The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends is a 2007 American direct-to-video animated film and the thirteenth film in The Land Before Time series.
The plot centers on Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, and Petrie, who are excited to meet yellow-bellied Beipiaosaurus, Loofah, Doofah and Foobie, who have lost their way while traveling to distant Berry Valley. Loofah and Doofah seem to be too unintelligent to find their way back, so Littlefoot and the others decide to help their new friends whilst sharing important life lessons called Wisdoms along the way.
Plot[]
The film begins with the narrator relating how, due to the dangers of the dinosar world, all the different species of dinosaurs have had to learn ways to keep safe.
The scene then changes to Littlefoot eating treestars with his grandmother, when he tries to reach some treestars on a fallen tree across a deep canyon. Suddenly, an earthshake occurs and Littlefoot's grandmother almost falls to her death trying to rescue him. That night, Littlefoot awakes from a nightmare about his grandmother falling to her death in the canyon. Grandma comforts him and decides to tell him the Wisdoms, a series of rules about how to live and behave safely. While Littlefoot tells his friends about them they initially mock him for taking them so seriously, telling him how their parents also have their own Wisdoms that they teach them ("Say So") They then meet a trio of Yellow Bellies called Loofah, Doofah and Foobie, who are on the search for berry bushes. Their strange behaviour and odd appearance initially scares the young dinosaurs, but they lead them to a patch of berry bushes. As they proceed to eat every berry on the bushes, the Yellow Bellies tell Littlefoot how they are about to head to a valley full of berries, but they can't remember the name. Doofah mentions that the "Wise One" will know, but Loofah then remembers that it is simply named Berry Valley. After a drink and more discussion on Berry Valley, the Yellow Bellies head off to find the rest of their herd, so they can all make the journey to Berry Valley together.
The next night Littlefoot has another bad sleep story, involving the Yellow Bellies falling to their deaths in the same canyon as in the previous dream. This convinces LIttlefoot that he needs to help the Yellow Bellies and gets his friends to join him. When they ventually catch up with them, Littlefoot tries to each the Yellow Bellies some Wisdoms, but they don't get them, so Littlefoot decides instead, to accompany them to where they are meeting their herd, at a pile of rocks that look like a Yellow Belly. Foobie spots it in the disance, and the group set off.
On the way to the rock, Loofah gets thirsty and The Gang go on to find water while the Yellow Bellies rest. While resting the Yellow Bellies are attacked by a quartet of Baryonyx siblings who had previously heard Loofah shouting. After being chased the Yellow Bellies come to a dead end but The Gang pelt the Sharpteeth with stones from above and the Yellow Bellies bounce on their bellies to make rocks fall and the sharpteeth are soon buried.
Shortly after that the group find a watering hole, and Loofah and Doofah confuse Littlefoot and his friends by talking to the bushes around the water. However, it is revealed that these bushes are actually the Yellow Belly herd, who disguise themselves as bushed by burying their heads in the ground and sticking their feather tails in the air. The herd and the gang relax by the watering hole, playing and partying through the night ("Yellow Belly Bounce"). However, Littlefoot stil sees no sign of the so-called Wise One, so decides to stay with the Yellow Belly herd until they reach Berry Valley. Meanwhile, the Baryonyxes have dug their way out of the rocks and are back on the hunt.
The Yellow Belly herd keep moving across the Mysterious Beyond with Littlefoot leading them. After Cera asks if he knows whee he is going, Littlefoot reasons that, since he has never been to Berry Valley, there is a chance they may find it if they go in directions he has never gone before. This logic doesn't make sense to Cera, but Loofah understands and Littlefoot is unsure if that is good or bad. Along the way they find water and berries but Littlefoot is worried because he came to teach the Yellow Bellies the Wisdoms but instead is beginning to think like a Yellow Belly. This leads Littlefoot to wonder how he can know what to think and whether he should follow logic, or his gut feeling. His friends reply that he should trust in his feelings to let him know what to listen to ("How Do We Know").
After the Yellow Bellies wake up from a snooze after eating all the berries in the berry patch, an intense storm begins. Littlefoot leads the Yellow Bellies up onto a plateau to shelter (one of the Yellow Bellies farted when he/she went under the plateau), but Doofah breaks away from the herd, heading off in her own direction. After the deluge ends, they search for Doofah and find her, wandering amiably about on a ledge. But a landslide of water and rock separates her from them, and the ledge threatens to crumble at any minute. Littlefoot convinces her to jump to them, and she make it just before the ledge collapses.
However, almost immediately afterwards the Baryonyx pack returns. For some reason they go after The Gang instead of the Yellow Belly herd, but soon give up. They manage to trap The Gang and the herd and they seem doomed but then Foobie gives Littlefoot the idea to get the herd to sing and dance. The sheer volume of the singing stuns the sharpteeth, and all of the herd bouncing up and down causes the ledge to collapse, sending the Sharpteeth falling into the chasm below.
Foobie leads the heard to the Berry Valley and Doofah reveals that he actually the Wise One all along. After saying goodbye to the Yellow Belly herd, the Gang resolves to head home, despite having little idea where to go. But they head off anyway, reasoning that they'll find it eventually. Luckily they encounter their parents part-way into the journey, who accompany them home. Littlefoot and his friends reason with their parents that even though they went off on their own, the still followed all the Wisdoms, about staying in a group, keeping one's eyes and ears open, etc. But Grandma Longneck comments that they forgot the most important Wisdom of all: Stay inside the Great Valley.
Ducky admits jokingly that she and her friends have a bit of a problem remembering that one, and the group return home.
