Did You Know Land Before Time Movie series part 1

1) Judith Barsi, who did the voice for Ducky, was murdered by her father four months before the film’s release. Judith was only ten years old.

2) This remains the only Land Before Time film not to be a musical. Surprising Balto 1 that as well.

3) It was George Lucas‘s idea to make Cera a girl triceratops.

4) they were deemed as too frightening or could even cause psychological damage to young children, about 19 scenes, mostly pertaining to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the five characters in mild peril or distress was cut or trimmed. Don Bluth was unhappy with the cuts, and fought to keep the footage, but felt like he had to do so, making this film only 69 minutes, one of his shortest.

Here is something that didn’t cut was the scene where Littlefoot mom dies.

5) 29 species of animals were featured in this film. 5 of them were already extinct by the time the movie was set.

6) An astounding 12 sequels have been made, as well as eight games, two sing-a-long videos, and a TV series.

7) The role of Ducky was Judith Barsi‘s favorite of her own film roles.

8) Steven Spielberg and George Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialog, like the Rite of Spring sequence inFantasia (1940). But, to make the film appealing to children, they abandoned this idea, and got actors and actresses to do the voices.

9) CASTLE THUNDER: The Haunted Mansion thunderclap is heard right at the beginning of the first storm, when it frightens Baby Cera.

10) Different dinosaur species reflected in the five main characters: Littlefoot is an Apatosaurus; Cera is a Triceratops; Spike is a a Stegosaurus; Petrie is a Pteranodon; and Ducky is Parasaurolophus.

11) Pizza Hut once ran a promotion involving the characters. If you spent a certain amount on pizza, you could receive a free hand-puppet of one of the characters. When the film was first released on video, there was also a commercial for Pizza Hut which played before the movie started.

12) The movie refers to animals and/or nature in charming and/or poetic names. These include “green food” for leaves, “The Bright Circle” for the sun, “The Mountains that Burn” for volcanoes, “sharp-tooth” for tyrannosaurs, “tree stars” for particularly beautiful leaves, “flyer” for pterodactyls, “long necks” for brontosauruses, “three-horns” for triceratops, “spike tail” for stegosauri, “The Great Earth Shake” for earthquake, “hopper” for frogs, “big mouth” for whichever species Ducky was, “The Great Valley” for a beautiful valley, and “The Great Circle of life” for life itself.

13) The film was originally going to be 10 minutes longer. However, the extra footage was lost and never recovered.

14) Originally planned for release in fall, 1987. Production was delayed by a year due to the relocation of Sullivan Bluth Studios to Dublin, Ireland.

15) The film’s theme song, “If We Hold on Together”, was sung by ‘Diana Ross’ and became a huge hit in Japan. It did so well there that it became a karaoke standard.

16) The film’s narrator also performed the voice for Rooter. This may have been to underscore the fact that both characters were very wise and insightful.

17) Littlefoot was originally going to be called ‘Thunderfoot’, but a triceratops from a children’s book already had that name.

18) During development, Cera started out as a male triceratops called ‘Bambo’.