Land Before Time Retrospective #18
As with the first film, a production script of this movie surfaced many years after the original release. This time around, the script surfaced in 2019, 21 years after the release of the movie in 1998. For those curious, the full script is viewable here.
This happens to be my 2,000th post on the Land Before Time forum!
In celebration of this, I thought it would be a good time to do my script review of the sixth film. I had been wanting to do this review for a long time, especially since I already reviewed the first film script. And, as ‘Mumbling’ noted at the beginning of the thread, what inspired this live stream community watch [back in July] to begin with was to do a comparison between the film and the script. *shrug* Well, better late than never.
Needless to say, this was quite an interesting read. As with the first film, there are some things I feel the script did better, and some things the final version did better.
Right at the beginning, we can see that the script is darker than the final product. There’s a small dinosaur that gets devoured by the Meanest Sharptooth in the flashback. Poor guy. 🙁 They should’ve kept that part in. 😛 It would’ve made the following scene more intense of the mother longneck trying to protect her son.
There is a “SPAGHETTI WESTERN RATTLE” mentioned at a few points when Doc shows up. That’s another thing I kinda wish they’d kept.
Another difference is that, instead of Dinah & Dana who decide to visit Saurus Rock by themselves (whereupon the Gang follows after them), in the script it’s Spike who gets the idea to go there (which Ducky relays to the others), and then the Gang all head out together. In fact, Dinah & Dana themselves are completely absent. I actually like Dinah & Dana, but all the same, it does make me curious why they were later included when they weren’t part of the initial story. Maybe just to have a couple extra cute little kid characters?
The bad luck theme is more pronounced in the script. Nothing dangerous happens in the script until after one of the Saurus Rock teeth has fallen off, whereas in the film the first Sharptooth encounter and the perilous trek across the stone pillars happens before Saurus Rock is damaged, leaving it more ambiguous whether or not Saurus Rock truly was cursed. The script, meanwhile, makes the curse pretty blatant.
This might also explain why “Saurus Rock” is in the film’s title rather than anything about the Lone Dinosaur, as conversely, Doc has a smaller role here in the script than he did in the film. Which is funny considering that, even in the film, one of my nitpicks was that I thought Doc was a bit underused. Still, I like that they beefed up his role from what it was in the script, at least, and I also like how they added an element of ambiguity to the bad luck that wasn’t there before.
Regardless, the script does have some other interesting tidbits that I wish had been kept. The Gang spends much more time wandering through the forest and getting lost on their way to and from Saurus Rock, with the forest being described as noticeably dark and creepy. It’s noted to get even spookier after Saurus Rock is damaged and the curse comes into effect, which would’ve made for a great atmospheric touch had it been included in the film. Cera also declares later on that she’s going on a “Sharptooth hunt,” which comes off silly yet kind of epic at the same time.
The thing I most wish had been included is that there’s four Sharptooth villains here, who come off more menacing, and it culminates in a more violent and intense climax when the characters are fighting off all the Sharpteeth. There are also some mentions of snow and ice, with Grandpa noting that the world is getting colder, which could’ve been a nice lead-up into The Big Freeze (even though the dinosaurs are surprised by the snow in that film).
I also notice a lack of songs in the script. Hmm, was this film originally planned to not be a musical? Or was it simply that they wanted to figure out the rough storyline first and then add in the songs after? I suspect the latter, but it did make me wonder.
In general, the script deviates quite a bit more from the final version than the LBT 1 script did, although I imagine part of the reason is just because the LBT 6 script says it’s the first draft, whereas the LBT 1 script “includes new revisions.” The LBT 6 script also seems sloppier in places than the LBT 1 script, but again, it’s only a first draft. It would’ve been interesting to see if the original (unreleased) LBT 1 script draft was as different from the final version as this one is here.
Overall, this was a terrific find, and I hope that more LBT scripts surface in the future.