'Land' returns to a time when animation was art O By Stephen Hunter Sun Film Critic A at bout gifted bailed Walt's named the 10 out shop, Disney Don years shortcutting of ago, appalled artist: Bluth. Uncle: that: a was passing for animation in those once-hallowed halls on Goofy Drive. He was subsequently able to put together his owni studio, and has produced severall handsome, if vapid, full-lengthi features. Now, he has his ultimate revenge on Disney. On the same day that the new "Oliver & Company," one of Disney's worst films, is opening, Bluth is opening his best, "The Land Before Time." Not only that, it's a triumphant return to the Disney "old" style, the rich, painterly, immensely detailed story animation that Disney itself has largely abandoned. And, in a curious way, "Land Before Time" has a special, malicious animationwars twist to it: It takes as its source material one of Disney's great old-fashioned films. It's a dinosaur "Bambi"! The movie isn't perfect, in the way that "Bambi" was, for Bluth has never quite mastered story in the way that the old Disney mill had down pat. Thus "Land Before Time" has the queer sense of being truncated; just when it Newborn Littlefoot the brontosaurus will soon be on his way to find the "Great Valley." seems to be settling down to get really good, it's over, at about Minute 65. So soon? you're thinking. Did they run out of money? But what it's got in endless abundance is charm, humor and some moments of genuine pathos. It's like classic Disney, in that it transcends its boundaries as a child's movie; nearly everybody will enjoy it. Bluth's animators have the old Disney gift of finding unique styles of movement for each major character, unifying them with instantly recognizeable and appropriate voices, and bringing them to some kind of more authentic life than conventionally filmed creatures. You have only to recall the immortal Thumper 'The Land Before Time' Animated. Directed by Don Bluth. Released by Universal. Rated G. *** he acquires four pals - a triceratops, a pterodactyl, a stegosaurus and an anatasaurus (I was a dinosaur kid in the second grade) on a journey toward the "Great Valley," where green mulch and leafy plants will be available forever and ever, whereas the regular world is turning mean, scabby and barren. (The background landscapes are great: rich, detailed, resonant.) What impels them on this journey is a great earthquake that separates most of them from their parents and in Littlefoot's case, actually kills his mother. Here you can feel Bluth tweaking Disney most savagely: The death of Bambi's mother is one of the great, tragic moments in the Disney canon, and Bluth is trying to bring off a moment of similar intensity, but with creatures reflexively less cuddly than deer. He doesn't quite make it. but he comes awfully close. He's also extremely proficient at action. Early on, there's a fight between Littlefoot's mother and a Tyrannosaurus Rex that's as terrifying as the battle in "Bambi" between Bambi and a rival for Filene's hand. And it should be pointed out also that the dinosaurs in "The Land Before Time" are "new" dinosaurs, in that they reflect the latest in scientific theory, which finds them to be agile, cunning, and far more graceful than the clumpy thunder lizards of yore. What "The Land Before Time" lacks, besides about 20 more minutes and a few further adventures, is resonance. The deer in "Bambi," of course, were set upon by men, their worst enemy: the theme had haunting weight to humans, who could recognize their own evil in the quest for meat and sport. Alas, the dinosaurs in "The Land Before Time" have no worse enemy than the earth itself, which is simply becoming inhospitable by the mandates of nature. It is sad but it is also uncontrollable, implacable and part of the great turning of things. to see what he's getting at. The one problem he has with his characters might be the proverbial too-much-of-a-good-thing deal: He's still introducing new ones quite late in the movie, and once he gets the whole team assembled, the movie's over. Introducing them, in other words, is the movie. Set at the end of the dinosaur era, it follows Littlefoot, one of the last of the brontosauruses, as ..A TERRIFIC NEW COMEDY... TAKES ON A MARX BROTHERS MANIA THAT'LL HAVE YOU HOWLING. 'Without a Clue' is without a doubt, one of the most lovable comedies "Here is a
