The Great Valley

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike. Do these names mean anything to you? They are the main characters of my now official and never to be removed favorite animated/kids film. Land Before Time. I say it is now my favorite film not because I just recently watched it for my first time. I was watching it on VHS before I couldn’t turn around without using a barrel roll. It was my movie before time, you could say. But that’s the thing about kids movies, you leave them alone for awhile, through that awkward adolescence. Then you find them back at home, or while digging through the walmart $5 dvd bin. Or at your gf’s place and you are too scared to watch it then and get “emotional” in front of her. But you watch them anyways and then come the crush. I get crushed. Not by how awesome it is but by how much I cannot appreciate the movie anymore. I am turned off by the shotty film work and the anorexic excuse of a plot line. If it is live action I will undoubtedly hate the child actors. I got so messed up after I watched brave little toaster again I was afraid anything I threw away would gang up with other discarded by Mitch objects and nearly kill me at a junk yard and guilt trip me afterwards.
Not the case with Land Before Time. Just to get it out of the way, I had three single tears make it out of my eye cavity. But there are too many parts to talk about that got me joked up. The opening egg hatching part, especially with Littlefoot making me want to find the closest baby and hold it forever. The death of Littlefoot’s mother of course. The inner-group fighting scene to redemption. When Littlefoot sees his mom’s figure in the cloud and says “its just too hard”, then yells “don’t go mother, don’t go” and the cloud leads him to the Great Valley. Then to wrap it all up with that ending song by Diana Ross, “If we hold on Together”.
I love this movie and it had tons of great morals and lessons, and oddly enough a great faith and family analogy. Take time to watch it, not as a lets get the crew together and be cute, giddy and funny while we watch it. Watch it alone or with little siblings so you can appreciate, how this movie can make you feel.