The Land Before Time (partially found deleted scenes of animated film; 1988)

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TheLandBeforeTimeDeletedFootage-InfoboxPoster.JPG

The theatrical poster.

Status: Mostly Lost


Don Bluth's 1988 animated feature film The Land Before Time underwent a severe cutting and editing of footage in the months leading up to release. Around six months before completion of the film, numerous scenes were toned down or removed, due to being deemed either too frightening or too difficult for children to understand, many of which were in color, and had recorded dialogue (but no music score). One of the first of these major cut scenes included potentially overwhelming images from the encounter with Sharptooth, the Tyrannosaurus rex, which showed close-ups of him attacking out of nowhere in the briars. This particular scene contained 19 finished shots (albeit lacking an aforementioned musical score) that never made it to the end of production.

Months later, the film was finally completed, with the runtime sitting at 80-82 minutes, after the previous edits.[1] However, executive producer Steven Spielberg was still not satisfied with the finished film, so many more edits were made to ensure the movie did not disturb parents or their children. Despite Don Bluth's wishes - 11 to 13 minutes of fully completed scenes were cut from the film just weeks before its premiere in theaters, reducing the running time to just 69 minutes (including credits), making it one of the shortest feature-length films ever released. The original prints and negatives are claimed to have not been saved. Some of the many scenes cut at this time include the extended battle between Sharptooth and Littlefoot’s mother, and the extended plan to kill Sharptooth.

In addition to these scenes, the ending was also altered. Originally, Littlefoot was to find the Great Valley on his own after parting with his friends, before returning to his friends and helping them defeat Sharptooth, later entering the Valley with his reunited group. This can also be verified by listening to the official soundtrack.

The rumored scene in which the main characters come upon an oasis inhabited by fat "crown-heads" (Pachycephalosaurus) and "gray-noses" (Saurolophus), who refuse to share food and water with one another, giving Cera an epiphany on not judging others based on their species was also a part of the film, and was verified in 2018 to be one of the lost scenes. It is unlikely that this "Oasis scene" was cut with the other 10+ minutes of deleted scenes during post-production, so it was probably cut earlier; however, when it was cut is unknown, though it can be found in the May 1987 script draft.

The Cuts

When the movie was screened in London in April/May 1988, six months before completion of the film, it seems that it wasn't yet scored, since there are a number of scenes that simply don't fit into the music (such as the extended Sharptooth attack scene and the Oasis scene). Other scenes were removed by Steven Spielberg and his editor fairly close to the release of the film, after it was scored, which is why there are portions in the music that end abruptly, are re-arranged or are missing, similar to several scenes from The Black Cauldron. The cuts are divided into three sections - early edits (scenes that were not even animated at all), mid-production edits (scenes that may have been animated, including sound, but barring music), and post-production edits (scenes that had been completed; they included a music score).

Early Edit(s) (pre-production)

This section contains the scenes which were cut early in the film’s production. As a result, they do not have music to accompany them, or any sound. In fact, they were most likely not even animated.

Littlefoot and the Snake

Early in the film, when Littlefoot was still a baby, there was originally going to be a scene where he encountered a Dinilysia (a type of prehistoric snake). The scene was titled "Littlefoot and the Snake". In the scene, it attacks and nearly kills Littlefoot, before his mother arrives and saves him by picking it up in her mouth and flinging it away. This was one of the earliest of all the known cut scenes. Storyboards for this scene are all that survives of it, though it is likely that it did not survive past the storyboard stage, and thus the scene was never fully animated, unlike the rest of the scenes below.

First Sharptooth Attack (first storyboard draft)

"This is the First Revision as during production, Steven Spielberg had requested that the sequence be played down a bit. As it was, the moment was coming off too intense and the thought that it might be a bit much for the younger viewers who will be watching.
When we were shown the first screening of this rough sequence during one Tuesday ' Weeklies' showing, it was great. The editors had added a sound of a beating heart as the sequence became more and more intense. I think most people could understand why the decision to calm it down made sense.
" - Mark Pudleiner, 2015

According to Mark Pudleiner on his blog in 2015, the original Sharptooth attack sequence was going to be even longer than what was shown in the 1986 storyboards he had posted. However, Steven Spielberg requested that it be toned down a little bit even back in pre-production, so those extra portions were removed and thus did not survive the storyboard stage. No other information is known about these additional storyboards, which were never animated.

