The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure is a 1994 American direct-to-video animated adventure musical film directed by Roy Allen Smith. It is the first of many animated sequels to the original film, The Land Before Time, which is produced by Amblin Entertainment and Sullivan Bluth Studios. It was released to direct-to-video on December 13, 1994; six years after the theatrical release of the first.
The Great Valley Adventure is also the first The Land Before Time direct-to-video film to be animated overseas by AKOM in Seoul, South Korea. The tone, action and plot of the film was made much softer and slower than that of the original, and features musical numbers, in order to appeal to a more preschooler-oriented audience. Candace Hutson is the film's only returning voice actor, reprising her role as Cera. After the film's release, subsequent sequels in the series, with animation services by AKOM, were released each year up until 1998's The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock.
After this sequel's release, all the films in the series have been released at a rate of one film every one or two years, up until 2007's The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends, when production of further Land Before Time sequels was halted until 2016, when Journey of the Brave was released.
Synopsis[]
The Great Valley Adventure focuses on the experiences of the characters Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike, after they have arrived in the Great Valley. The characters feel frustrated by their parent's attentiveness, and decide to temporarily run away from home. They encounter dinosaurs who feed off of eggs, and after a mishap involving a kidnapped egg, end up accidentally taking the egg of a Sharptooth to the Great Valley where it hatches. The tone, lighting and plot of the film was made much softer than that of the original, in order to appeal to a younger audience.
This movie has been released to VHS, laserdisc and DVD many times over since its original 1994 video release. To this day it is considered by many fans to be one of the best The Land Before Time sequels.
Voice Actors[]
Candace Hutson (the voice actress of Cera in the original Land Before Time) is the only voice actor --or voice actress-- from the original Land Before Time which reprised her role in this film. In this film, the other voice actors or voice actresses from the original film --including Gabriel Damon (Littlefoot), Will Ryan (Petrie), Judith Barsi (Ducky), Bill Erwin (Grandpa Longneck), Burke Byrnes (Mr. Threehorn), and Pat Hingle (the narrator)-- were replaced by the voice actors --or voice actresses-- Scott McAfee (the younger brother of Anndi McAfee), Jeff Bennett, Heather Hogan, Kenneth Mars, and John Ingle (the voice actor of Topsy and the said narrator for this film). Anndi McAfee (the older sister of Scott McAfee) is the voice actress who replaced Candace Hutson for the other films starting with The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island.
- Scott McAfee as Littlefoot
- Candace Hutson as Cera
- Heather Hogan as Ducky
- Jeff Bennett as Petrie/Ozzy
- Rob Paulsen as Spike/Strut/Chomper
- Linda Gary as Grandma Longneck
- Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck
- John Ingle as the Narrator/Topsy
- Tress MacNeille as Mother Maiasaura
Uncredited[]
- Tress MacNeille as Mama Swimmer/Mama Flyer/Grandma Longneck (two shots only)
- Frank Welker as Papa Sharptooth/Mama Sharptooth
Plot[]
The children have made it to the Great Valley, and are living a peaceful and playful life under the watch of their families. However, they eventually decide that they don't want to be treated like helpless hatchlings any longer, and try to prove themselves independent by temporarily running away into the Mysterious Beyond.
Meanwhile, two egg nappers named Ozzy & Strut have shown up in the Great Valley, and have stolen an egg from Ducky's nest. The gang find this out, and chase them into the Mysterious Beyond, where a landslide occurs during the pursuit. Both parties remain relatively unharmed, but Littlefoot fears the egg got smashed. Ducky starts to cry, until she notices the egg in tact - and larger than before. The five work together to bring it home again, but find that it was there all along.
They stand around it, waiting for it to hatch and planning how they will take care of it. When it hatches, they run away in fear upon realising that the egg contained a baby sharptooth. Littlefoot gets hurled back to the infant when he runs into a vine in the forest, and he realises the baby isn't so dangerous after all. He names him Chomper because of the noise he makes when eating the dragonflies he catches, and heads off for a moment to ask his grandparents how to look after a baby.
As he is continuing to teach Chomper how to function, the others get attacked by Ozzy and Strut, who are angry at them for interrupting their dinner the night before. Littlefoot hears their cries, and runs to help, while Chomper follows. Chomper's shadow makes him appear like a large sharptooth, which scares the egg nappers off. Everyone else then sees that he's nice, and welcome him into the Great Valley - until he bites Cera's tail out of instinct. Cera then dismisses him, but Littlefoot tries to direct him on the right path and explains that that's not allowed in the Great Valley. He feels hurt, and heads off to one of the smoking mountains, where he chases more dragonflies. The others try to get him down from there, while Ozzy and Strut are trying to get an egg from a flyer's nest. The children's voices alert the mother, who scares the duo off. Fed up this time, they try once more to harm the children, and find out that Chomper's a baby.
The egg-stealers chase them, but Chomper once more saves them and they are able to get away from the the two Struthiomimus. Just then, two adult sharpteeth show up and enter the Great Valley by means of an opening caused by the landslide. Everyone in the valley is alarmed, and a local battle breaks out, with even the children participating somewhat. The sharpteeth are defeated, and the adults question how they got in. Cera then explains what happened the night before, and they go off to fill up the entrance; telling the kids to stay behind.
