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 watched by children, as parents think anything animated is for kids.
The film is notorious for its multitude of sequels. More and more musical numbers were added per film, culminating in the later sequels – most notably The Land Before Time XXVII: Sauropodrophenia and The Land Before Time XXXIII: The Great Valley Chainsaw Massacre – becoming sung-through rock operas, featuring Bryan Adams as Littlefoot and Baphomet (credited by his recurring stage name James Corden) as the narrator. Despite their continued popularity with bored children, confused grandparents and desperate babysitters, the sequels divided critics, particularly regarding Adams' performance as Littlefoot.
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 characterizes 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 he is able to communicate with the outside world by re-imagining people as dinosaurs in his increasingly complex schizophrenic visions. He communicates mostly with his friend Sarah (Cera, who is also a serial murderer) and with his grandparents, who reluctantly attempt to care for him despite their fear of his mental illness.
In order to symbolize his need to gain control over his environment and situation, Little Foot invents weak pathetic friends, whom 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, to wit Sharptooth.
