''The Land Before Time'' is an American animated film series and media franchise created by Judy Freudberg and

Tony Geiss Nicholas Anthony "Tony" Geiss (November 16, 1924 – January 21, 2011) was an American producer, screenwriter, songwriter and author, known principally for his children's work. Biography Geiss was born in The Bronx to Alexander Geiss and Ma ...

, distributed by

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

and centered on

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s. The series began in 1988 with the eponymous '' The Land Before Time'', directed and produced by

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including '' The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), '' An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...

and executive produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It was followed by 13

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy wa ...

musical sequels, a TV series, video games, soundtracks, and related merchandising. Neither the sequels nor the series involve the participation of Bluth, Lucas, or Spielberg. All 14 films were released as a Complete Collection DVD set on June 14, 2016.

Plot

The films follow a friendship of a group of young ornithodirans (four dinosaurs and a pterosaur) named Littlefoot (''

Apatosaurus ''Apatosaurus'' (; meaning "deceptive lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic period. Othniel Charles Marsh described and named the first-known species, ''A. ajax'', in 1877, ...

''), Cera (''

Triceratops ''Triceratops'' ( ; ) is a genus of herbivorous chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur that first appeared during the late Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, about 68 million years ago in what is now North America. It is one ...

''), Ducky ('' Saurolophus''), Petrie ('' Pteranodon''), and Spike (''

Stegosaurus ''Stegosaurus'' (; ) is a genus of herbivorous, four-legged, armored dinosaur from the Late Jurassic, characterized by the distinctive kite-shaped upright plates along their backs and spikes on their tails. Fossils of the genus have been fou ...

''). After finding the Great Valley, they raise a carnivorous baby, (a ''

Tyrannosaurus ''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosaurus'' live ...

'', whom they name Chomper), survive a

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

and a

cold snap A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap, cold spell or Arctic Snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in tem ...

, and witness a solar eclipse. Throughout all the films, they embark upon adventures, learning lessons about life and friendship along the way.

List of titles

Films

The following is a list of the 14 films in the series.

Albums

* ''The Land Before Time'' (1990) ''Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' * ''The Land Before Time: Sing-Along Songs'' (1997) Songs from ''The Land Before Time, II, III & IV'' * ''The Songs from The Land Before Time'' (1997) Songs from ''The Land Before Time, II, III & IV'' * ''The Land Before Time: More Sing-Along Songs'' (1999) Songs from ''The Land Before Time V & VI'' and ''

An American Tail ''An American Tail'' is a 1986 American animated musical adventure film directed by Don Bluth from a screenplay by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss and a story by David Kirschner, Freudberg and Geiss. The film features the voices of Phillip Glass ...

III & IV'' * ''The Best Songs from The Land Before Time'' (2016) Songs from ''The Land Before Time, VI, VIII, IX, X, XI & XIV''

Television series

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

based on the films began airing on YTV in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

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 The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

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.

Games

The series has spawned 14 spin-off games, eight for PC, one for the Game Boy Color, two for the

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...

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 Lani Jean Minella (born July 28, 1950) is an American voice actress, voice director, and producer mostly working in the games industry. She is also the founder and owner of the voice-acting agency, AudioGodz. Career After college, Minella starte ...

Cast and characters

* *

References

External links

Official ''The Land Before Time'' YouTube account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Land Before Time (Series), The Film series introduced in 1988 Fiction about dinosaurs Animated film series Universal Pictures franchises Adventure film series Films adapted into television shows 1980s English-language films 1990s English-language films 2000s English-language films 2010s English-language films