Voice cast[]
- John Ingle as Narrator/Topsy
- Cody Arens/Logan Arens as Littlefoot
- Anthony Skillman as Littlefoot (singing)
- Anndi McAfee as Cera
- Aria Curzon as Ducky
- Jeff Bennett as Petrie
- Rob Paulsen as Spike/Beipiaosaurus #4
- Cuba Gooding Jr. as Loofah
- Sandra Oh as Doofah
- Jessica Gee as Tria
- Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck
- Pete Sepenuk as Foobie
Production[]
The film was revealed on the official Land Before Time website seen in a trailer.
Almost every sequel is highlighted by a celebrity guest voice; in the case of this film, they are Academy Award winner Cuba Gooding Jr. and Sandra Oh of Grey's Anatomy.
The same production team remains, although this marks the debut of Jamie Mitchell, who replaces Charles Grosvenor as director. Therefore, Grosvenor is credited as a supervising director. This is possibly due to his involvement on the television series.
Release date[]
The film was released on DVD on November 27, 2007 with the TV series's episode, "The Hidden Canyon", included as a bonus feature.
Music[]
The music was composed by Michael Tavera and the new songs were written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom.
This was the third film in the series without James Horner's original score from the first film; the first two were The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration and The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers, although Michael Tavera's older themes from previous sequels can still be heard.
Songs[]
Reception[]
The Wisdom of Friends received a nomination for "Beast Feature Film, Ages 5-8" at the 2008 Kids First! Film Festival, losing to Barbie & the Diamond Castle.
Trivia[]
- First appearances of Loofah, Doofah and Foobie.
- Chomper and Ruby do not appear in this film because it takes place before the TV series. It is also the last film to do so, as the next film, The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave had presumably taken place after the events of the TV series.
- This is the first movie in which Grandpa Longneck doesn't have a speaking role since the original. This is because Kenneth Mars, who voiced him previously, was forced to retire from acting due to a diagnosis of metastasized pancreatic cancer, which ultimately killed him on February 12, 2011.
- This is the last film to use the 1997-2012 Universal Pictures logo.
- This is the last Land Before Time film to have John Ingle. He died in 2012.
- This is the first Land Before Time film to not have a number in its opening title.
- This is the second film in which nobody cries.
- Tricia and Guido makes no appearance in this film.
- This film is widely regarded by Land Before Time fans as the worst film in the series, due to its considerably less serious nature and the bizarre nature of the Yellow Bellies.
- Similarly, fans have also credited the film's failure as the reason Universal refused to continue the TV series, before the franchise was continued with Journey of the Brave in 2016.
- This is the first film to feature toilet humor. When the Yellow Bellies go under the plateau to shelter from the rain, one of them farted, disgusting the others.
- Like the original movie, this movie revolves around a group of dinosaurs heading toward a safe valley with food and water.
- As of February 2, 2016, this is the last Land Before Time film to not use many cartoon sound effects.
Goofs[]
- In one of the most major goofs, the three subordinates of the leader Baryonyx turn into three Tyrannosaurus in one short scene.
- Also, earlier in the film in the first chase, the yellow Baryonyx turns into a T. rex twice, and the red Baryonyx seems to appear as a T. rex once.
- The number of fingers on the Baryonyx erroneously change constantly throughout the film.
- The sclera of Cera's eyes turn green and her irises turn white when she instructs Littlefoot to "tell them one of your Wisdoms."
- Petrie's eyes flash brown during the scene where Loofah, Doofah And Foobie are drinking water in the Great Valley and Cera asks the three where their herd is located.
- During the song 'Say So', when the camera focuses on Littlefoot, his right eye briefly becomes transparent.
- During the song 'Say So', Spike's chin flashes green.
- Before Cera jumps over to the rock and falls into the river, prior to the song "Say So", her pupils become very large for a couple frames.
- Throughout the film, Loofah can be seen missing the dark blue coloring on his back.
- After talking to Tria, Grandma Longnecks eyes turn red.
- During "How Do You Know" Ducky's eyelids aren't animated when she's closing her eyes at one point.
- During the scene when the gang and the Yellow Bellies are looking for shelter Loofah's head feathers clips into the wall. Cera's foot also clips through the ground in one shot.
- During the scene where Doofah see's the sharpteeth approaching, Foobie is missing the yellow coloring on his belly, Loofah is missing his tail, and Doofah has four arms.
- Doofah separates from the herd however you can still see her with the herd in a few shots afterwards.
- During the fart joke, one of the Yellow Bellies (the brown one) has transparent fingers.
- At the start of the climax Loofah and Doofah are miscolored in one shot (Doofah is now green and Loofah is a light purple).
- When Foobie comes up with a way to defend themselves from the sharpteeth his chin flashes the same color as his body everytime he opens his mouth. His beak is also green instead of peach when he starts bouncing.
- Petrie is missing in one of the shots while the group is bouncing.
- After they defeat the sharpteeth there's a shot where Spike is alot bigger than he normally is.
Quotes[]
- Loofah: We call that one the Yellow Belly Bounce.
- Doofah: Got anything to drink around here?
- Cera: So... where are you meeting your herd?
- Loofah: Hard ground. (gets up and sees Littlefoot) You came to see us off?
- Littlefoot: Yeah.
- Doofah: That is so beautiful!
- Littlefoot: Look, we don't think you're ready to go.
- Loofah: What?!
- Doofah: Huh?
- Loofah: But we have to. We have to lead our herd to Berry Valley.
- Doofah: They'd be lost without us.