The Land Before Time (franchise)

The Land Before Time
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Created by	Don Bluth, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg
Films and television
Film(s)	The Land Before Time The Great Valley Adventure The Time of the Great Giving Journey Through the Mists The Mysterious Island The Secret of Saurus Rock The Stone of Cold Fire The Big Freeze Journey to Big Water The Great Longneck Migration Invasion of the Tinysauruses The Great Day of the Flyers The Wisdom of Friends Journey of the Brave
Television series	The Land Before Time

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.

Title	Release Date	Director(s)	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Editor(s)	Composer(s)
The Land Before Time	November 18, 1988	Don Bluth	Screenplay: Stu Krieger Story: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Don Bluth Gary Goldman John Pomeroy Executive producers: Steven Spielberg George Lucas Co-executive producers: Frank Marshall Kathleen Kennedy Associate producer: Deborah Jelin Newmyer	John K. Carr Dan Molina	James Horner
The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure	December 13, 1994	Roy Allen Smith	Screenplay: John Loy John Ludin Dev Ross Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Roy Allen Smith Co-producer: Zahra Dowlatabadi Animation producer: Nelson Shin	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving	December 12, 1995	Roy Allen Smith	Screenplay: Dev Ross Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Roy Allen Smith Zahra Dowlatabadi Animation producer: Nelson Shin	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists	December 10, 1996	Roy Allen Smith	Screenplay: Dev Ross Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Roy Allen Smith Co-producer: Zahra Dowlatabadi Animation producer: Nelson Shin	Warren Taylor	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island	December 9, 1997	Charles Grosvenor	Screenplay: John Loy 54 Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Rocky Solotoff	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock	December 15, 1998	Charles Grosvenor	Screenplay: Libby Hinson John Loy Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Melinda Rediger Rocky Solotoff	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire	December 5, 2000	Charles Grosvenor	Len Uhley	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Danik Thomas	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze	December 4, 2001	Charles Grosvenor	John Loy	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Danik Thomas	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water	December 10, 2002	Charles Grosvenor	Dev Ross Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration	December 2, 2003	Charles Grosvenor	John Loy Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Charles Grosvenor Executive producer: James Wang Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses	January 11, 2005	Charles Grosvenor	John Loy	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers	December 6, 2006	Charles Grosvenor	John Loy Characters: Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss	Charles Grosvenor Associate producer: Daniel J. Wiley	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera Kyle Kenneth Batter
The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends	November 27, 2007	Jamie Mitchell Supervising director: Charles Grosvenor	John Loy	Daniel J. Wiley	Jay Bixsen	Michael Tavera
The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave	February 2, 2016	Davis Doi	Elana Lesser Cliff Ruby	Lisa Melbye Deidre Brenner	Luke Guidici	Michael Tavera

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

Main article: The Land Before Time (TV 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. 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

Main article: List of The Land Before Time video 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 article: List of The Land Before Time characters

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