Mid-Production Edits (Pre-Scoring)

This section contains the scenes which were cut (or added in the Rooter case) when in the midst of the film’s production. Scenes in this section may have been fully animated and may have had audio, but did not have music, as the soundtrack of a film is usually created in post-production.

Rooter (added scene)

By mid-1987, the film was about halfway complete. When the work-in-progress film was screened to psychologists at this time, the death of Mother was deemed too traumatic, and so the Old Rooter scene was added to the movie in the June 1987 script revision. The original version was planned to just fade or cut to the flyers playing with the cherries. This addition of Rooter prevented the entire death scene from being cut out.

First Sharptooth Attack (extended)

When asked by Gang of Five (the largest Land Before Time forum to date) about what happened to the Sharptooth attack sequence that got it cut down, Mark Pudleiner contacted producer Gary Goldman for information. To avoid confusion, the term “shots” in this quote are referred to as “scenes”, was that is what they were labeled as during production.

"I asked the one of the owners and producer Gary Goldman.
This is his reply.
" - Mark Pudleiner, 2017

"Though [the uncut Sharptooth attack] was approved at the storyboard stage. It was at a screening in April or May of 1988 just 6 months before completion of the film at a a 20th Century Fox theater in Soho Square, London, with just Don, John, me, Steven and his first wife and George in one of the small 30 seat theaters. The problem is that when [the Sharptooth attack] was edited, cutting 19 scenes out - including audio, by one of Steven’s favorite editors at Pinewood Studios in England, it was mainly the T-Rex shots (scenes to me) of full head shots with wide open mouths, attacking into the lens of the camera at the child dinosaurs as they took cover in the briars. However, it was less than a minute lost sections of the T-Rex attack and the kids. Steven and George both felt that those scenes would have triggered an audience of 4 and 5 year olds crying and having their mothers and fathers holding them in their arms in the lobby waiting for a safe time to take their kids back to their seats. Those cuts remained [at Pinewood Studios], the tiny short cuts were taped together and rolled and we took them back to Dublin. However, we never saved the prints or the negatives for those scenes, all were animated and cleaned up, many of which were in color." - Gary Goldman, 2017

The initial Sharptooth attack sequence (the chase scene, before the fight) is missing almost a minute of footage, footage of which was in full color and had audio (but no music). Much of the original footage was more intense than what is in the final film, with multiple close-up shots of Sharptooth attempting to snatch up Littlefoot and Cera in his jaws and attacking out of nowhere on numerous occasions. Below is a quote from Don Bluth in his Toon Talk Magazine from 2001 that describes what happened with the scene that got it trimmed by nearly a minute. This story is similar to Goldman's earlier but also includes the reactions of the Sullivan Bluth Studios members (Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy) when Spielberg and Lucas planned to edit the scene in order to make it less "scary". Like the Goldman story, the term "shots" in this quote are referred to as "scenes".

"The Tyrannosaurus Rex, now in color, was unusually dramatic. John [Pomeroy], Gary [Goldman], and myself set out for the meeting at 20th Century Fox's screening facility in London. The unveiling of our work was embraced, as expected with grins, merry laughter and even applause. As the lights came up, so did Steven [Spielberg] and George [Lucas]. "It's too scarry," both remarked. "We'll have kids crying in the lobby, and a lot of angry parents. You don't want that." "Let's meet at Elstree Studio tomorrow, they have an editing room there," suggested George. "Good," Steven agreed, "we'll tame it down and cut out some of the biting moments." John was speechless, Gary [was] stunned, and I was in retreat, into my head, behind bolted doors. Directing a movie is like birthing children. To see it rusched into surgery, even for commercial reasons, somehow fractures one's enthusiasm. On that day, nineteen fully colored Rex scenes were cut from the movie. I mourned for a week. Were Steven and George right to do it? In hindsight, I think yes. Land grossed $72 million worldwide, and became one of the supporting pillars for the animation rennaissance. Least you chose to forget, Land Before Time has been followed by six sequels, direct to video, that have generated in excess of $250 million. That you can't forget." - Don Bluth, Toon Talk Magazine, January 1, 2001

