Land Before Time X, The: The Great Migration (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-How Do I Find Things? Read Along-With Littlefoot Featurette-The Great Circle Music Highlights-Sing-Along-Songs (2) Notes-Dino Stars Notes-Dino Activity - Stencils Featurette-In The Studio With Olivia Newton-John Theatrical Trailer-Music Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	80:50
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (48:46)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Charles Grosvenor
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	John Ingle Alec Medlock Kenneth Mars Miriam Flynn Aria Noelle Curzon Jeff Bennett Rob Paulsen Anndi McAfee Brandon de Paul James Garner Bernadette Peters Kiefer Sutherland
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Michele Brourman Stephen Coleman Amanda McBroom

    Just what is it about dinosaurs that fascinates humans, and in particular children? When my five year old son has library day at school, it is almost guaranteed that one of the books that he brings home will be about dinosaurs. When this fascination is combined with some good, if simple, storylines, good animation and some catchy and child appropriate music then you have a real hit on your hands. One that has now reached its tenth iteration!

    As I said in my review of the ninth movie, this has to be one of the most successful children's series of movies of all time. While there is little for the adults (this is definitely no Shrek where there is lots of mixed age content), the kids just seem to keep lapping it up. The animation is hand drawn but computer enhanced - there are shadows on the characters, and the water, lava and so forth are all computer generated. They have had lots of practice over the last few movies in this technique and they are getting quite good at it.

    The storyline here is about a legend, a legend where the longnecks save the planet every so often. There is some strange force calling all the longnecks to a particular location, one where they will hold the sun up and stop it crashing into the earth. The backdrop to this is a solar eclipse, but I prefer their explanation for the phenomenon. This acts as a backdrop to the real story that the children get involved in where Littlefoot (the central character in case you have not seen any of the previous films) is called to this location along with his grandfather and grandmother. Of course, his friends are feeling very left out and miss him greatly, leading to the Jurassic road trip that is always central to these films.

    His friends learn the usual things on this road trip and make some new friends but there is a difference in this film where the end of the road trip is not the end of the film - at the end of this journey is someone that Littlefoot never thought he would ever see, and he is caught in between a rock and a hard place emotionally trying to decide what he is going to do.

Video

    As this is a direct to video release it is presented at 1.33:1 which is its intended aspect ratio. I wonder just how long into the future we have to go before 'direct to video' is widescreen?

    The image is pin sharp, I suspect direct from computer to disc as there simply are no artefacts of any kind present. Shadow detail is as drawn and there is no low level noise.

    Colours are bright and perfectly saturated and absolutely free of noise.

    There are no artefacts at all; MPEG, film, recurring or otherwise.

    An entire section of our population have been left out in the cold on this one, with not a subtitle in sight.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 48:46 during a sudden fade to black with no audio present making this layer change invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue quality and the audio sync are both very good.

    The music, in particular the songs sung by the characters, are simple tunes that really seem to appeal to the younger generation. You would think that after 10 movies there would be a little bit of a problem with repetition, but this is not the case.

    There is only some low level ambience and some music in the surround channels.

    The subwoofer has little to do during this film.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. There is a static border around a central insert with scenes from the film playing therein.

Featurette: How Do I Find Things (53)

    A 53 second introduction for children on how to use the remote for your home theatre to play the games. It finishes with a screen with four animals that can be selected for them to practice on.

Read Along With Little Foot (13:00)

    Here they have turned the story of the movie into a read along book. Static scenes from the film play out behind a series of subtitles that change colour to keep pace with the narrator. The scenes play out and tell the story very well and the narration is excellent. The kids might not be able to read yet but seeing the words light up as they are read is a good way to introduce them to reading.

The Great Circle

    This is a mini science show for the kiddies that teaches them about solar and lunar eclipses. There is a three minute odd introduction using scenes from the film and rendered models of the solar system focusing on the Earth, Moon and sun demonstrating how a solar and then a lunar eclipse occurs. They then move on to telling you how to make a solar eclipse viewer (the old pinhole in a piece of cardboard trick) and then how to create you own model of a solar eclipse using a desk lamp, a globe and a ball of some description. They pause the narration while you complete each step - you press Enter to continue each time.

Sing Along Songs

    Two of the main songs in the film are presented; Me and My Dad (2:46) and Adventuring (2:33). The segment of the film featuring the song plays with subtitles that light up in time with the song appearing at the bottom.

Dino-Stars

    A 'biography' of each of our stars telling us a little about the character including their scientific name and their part in the story. At the end of the list is Charles Grosvenor, the director/producer of the film.

Stencils

    Three static pages with text instructions on how to make stencils of dinosaurs using card stock, carbon paper and a picture of a dinosaur.

In The Studio With Olivia Newton John: The Best Of Friends (5:26)

    Olivia Newton John sings the song The Best Of Friends for the closing credits of this film. In this little featurette, which is a mix of Olivia being interviewed and footage from the recording studio, she talks about the origins of the song and about recording it. Some of the studio footage is presented at 1.85:1 letterboxed in black and white, the rest is colour 1.33:1. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Trailer: The Land Before Time (1:54)

    This is more of a music video rather than a trailer. The characters from the film dance along against a white background intercut with footage of live adults and children doing the same thing. Presented at 1.78:1 letterboxed and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    This is yet another good kids film in a good series of films. Good clean children's entertainment with a message and a bop-along soundtrack.

    The video is perfect.

    The audio is good.

    The extras are also good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall