The Land Before Time
The Land Before Time is a 1988 animated psychological thriller/drama created by Stephen Spielberg. It is a copy of The Maxx, albeit with a bigger budget, and was in turned copied by Childish Gambino's "This is America" with a bigger budget still. It is Spielberg's darkest film to date, but is often shared with children, as parents think anything animated is for kids.
The film was followed by several sequels, which were not as good.
Plot summary[edit | edit source]
The Land Before Time is a dramatic representation of the psychosis experienced by a homeless guy as he comes to terms with his contribution to the death of his own mother. He characterises himself as a dinosaur, and names himself "Little Foot" - a homage to that one time Jim Morrison lost his shit and imagined he was a busload of dead Indians.
Little Foot is almost completely lost and alone in his psychological delusion, but is able to communicate with the outside world, by re-imagining people as dinosaurs in his increasingly complex schizophrenic visions. He mostly communicates with his friend Sarah (Cera), who is also a serial murderer, and his grandparents, who reluctantly attempt to care for him, despite their fear of his mental illness.
In order to symbolise his need to gain control over his environment and situation, Little Foot invents weak pathetic friends, who he calls Duckie, Petrie and Spike. These characters are loosely based upon the Scarecrow, Lion and Tinman in The Wizard of Oz. He also invents a character called Sharptooth, which is the disassociation of his inner murderous rage. Most other characters are villains.
Little Foot spends the whole film trying to contend with his deep depression with sexual fetishism, which he calls "The search for the Great Valley" - when he finally fucks Sarah, he "arrives at the great valley" only to find it empty and under constant peril from attacks by his inner rage, the Sharp Tooth.