Through a number of storyboards released by one of The Land Before Time's animators, Mark Pudleiner, on his blog throughout 2015, a good chunk of the first Sharptooth attack has finally been pieced together. These scenes were also fully animated, as shown on the cel from "The Search for the Great Valley" book to the right, but they were cut from the film before the soundtrack was created (as mentioned earlier), which explains why the final film’s music does not fit the scene. In 2018, a cel of Sharptooth from one of the cut shots was discovered from an unknown source.

In order of the 1986 storyboards and the 1987 script (cut sections are marked in bold italics): As Littlefoot and Cera are playing with the frogs, a roar cuts through the air, and Sharptooth's foot is shown stomping onto the ground. Cera and Littlefoot notice the ground shaking. The frogs vanish, and Sharptooth appears, moving toward the two young dinosaurs. Sharptooth rams headfirst into the dead tree they are both underneath. The kids run out, but slip and fall, as his shadow looms over him. They leap away before he can stomp down on them, and run back under the tree. Trying to escape, they climb up the hollow inside but Sharptooth lunges down from the top of it, trying to snatch them up in his jaws. They fall and run away as he tears up the thorn tree (as seen beside this). The part where Sharptooth rams the tree, where the kids climb the tree, and when he lunges from the top and then completely rips it up is completely missing from the final film.

Littlefoot and Cera try to run away, but Sharptooth lunges at them as they enter a thicket of briars. Littlefoot gets caught in thorns and when he breaks free, they fly into Sharptooth's eye, permanently blinding it. He shakes around in pain, attempting to scratch where his eye had been blinded. Enraged, Sharptooth slashes and claws at numerous thorn bushes, desperately trying to find Littlefoot and Cera. Eventually, he calms down, and then starts to slowly search for the children who had blinded him. Cera, who tries to make a run for it, gives away the position of she and Littlefoot (the part where Sharptooth's eye was blinded was originally supposed to happen before he started looking for the children in the briars; this is why he appears injured already when he is searching for the kids). These two scenes (the one where Sharptooth is looking for the kids, and the one where Sharptooth lunges and is blinded) were switched around before the film was scored for unknown reasons. The part where Sharptooth scratches himself is actually reused animation of Sharptooth trying to scratch Ducky and Petrie before his death near the end of the film, as in the storyboards, he does not scratch himself after being blinded.

In a jumpscare panning shot, Sharptooth breaks through the brambles directly in front of Cera, and just misses biting her. Cera runs past Littlefoot as he just narrowly escapes the jaws of the Tyrannosaurus and later Littlefoot. Sharptooth then looms over them, and attempts to bite them, however both children run the other way. Sharptooth then turns and misses another bite, before finally bursting out of the thorn bushes and leaping, landing directly underneath the two kids. Littlefoot and Cera try to turn around and run the other way, but the carnivore lowers his tail, blocking them off. They both run around the opposite sides of his head as he lowers it down in a semi-closeup shot.

Sharptooth then leaps again as the kids exit the bushes and try to run, before Littlefoot's mother knocks him away with her tail. However, in the final film, Sharptooth only leaps one time; the previous two leaps were merged together (when Sharptooth leaps into the air, he has the takeoff of the first leap, but the landing is of the second one which makes the whole bit abridged).

In addition to storyboards, some animation cels and color keys from the uncut attack sequence have survived. They can all be found below.

Discovery of Spike (extended)

Ducky attempts to lure Spike with berries. This still was included as part of a German press kit for the film, though it was cropped slightly.

One of the best known cut scenes - the discovery of Spike, was cut down significantly. The extended version has often been referred to as the "Berry Scene" by fans. Originally, Cera and Littlefoot fought about keeping him, and Ducky figured out how to get him to follow with cherries; in the final version, the narrator seems to reference this scene slightly. It seems to have been cut earlier, since it's hard to pinpoint how it was cut.

