Three things you didn’t know about ‘The Land Before Time’

Twenty-five years ago this week (Nov. 18, 1988, to be exact), the animated classic “The Land Before Time” hit theatres. Produced by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and directed by Don Bluth, the prehistoric tale centered on the adventures of an orphaned brontosaurus named Littlefoot and his companions. The film spawned 12 direct-to-video sequels, eight video games, and a television series.

Here are three things you might not know about “The Land Before Time.”

No dialogue?

Producers Spielberg and Lucas originally wanted “The Land Before Time” to have no dialogue, envisioning the movie as a feature-length version of the “Rite of Spring” sequence in Disney’s animated classic “Fantasia.” However, as you might imagine, the prospect of a kid’s movie with no speaking was a hard sell in Hollywood (even for the guys behind the hugely successful “Indiana Jones” franchise), and the concept was soon abandoned.

Ducky was voiced by Anne-Marie from “All Dogs Go To Heaven"

One of Littlefoot’s most memorable companions was Ducky, a Saurolophus (or duck-billed dinosaur). Ducky was voiced by child actress Judith Barsi, whose previous work included a starring role in "Jaws: The Revenge" and pretty much every major TV show made in the 1980s. What most people don't know is that the girl who voiced Ducky also gave life to the main human character Anne-Marie in Don Bluth's subsequent animated film "All Dogs Go To Heaven." Tragically, Barsi was murdered by her father four months before “The Land Before Time” hit theatres. She was only ten years old.

The really scary stuff was cut out

At only 69 minutes long, “The Land Before Time” is one of director Don Bluth’s shortest animated features. However, the film was originally slightly longer, but had to shortened due concerns that certain intense scenes involving the villainous Tyrannosaurus Rex – “Sharptooth” – might traumatize kids.

“It's too scary,” Spielberg reportedly advised Bluth during the editing process. “We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that.”

In order to get a more family friendly G rating, about ten minutes of footage – 19 completed scenes in all – were cut out of the movie before its theatrical release. Bluth has since said he was unhappy with the cuts, and the irony, of course, is that just four years after “The Land Before Time,” Spielberg would direct a movie about a T Rex terrorizing children: “Jurassic Park.”

While the franchise may have become little more than direct-to-DVD dreck over the past decade, the original "The Land Before Time" is a wonderfully animated and well-realized kid's movie. Though not as highly regarded as some of the films released by Disney around the same time (see: "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast") , it's a beloved classic that anyone who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s remembers fondly.