with every species expected to stick to its own. That prejudice is exactly what the film's long walk sets out to undo.

What do the sequels to The Land Before Time all add that the original film does without?

Sing-along songs arrive with the first sequel and never leave. That makes the original the only film in the series that is not a musical.

In The Land Before Time VIII, what falls on the Great Valley for the first time anyone can remember?

Snow buries the valley's food and embarrasses the children's teacher, who claims to have seen everything yet cannot explain it.

In The Land Before Time, what does his mother's voice tell Littlefoot to follow to the Great Valley?

The sun is his compass on the way west. Along the route he must also pass a rock shaped like a longneck and a range of volcanoes.

In what form does Littlefoot's mother appear at the end of The Land Before Time to guide him home?

A cloud shaped like her leads Littlefoot over the last stretch, just as he is alone and ready to give up the search.

Which composer, later an Oscar winner for Titanic, wrote the score of The Land Before Time?

James Horner had already scored An American Tail for the same director. The Land Before Time turned out to be the last of that director's films he worked on.

What kind of animal is Petrie, the one non-dinosaur among The Land Before Time's five friends?

A pterosaur, specifically a Pteranodon, so the famous five are really four dinosaurs plus one outsider. His anxious voice was modelled on Digit from An American Tail.

What do Great Valley dinosaurs in The Land Before Time call the dangerous land outside their home?

The Mysterious Beyond is where the sharpteeth roam. In the first sequel the children sneak out there to prove how brave and grown-up they are.

How does Cera accidentally wake the unconscious Sharptooth in a ravine in The Land Before Time?

By ramming him again and again, convinced that he is already dead. She then bolts and runs straight into Littlefoot's little group.

How does Littlefoot's group in The Land Before Time reach the leaves of the last green tree?

Standing on each other, they form a wobbly tower and pull the leaves down. Cera keeps her distance, but by nightfall she huddles up with the rest for warmth.

What do Littlefoot's friends pose as to scare the domeheads away from Cera in The Land Before Time?

A tar monster does the trick, sending the domeheads running. It frightens Cera just as badly, and she storms off in a huff once she learns who it really was.

To which country did the studio making The Land Before Time move from California mid-production?

Ireland drew the studio to Dublin with government investment and incentives. The upheaval of the move held production up by several months.

Which Disney animated film opened in American cinemas on the same day as The Land Before Time?

Oliver & Company went head to head with the dinosaurs in November 1988. The Land Before Time won the opening weekend, but the Disney film ended up about $5 million ahead in North America.

The Land Before Time's story came from two prominent writers for which children's TV show?

Sesame Street veterans Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss had also written An American Tail. When their first draft seemed too juvenile, Stu Krieger was brought in to revise it.

What was Littlefoot called until a children's book forced a late change on The Land Before Time?

Thunderfoot had to go when the crew found a children's book whose Triceratops already carried the name. The switch came only just before the film's release.

Which 1997 animated musical is the only film by The Land Before Time's director that out-earned it?

Anastasia grossed nearly $140 million worldwide, well clear of the $84.5 million that The Land Before Time took.

Which actor voiced Bron, Littlefoot's long-lost father, in the tenth Land Before Time film?

Kiefer Sutherland played Bron, who by then leads a herd of longnecks of his own and has taken a young orphan under his wing.

Which country music star voices Etta, a kindly new friend, in the fourteenth Land Before Time film?

Reba McEntire voices Etta and also performs one of the film's numbers, Look for the Light. The 2016 release arrived just over eight years after the thirteenth film.

Which pink Oviraptor, known as a Fast Runner, joined the cast of The Land Before Time TV series?

Ruby debuts in the very first episode, The Cave of Many Voices. She is written as the wisest of the friends, the one who hands out advice and encouragement.

Which US channel premiered The Land Before Time TV series, a 26-episode spin-off?

Cartoon Network gave the spin-off its American launch after a test run on Canada's YTV. The series picks up after the events of the thirteenth film.

Which crisis strikes the Great Valley in The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving?

A drought sets in after rocks falling from the sky dam the valley's water. The youngsters end it by helping to break the wall of boulders.

Which injury does Sharptooth suffer while chasing Littlefoot and Cera early in The Land Before Time?

A blinded eye, the right one, comes out of the briar-patch chase. Shots were later rearranged to shorten the scene, so he is briefly seen with that eye open again.

In The Land Before Time sequels, which nickname do the dinosaurs use for Ducky's duck-billed kind?

Swimmers is one of several in-story names for Ducky's kind. The 1988 original calls her a bigmouth instead.

Which long-necked dinosaur species is Littlefoot, the young hero of The Land Before Time?

Apatosaurus is the species the series settles on, though Littlefoot has also been described as a Brontosaurus over the years. In the story his kind are simply longnecks.

Which child actress voiced Ducky in The Land Before Time and Anne-Marie in All Dogs Go to Heaven?

Judith Barsi so impressed the producers that much of the screen time planned for Petrie was handed to Ducky instead.

Which actor, Commissioner Gordon in four Batman films, narrates The Land Before Time?

Pat Hingle narrates the film and also voices the gruff old dinosaur who consoles Littlefoot after his mother's death.

Which singer and actor voiced Doc, the scarred Lone Dinosaur, in The Land Before Time VI?

Kris Kristofferson voiced Doc, a wandering longneck whose scar convinces Littlefoot that he is the hero of an old Great Valley legend.

Which scarred sharptooth is the main villain of The Land Before Time TV series?

Red Claw has a scar running down from his left eye and bright red talons to match his name. Two Deinonychus henchmen, Screech and Thud, back him up.

Which old clubtail comforts the grieving Littlefoot in The Land Before Time, his only appearance?

Rooter is grumpy with Littlefoot at first, then softens once the youngster opens up about losing his mother. He never returns in any of the sequels.

The Land Before Time's director modelled the baby Stegosaurus on Cubby, his pet of which dog breed?

A Chow Chow named Cubby was the model. The director admitted a soft spot for the character, calling him a pure soul who is eager to please.

In The Land Before Time VII, what does the fabled Stone of Cold Fire turn out to be?

A plain meteorite is all it is, with no magic in it at all. Petrie's outcast uncle Pterano had hoped to use its power to rule the valley.

The Land Before Time's success helped lead Steven Spielberg to found which London animation studio?

Amblimation was set up in London and made An American Tail: Fievel Goes West as its first film. The mouse Fievel became the studio's mascot.

How does Littlefoot's group escape when Sharptooth attacks them one morning in The Land Before Time?

Through a tunnel that is too narrow for him to follow. Soon afterwards the youngsters spot the landmarks that Littlefoot's mother had described.

Which Hollywood studio distributed The Land Before Time and later produced its home-video sequels?

Universal Pictures released the film in November 1988. Its animation arm then turned out the sequels without the original film's director.

Which actor voiced Big Daddy, the gruff leader of the Tinysauruses, in The Land Before Time XI?

Michael Clarke Duncan gave the tiny leader a huge voice. Big Daddy is old and cranky but warm-hearted, and wary of the valley's much bigger dinosaurs.