After Spike is found, it seems Cera left for a while, since she vanishes right before they find the green food. She's very obviously not there in any scene until she starts claiming she found the food and calling it the Great Valley; she probably came back when Littlefoot and Spike were calling the others. The extended version of this scene appears in both "The Illustrated Story" and "Friends in Need" books, with the latter containing a still from the scene. An additional cut scene with the group hugging may have fit in around here as well.

Oasis Scene

The often rumored scene actually appears in two books adaptations of the film (specifically "The Illustrated Story" and "Friends in Need") as well as the mid-1987 script. It was likely cut before the other scenes in this section, since no animation cels have been found to date.

The sequence itself features Littlefoot and his friends coming upon an oasis, guarded by two groups of dinosaurs: "gray-noses" (Saurolophus) and "crown-heads" (Pachycephalosaurus) who refuse to share the water with each other due to them being of different species. Cera says that they will die if they do not agree to drink the water together, yet both species still do not go through with sharing.

The Oasis scene was cut from the film in order to tone down the racism aspect, as the filmmakers felt that it was not something that needed to be repeatedly hammered home, but that it still should have been a theme in the story.

Sharptooth's Death (extended)

As evidenced by the mid-1987 script draft, Petrie originally fought with Sharptooth for a longer period of time. In the final film, Sharptooth charges into the rocks, quickly knocking Petrie off of his ledge. However, originally, this would have taken longer. After Sharptooth charged into the rocks, he would have then begun to hit into the wall with his head and tail. Ducky was to attempt to distract him by making faces, to no avail (this part can be seen in the official trailer for the film). Then, Sharptooth would keep hitting his head on the rocks, before the film continued as normal.

In addition, the shot showing Sharptooth's body sinking into the lake was also originally supposed to last longer, as well as an additional shot alongside it.

The extended fight does not fit in with the soundtrack, so it is likely that this was one of the scenes cut before post-production. However, interestingly enough, its Pizza Hut hand puppets advertisement also shows the scene of Ducky making faces, even though the ad was likely created closer to release.

Post-Production Edits (Post-Scoring)

"The additional 10+ minutes of cuts came after we finished the film. Steven and the same editor, who had been fast-tracked to get a green card, to move to Burbank and work with Spielberg there at Amblin on the Universal lot on other projects. Steven continued to edit the film to be sure it would not disturb parents or their children. I believe we delivered an 80 to 82 minute film including all credits. The final edited length was 69 minutes, the same as Bambi (1942).
Best,
Gary
" - Gary Goldman, 2017

As mentioned in the quote and opening paragraphs, Spielberg had received the finished 80-82 minute film and was still not satisfied with it. He continued to edit the film to ensure the movie did not disturb parents or their children. According to soundtrack analysis, 11 minutes of the official soundtrack is absent in the film, indicating that around 11 minutes of footage was cut from the film by Spielberg. These scenes can be found below. Some of these scenes made their way into various official trailers, press kits, promotional material, and book adaptations for the movie, due to being cut so close to the movie’s premiere in theaters.

Sharptooth vs Littlefoot's Mother, and Great Earthshake (extended)

The fight between Sharptooth and Littlefoot's mother as well as the great earthshake was originally going to be longer. Notably, these scenes are only missing 19 seconds of footage (according to soundtrack official and final comparisons) shortly before the earthquake begins, and the music that plays is lower and more dramatic. Unlike the earlier parts of the Sharptooth attack (which were cut earlier), this scene had a music score. Many believed that this extended fight would explain the sudden appearance of the mother's neck wound, however, the May 1987 script does not suggest that any such wound happened.

Going by the mid-1987 script, the cut footage features Littlefoot's mother fighting with Sharptooth AFTER she is bitten by him, which features a close-up of her yelling in pain. A cel was discovered in early 2015 that shows this close-up (it can be seen to the right); however, it wasn't until the 1987 script was discovered that the validity of the cel was confirmed.

