Direct to video follow ups are rarely any good, and when I heard the follow up to Don Bluths 1988 masterpiece the land before time was going to take that format, I was deeply troubled. This time Bluth has nothing to do with it, and its a wise move as the movie will only disappoint. The story begins with little foot and his gang living peaceful and happy lives in the great valley, however all that is disturbed when two egg snatching dinosaurs start to steal eggs from their home. On one occasion the gang follow the thieves only for a terrible egg mix up to occur. It brings a baby sharp tooth into the valley and opens up one of the great valleys walls to attack from the dreaded beasties. The film is weak in nearly every sense, not least in the fact the egg catching villains are pathetic. In the previous picture the villain, a T-Rex named sharptooth generated real threat and was always a haunting presence in your mind. Here the two villains are simply clowns and about as scary as Littlefoot himself. The gang are just as endearing during this outing, but the themes are simply not strong enough this time to sufficiently care about them. The animation seems a little more amateurish this time round but it takes close inspection to tell the difference. There are also, unlike the original a selection of songs though none of them are memoroble,in fact some are just plain irritating To conclude the film is what you would expect from a direct to video release, not worth bothering with.
The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure
(1994 Video)
A sequel that does no justice to a brilliant original
12 April 2006