Chomper, who realizes that Littlefoot and his friends are not his parents, runs off sadly. Littlefoot remembers Chomper, and runs off to find him. When he does, the lighter coloured sharptooth (the female) comes and attacks them. As they are running, Littlefoot falls into a rotten log acting as a bridge along a canyon, and gets his leg stuck. Both sharpteeth show up then, and when Chomper roars at them, they realise who he is - their son. A lot of nuzzling and licking ensues, and the family then walk off together. Littlefoot, once out of the log, however, gets caught by the egg nappers, who then take him to a cliff to throw him off. Chomper and his parents come along, when they hear Littlefoot's cries, and chase Ozzy and Strut into the Mysterious Beyond.
Back at the opening, the children get to be present, and Littlefoot even gets the honor of flinging a large stone at several loose rocks on a ledge up above. As the rocks fall down, covering up the hole, the herd returns home and resumes their peaceful life in the Great Valley. Littlefoot then realises that being young is not so bad after all, but decides he still looks forward to growing up.
Production[]
On June 18, 1994, Billboard Magazine announced in its "Video Newsweekly" section that MCA/Universal planned to release the first of three direct-to-video sequels to the 1988 Don Bluth movie The Land Before Time. The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure was to be released in late December that year, while the next two sequels were still being produced. Andrew Kairey, the senior vice president of sales and marketing for MCA/Universal, said that the project would mean "rolling the dice", but included that the company was putting a full effort into the development, adding "In comparison, it's very much like the original. We need to come out with something that's so good that not only will customers like and buy this one, but they'll like and buy two others as well." MCA/Universal also planned a large marketing campaign for The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure.
Trivia[]
- The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure has a lot in common with The Lost World: Jurassic Park:
- Both are the first sequel to their original films and the second film of both their film series and movie franchises. (The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure is the first sequel to the original Land Before Time and the second film in the Land Before Time film series. The Lost World: Jurassic Park is the first sequel to the original Jurassic Park and the second film in the Jurassic Park film series.)
- Both include a Tyrannosaurus Rex family (Chomper and his parents/the Tyrannosaurus Rex Buck and Doe and their infant).
- The protagonists of both films care for a baby T.Rex until its parents come searching for it (Littlefoot and his friends for Chomper; Dr. Ian Malcolm and his team for the infant T.Rex).
- The adult T.Rexes go after the protagonists for their young. (In The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, Chomper's parents chase Littlefoot and his friends in the Great Valley in search of Chomper. In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the T.Rex Buck and Doe follow their infant's scent to the trailer of Malcolm and his team, whom they chase on the island. The T.Rex Buck later chases Malcolm and his girlfriend --Sarah Harding-- throughout San Diego in an attempt to be lured back to the ship with its infant.)
- The main villains of both films are defeated by the T.Rex family after threatening their young. (In The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, Ozzy and Strut --by Chomper's parents-- are chased out of the Great Valley after strangling Chomper. In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Peter Ludlow by the infant T. rex --after attempting to recapture it when the T.Rex Buck traps him in the ship-- gets him the infant's first kill.)
- In the Japanese version of this film, Chomper's voice is provided by Ikue Ōtani, the voice of Pikachu in Pokémon.
- A verse from the opening song states "We finally found a peaceful valley and everyone's having a good time now!" This indicates that this film takes place only a short time after the first film. That may or may not indicate that the creeping Egg-stealer/Struthiomimus seen in the end credits of The Land Before Time is Ozzy.
- Because Chomper is so young, he has done things onscreen other Sharpteeth haven't. Chomper is so far the only Sharptooth who has eaten on-screen (a dragonfly in this film), and is the only Sharptooth to have directly injured one of the original five (when he bites Cera).
- This was the first time Spike "sings"; his lips can be seen moving during You're One of Us Now.
- It reproduces as a non-Sesame Street segment.
- In the song "Eggs", Ozzy refers to himself as a Struthiomimus, the scientific name of his species; whereas in the Land Before Time films and TV series, this species and others similar are usually referred to as "egg stealers", "egg nappers", or "claw-hands".
- Additionally in the song Peaceful Valley, in the end/credits, has the word "sun" in it, where in most other references to the sun the use the words "Bright Circle". The beginning of the song has the word cloud in it, where in all other references to clouds use the words "Sky Puffies". Finally, the word "dreams" is used twice in the song, although the characters usually refer to dreams as "Sleep Stories", but only in the later films.
- The opening sequence depicts asteroids and meteoroids impacting the Moon during the time of the dinosaurs. In reality, the Late Heavy Bombardment Period (the time in history when a majority of lunar craters were formed) occurred 4-3.8 billion years ago.
- The Land Before Time is Universal's second animated film to become a franchise after An American Tail.
- It has trailers that come with the DVD version, The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Mummy: Quest for the Lost Scrolls, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jumpstart.
- This is Universal's first ever direct-to-video film.
- According to the end of the credits, the film was dedicated to the memory of Robert Blattner, III. In addition, it said " Thank you for your wisdom & inspiration".
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