In order of the script (cut parts highlighted in bold italics): Littlefoot's mother reacts to the "death bite". Littlefoot and Cera watch as she is torn open (the camera angle only shows this in shadow). Littlefoot's mother hits into numerous rocks while Sharptooth attempts to bite her, but she manages to hit him with her tail. She sends mud flying at him down a small hill, however, this causes Littlefoot and Cera to get swept up by the mud and thus they slide down and crash into Sharptooth's foot (as seen in the clip below from a trailer for the movie). Littlefoot and Cera are able to get away from Sharptooth and hide in a crevice while the two dinosaurs square off again. Afterwards, Littlefoot's mother hits Sharptooth again and sends him down a steeper hill while she and the children escape the canyon area. The ground begins to shake violently, and cracks develop beneath Littlefoot. Mother is knocked off balance, as well as Sharptooth, who then gets up and begins to run towards Littlefoot and Cera, fearing for his own life. This scene is cut down heavily in the final film, to the point where only the soundtrack and book adaptations were the only sorts of hints that indicated that footage was cut from this fight.

There is a shot of Sharptooth that was cut from the Great Earthshake scene as well. The original source of the cel to the right is not known - but it was featured in a couple of YouTube videos from 2012. The cel was assumed fake for a while as the proportions seemed to look a bit strange, and didn’t seem to fit in with the music at that time; however, the mid-1987 script draft that was found in 2018 proves its validity.

There is also an early production sketch from 1986 that contains an early, rougher version of the shot (not featured on article as of yet).

Some cels and color keys survive. More are likely to surface in the future.

Green Food Scene (extended)

Small bits of the green food scene are known to be cut, and this was probably just to speed up the pacing. It seems nothing major was cut, but there are some slight continuity problems involving Cera: She backs up to ram the tree again for food, and then is walking away, teasing the group. The music is also severely cut up due to the edits, since it's impossible to line up anymore. One shot from the trimmed green food scene can be seen in one of the trailers for the film. Apart from the trailer, four cels survive from one of the cut shots as well.

Travel Montage

One of two known cels from the travel montage; found in 2015 but not proven valid until 2018.
The other cel.

In the soundtrack, "If We Hold on Together" is listed after the "Whispering Winds" track, and before "Foraging for Food" (which was ultimately cut down), and the credits are separate. In fact, the lyrics suggest there could have been a sequence when this song played. It may have fit in after they find the "Rock That Looks Like A Longneck", where the movie does an awkward fade out and the characters noticeably freeze in place. This never happens at another point, so it's obvious something was cut. There is a possibility that it contained Cera acting like a jerk after claiming she found it first. There's also potential that Cera left the group and stormed off, only for them to be reunited again shortly after, which could explain why tensions were so high in the following scenes.

The mid-1987 script confirmed the travel montage speculation - there was in fact going to be a montage mid-way through the film that played "If We Hold On Together" during the course of it. One section of this montage shows Petrie holding on for dear life as he tries to keep with the others, who are moving at a sustained pace, while on the other hand, he is exhausted.

Plan to Kill Sharptooth (extended)

Unlike the extended final fight, the extended plan to kill Sharptooth made it to post-production, and thus it is accompanied by a musical score. This additional missing footage of the plan to kill Sharptooth (as indicated by analysis of the soundtrack and the mid-1987 script draft) features Littlefoot explaining the reasoning behind doing this: Sharptooth has found the Great Valley, and they must stop him before he enters. The whole gang originally knew it was there, and they needed to defeat Sharptooth first, together.

However, in the final film, the young dinosaurs are not supposed to know that the Great Valley is close, and thus parts of the scene that were tied to the original ending were trimmed out so that there would not be any issues with the plot. However, in the final film, in the shot where the gang spot Sharptooth climbing, there are still plants growing around the area on the right side, so this still does not make much sense, and is why the original ending was more reasonable.

Petrie's Death (extended) and "Hugging Scene"

According to the mid-1987 script and soundtrack analysis, the scene featuring the apparent death of Petrie went on a bit longer (with the sad music continuing for some time), and followed with a group hug. There was a shot of Littlefoot, Cera and Spike turning around towards Ducky (possibly with Petrie); two cels of it survive to prove this.

