D4 Asbury Park Press/Friday, November 18, 1988 PANORAMA/ENTERTAINMENT Dinosaur's tale an animated film By ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN Press Movie Writer Bluth, Disney studio defector, and writer Stu Krieger have reworked the Bambi story in "The Land Before Time," and while certainly not eclipsing the classic cartoon, they have created a sound animated entertainment. In reshaping the tale, they have set the story in prehistoric times and made the protagonist a brontosaurus named Little Foot. This serves to educate the audience ever so gently; we learn that the earth's earliest land creatures belonged to herds that died off from starvation as much as battles with predators. Which introduces the crux of Little Foot's problem: orphaned in childhood, Little Foot must find what his dying mother calls the Great Valley. There, Little Foot will be reunited with his grandparents - they are separated in what one character calls an "earth shake" - and live in a land of plentiful food, water and love. "The Land Before Time" spends most of its time following Little Foot on his odyssey to find the Great Valley, a rather obvious but acceptable symbol for living happily ever after. Before Little Foot begins his journey, he mourns his mother with such feeling (she has died from injuries sustained defending him), adults as well as youngsters may be moved to tears. The musical score, long on weeping "THE LAND BEFORE TIME," featuring the voices of Pat Hingle, Gabriel Damon and Candy I Hutson, opens today at area theaters. Don Bluth directed from a screenplay by Stu Krieger. A Universal Pictures release. Rated G. MOVIE REVIEW by four adorably ugly prehistoric animals, the most fetching being Ducky, another dinosaur. The least winning is Sara, a doggedly independent animal called a "three-horn, but who looks like a precursor to a rhinoceros. Sara will win no kudos from women weary of unpleasant female characters, but Krieger at least gives her a full-bodied personality and, after her hubris is deflated, the sense to admit her foolhardiness. Candy Hutson does a grand job with Sara, especially when called upon to let loose deafening screams. However, since the weight of the film lies with Little Foot, it is essential his portrayer be convincingly sweet, playful and touching. Gabriel Damon is up to the job; he does a lovely job as our hero. And Bluth and his enormous team of artists have done an exceptional job, drawing you into a world forbidding and, in the expected happy ending, enchanting. Little Foot makes a lot of interesting discoveries on his journey to the Great Valley in "The Land Before Time." violins, heightens the effect of Little Little Foot happily need not make Foot's grieving. his journey alone. He is accompanied
