Land Before Time Retrospective #15
For context, a production script of the first movie surfaced in 2018, a whole 30 years after the original release of the movie in 1988. The script itself is dated from 1987. It contains some scenes that were removed from the final film, along with other interesting deviations such as Littlefoot originally being called “Thunderfoot.” If you’re curious, you can view the full script here.
It’s too bad that so much footage got left out. Although that’s probably pretty common for films to have a lot of raw footage that later gets removed. Still, some of the cut parts would’ve benefitted the film, I think, like the full version of the Sharptooth chase, and the travel montage in the middle. Conversely, there are some things I think the final version did better.
The most glaring omission is probably Littlefoot finding the Great Valley on his own after the group splits up… but I actually think the version in the final cut works a little better. It just feels more narratively and emotionally satisfying to have Littlefoot seeing his mother in the clouds, and then finding the Great Valley, right at the very end with his friends after Sharptooth has been vanquished. Discovering the Great Valley earlier in the film might’ve dampened some of the tension.
Granted, the original ending gives more context as to why Littlefoot decides to go back for his friends. But even there, the fact that in the final version, he doesn’t find the Great Valley and yet he still goes back for his friends anyway, it makes him into an even more heroic character.
I also agree with what Sovereign said, that the original hugging scene wasn’t as effective (it worked much better as the film’s closing shot, imo), and some of the original dialogue wasn’t as polished.
I would’ve enjoyed seeing the oasis scene, but I can also see why maybe they didn’t want to make the themes of racism/species-ism too heavy-handed.
Overall, it doesn’t seem to me like anything truly essential was missing from the story for the most part. Regardless, though, I would love to see the uncut version as much as any LBT fan, and it saddens me to think that the extra footage might be lost forever. Oh well. I’m grateful that we have the script, at least, which gives us a pretty good idea of what the uncut version would’ve been like.
A couple of shots not featured in the final film:
There’s something mysterious and hypnotically alluring about those cels of Littlefoot in the waterfall. That’s one of the missing scenes I’d like to see the most.
The first image comes from a press kit released for the movie. The second image is from a children’s book accompanying the release of the film, “The Search for the Great Valley”.