After Petrie is revealed to be alive, the five young dinosaurs embrace in a hug. Littlefoot then says "Now we'll always be together". This "hugging scene" was edited and was instead used as the final shot of the film, editing out the "Now We'll Always Be Together." shot, as the ending was changed. The line survives in the form of a Pizza Hut advertisement from around the time of the film's release, promoting their new handpuppets based on the characters.

The original ending (which is featured in the next section) then plays out, with Littlefoot guiding them to the Valley, carrying Petrie on his head (this is reused animation from earlier, so it's possible the recut may have been done to spare audiences another segment of repeated animation in the film).

Original Ending

Last but not least, there is the original ending. We now know that what is now the ending of the film happened considerably earlier, but piecing it together is hard. Before the main characters reached the Mountains That Burn, Littlefoot had split up after a fight between himself and Cera. Originally, this would have continued with Littlefoot wandering past the pond they drown Sharptooth in, asking his mother for help, then discovering the valley (this is still used in the movie, but it makes less sense, as he is meant to be confident after defeating Sharptooth, not sad). He then starts to enter, playing in the waterfalls in celebration of discovering the valley, and then realizes he has go find his friends because they went the wrong way and won’t find it on their own, he ends up finding the others at the Mountains that Burn, (potentially his mother told him to bring them, but nothing is known of this moment) and after the final battle with Sharptooth, Littlefoot guides his friends into the Valley.

Like in the final film, they would all reunite with their families, but unlike the final cut, the original ending's final scene showed Littlefoot sitting atop a hill, high above the valley. His mother's spirit would appear and whisper to him one last time, telling him not to forget her. Littlefoot would reply, saying that he would never forget his mother, and that she would be in his heart forever. It is unknown as to whether this final scene of the film actually made it past completion of the film, but some music from the "End Credits" track was cut; it may have been played over the hugging scene, or perhaps these cut valley scenes (though, the song "If We Hold On Together" was meant to be used for the travel montage originally, not the credits, which probably led to some of the credits music being cut as well).

It is noticeable that they eventually ended up on the right path from the Mountains That Burn, and may have been going the right way. In the film, the narrator says that Cera is too proud to admit she went the wrong way: how did she know she was going the wrong way? Something was likely cut out with Littlefoot revealing he had found the Great Valley, but the narration regarding these scenes were not. It's also notable that it looks like it's raining outside when she storms off, not a waterfall, so there might be a large amount of footage missing from that point on. The ending being seen in all three book adaptions of the movie, as well as parts not adding up in the last act of the film seem to suggest that the change to the ending was indeed a last-minute change, possibly one of the final edits made to the film before release.

Miscellaneous

  • Some screams were re-voiced using milder exclamations.
    • In fact, in the film, this can be evidenced by the scene where Sharptooth is initially blinded. Immediately after, as Sharptooth is scratching off, Cera is screaming, but then it cuts off abruptly.
  • When Steven Spielberg edited the film after it was completed, some of the music was remixed, making it sound a little different than the official soundtrack release. For example, the music that plays when Sharptooth attempts to sniff out Littlefoot and Cera in the brambles features some additional instruments.
    • Also, the film contains some music which is not included in the official soundtrack. One unique track plays twice; first, when Sharptooth wakes up after being rammed repeatedly by Cera, and two, when Sharptooth returns to attack Littlefoot and his friends after they had unknowingly slept in one of his footprints for the night.
  • It's worth noting that near the end, when the spirit of Littlefoot's mother is leading him through the cave tunnel, Littlefoot is smiling as he runs through the cave, though he is supposed to be upset during that scene. So it's obvious to which that part was most likely a scene that was part of the original ending; when Littlefoot found the great valley himself.
    • Also, in the wide shot, when the clouds re-shape to form the spirit of his mother, you can actually see both the pond where they defeated Sharptooth and the boulder they used to stop him sitting where it was before it was pushed. Indicating that the scene was indeed swapped around.

