The Land Before Time (franchise)
The Land Before Time is a franchise of Universal Studios animated films centered on dinosaurs. The series began in 1988 with The Land Before Time, directed and produced by Don Bluth and executive produced by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It was followed by a total of thirteen direct-to-video musical sequels and a TV series. Neither the sequels nor the series involve the participation of Bluth, Lucas, or Spielberg.
Plot
The films follow a friendship of a group of young dinosaurs by the names of Littlefoot (Apatosaurus), Cera (Triceratops), Petrie (Pteranodon), Ducky (Saurolophus), and Spike (Stegosaurus). After finding The Great Valley, they raise a carnivourous baby, survive a drought, a cold snap, and witness a solar eclipse. Throughout all films, they embark upon adventures, learning lessons about life and friendship along the way.
List of titles
Films
The following is a list of the films in the The Land Before Time series. All sequels have since been renamed without the numbers in their titles, when they were re-released on DVD in 2003.
Albums
- The Land Before Time: Sing-Along Songs (1997) Songs from The Land Before Time, II, III & IV
- The Land Before Time: More Sing-Along Songs (1999) Songs from The Land Before Time V & VI and An American Tail III & IV
Television series
A television series based on the films began airing on YTV in Canada on January 5, 2007. It consisted of one season of 26 episodes, and officially premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on March 5, 2007, after the DVD release of The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers.[1] The TV series takes place after the events of The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. It has since been collected and released on 6 DVDs, each containing 4 episodes, in the United States and the UK.
Games
The series has spawned 14 spin-off games, eight for PC, one for the Game Boy Color, two for the Game Boy Advance and three for the original PlayStation. The PC games are usually educational games aimed for preschool and kindergarten. Games for the Game Boy Color and Advance include The Land Before Time and The Land Before Time: Into the Mysterious Beyond, in which the original six characters must search for Chomper. Games for the PlayStation include The Land Before Time: Big Water Adventure, a spin-off of Journey to Big Water, The Land Before Time: Great Valley Racing Adventure and The Land Before Time: Return to the Great Valley.
Cast
Main characters
| Character | Film | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I (1988) |
II (1994) |
III (1995) |
IV (1996) |
V (1997) |
VI (1998) |
VII (2000) |
VIII (2001) |
IX (2002) |
X (2003) |
XI (2005) |
XII (2006) |
XIII (2007) |
TV series (2007–2008) |
XIV (2016) | |
| Principal characters | |||||||||||||||
| Littlefoot | Gabriel Damon | Scott McAfee | Brandon LaCroix Thomas Dekker (singing) |
Thomas Dekker | Alec Medlock | Aaron Spann | Nick Price | Cody Arens Logan Riley Arens Anthony Skillman (singing) |
Cody Arens Anthony Skillman (singing) |
Felix Avitia | |||||
| Cera | Candace Hutson | Anndi McAfee | |||||||||||||
| Ducky | Judith Barsi | Heather Hogan | Aria Noelle Curzon | ||||||||||||
| Petrie | Will Ryan | Jeff Bennett | |||||||||||||
| Spike | unvoiced | Rob Paulsen | Jeff Bennett | Rob Paulsen | |||||||||||
| Grandpa Longneck | Bill Erwin | Kenneth Mars | unvoiced | Kenneth Mars | Barry Bostwick | ||||||||||
| Grandma Longneck | unvoiced | Linda Gary | Miriam Flynn | unvoiced | Miriam Flynn | ||||||||||
| Cera's Father | Burke Byrnes | John Ingle | John Ingle | George Ball | |||||||||||
| Narrator | Pat Hingle | Tony Amendola | |||||||||||||
| Chomper | Rob Paulsen | Cannon Young | Max Burkholder | Issac Brown | |||||||||||
| Ruby | Meghan Strange | ||||||||||||||
References
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