Movie Monday

The Land Before Time
Dir: Don Bluth   (1988)

I was recently reminded of this movie when some of my students started talking about it. I was overjoyed to know that high school biology students still know about this film. My favorite lines during this conversation in the classroom were when one of the students all of a sudden exclaimed, "Cera was butch!" And one of the other students responded, "Yeah, but Spike was so cute. Awwww...Spike." I loved what they said because I felt the same way back in the day.

I remember seeing this movie in the theater back in 1988. My family was still living in Germany at that time and I went, with my dad, to the little theater on the Army base. I loved the characters and was terrified of Sharptooth the T-rex. I think I did get a little sad when Littlefoot's mother passes away. I hated Cera, the yellow Triceratops, but loved Petri, Ducky, and Spike. I even got the movie tie-in book from the Scholastic Book Club insert at my school. My fondest memory with this movie relates to some of the merchandise. Pizza Hut had a deal going where you could get rubber hand puppets of each of the main characters. The most vivid thing I remember about the puppets were their aroma. They had that unique smell that only rubber/vinyl toys have. Once you opened the plastic bag, you were buffeted by the smell. I think that I finally did succeed in getting the complete set. My parents were always willing to go the extra mile to complete sets. 
 
As much as I love the original...I despise the sequels. The first sequel came out in 1994, well after the original. The new movies are horrendous. They added a bunch of sing-a-long musical numbers that detract from the story. The original was produced by Steven Spielberg. Needless to say the sequels are not. I just discovered that there are in fact 12, TWELVE, sequels out now. That is outrageous! I guess enough people buy them to keep it lucrative. Hopefully the series will end soon so that people can still remember the original fondly.