Speculated/Rumored Scenes

The McDonalds "pre-release" tape.
  • A pre-release tape that was distributed by McDonalds allegedly had a deleted scene included in it. However, little actual proof of this has emerged, and based on the few reports of people who have watched it, the tape has no additional footage.[2]
  • It was also rumored that the scene of Sharptooth ripping open the back of Littlefoot's mother was originally more graphic and was altered to show the event only in shadow, however, there is currently no evidence to support this claim.
  • One rumored scene involved the main characters coming upon an oasis inhabited by "crown-heads" (Pachycephalosaurus) and "gray-noses" (Saurolophus) who refuse to share food and water with one another, giving Cera an epiphany to not judge others based on their species, was confirmed to be one of the deleted scenes in the mid-1987 script draft. The scene may not have been animated, however.
An extra shot of the Great Valley, seemingly from the other side.
  • There is a still from one of the storybook adaptations for the film, "The Search for the Great Valley", that features an alternate shot of the Great Valley. The angle appears to be from the other side from where Littlefoot originally discovered it. ** Because the book uses stills from the film as its illustrations, the shot was supposed to be featured in the film at some point, before being cut for unknown reasons. The shot could be from the original ending, where Littlefoot finds the Great Valley after separating from his friends, or it could have shown up when he and his friends enter the valley together. Finally, it could have been from one of the final shots of the original ending, where Littlefoot looks down upon the valley from a hill, as his mother whispers to him one last time.
  • As Grandpa Longneck's voice actor (Bill Erwin) was listed in the credits despite him never talking, there may have been a scene where he spoke in either the beginning or the end, but this is unknown at this point.
  • There may be some footage missing from Ducky's introduction, since the tree star vanishes and reappears a few scenes later, but this may have been a simple animation mistake.

Availability

The uncut version of the film has never shown up in any form of public release, and it is largely believed that the extra footage has been destroyed.

Despite this, stills, animation cels, storyboards, color keys, and other production material from many of the deleted scenes have shown up in the past (and are continuing to surface more frequently on auction sites such as Heritage Auctions and Van Eaton Galleries in recent years), and some, interestingly enough, appear in the movie's counterpart storybooks Friends in Need, The Search for the Great Valley, and The Land Before Time: The Illustrated Story.

Small snippets from some of the deleted scenes can also be found in pieces of promotional material for the movie that came out before its release; in fact, three out of the nine images sent out as part of the movie's press kit are frames that were ultimately cut from the final film. It is rumored that an unedited copy of the film was accidentally sent to a Finnish broadcasting company, which they then subsequently aired, although this claim has never been verified.

In Hal Hinson's review of the film (published on November 18, 1988, the day of the film's premiere in theaters) he wrote that the film was "only 80 minutes long".[3] This runtime matches up with how long the film was originally going to be at release, before it was trimmed down to 69 minutes just weeks before the premiere. Because a film is often screened to critics some time before its theatrical release, it is likely that a print containing the finished uncut scenes was accidentally sent to them, including Hal Hinson. The status of these prints remain unknown, but unfortunately, pre-release prints of films were often destroyed after screenings to prevent piracy.

Gallery

Reconstruction of the initial swamp Sharptooth chase scene (dubbed "T-Rex Attack" in production), as well as the uncut Sharptooth fight scene (dubbed "The Fight").

Reconstruction of the greenfood scene.

A collection of snippets, stills and production sketches from some of the deleted scenes (outdated video).

References

The full script of the film can be downloaded at this link: [4]

The original story board drawings for the Sharptooth chase scene, showing just how much it was changed[4] [5][6]

  1. Reply to e-mail sent to Mark Pudleiner about cut scenes: http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/index.php?showtopic=16016&view=findpost&p=40015439
  2. The rumor of the pre-release McDonalds VHS containing cut scenes debunked. http://z7.invisionfree.com/thegangoffive/index.php?showtopic=14138&view=findpost&p=22077664
  3. A review of the film by Hal Hinson, wherein he states the film he viewed had an 80 minute runtime. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/landbeforetime.htm
  4. [1]
  5. [2]
  6. [3]