The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure

The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure
More like "the not-so great valley adventure"...
Genre: Musical Animation Adventure Directed by: Roy Allen Smith Produced by: Roy Allen Smith Written by: John Loy John Ludin Dev Ross Based on: characters by Judy Freudberg and Tony Geiss Starring: Scott McAfee Candace Hutson Heather Hogan Jeff Bennett Rob Paulsen Photography: Color Distributed by: MCA/Universal Home Video Release date: December 23, 1994 Runtime: 73 minutes Country: United States Language: English Franchise: The Land Before Time Prequel: The Land Before Time Sequel: The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving

The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure is a direct-to-video animated musical adventure film created by MCA/Universal Home Video and was released in December 23, 1994. It serves as the sequel to the 1988 film, The Land Before Time, is the second film in The Land Before Time series and the very first of many sequels to The Land Before Time franchise.

Plot

After his tribe of herbivorous dinosaurs moves to the carnivore-free Peaceful Valley in the animated "The Land Before Time," young brontosaurus Littlefoot (Scott McAfee) and his friends chase after a pair of dangerous dinosaurs stealing an egg from the village. While running, they accidentally cause a landslide that opens up their home to outsiders. When the egg they bring back and hatch reveals not one of their own, but a carnivorous tyrannosaurus, the youngsters decide to secretly raise it.

Not So Great Valley Qualities

1. The plotline is extremely predictable, as it suffers from loads of clichés, like the "we have to get the baby back" cliché.
2. Ozzy and Strut are rather lame and pathetic antagonists that are a MASSIVE downgrade to Sharptooth from the previous film, they are also complete rip-offs of Pinky and Brain from The Pinky and The Brain (even Strut shares the same actor as Pinky, Rob Paulsen).
3. Uninspired, laughable, cheesy, and poorly-written dialogue.
4. While an interesting premise, the idea of Littlefoot and his friends making friends with a Sharptooth doesn’t make any sense due to the fact that a Sharptooth killed Littlefoot’s mother back in the first film.
5. Like the original movie, this one feels too short, making the pacing feel rough, but at least the first one does better.
6. It is more juvenile than the original movie because of its more lighthearted tone, less serious action, and pointless/unnecessary songs, which some find off-putting (granted, the first one had its share of lighthearted and comedy moments, but still).
7. Despite its juvenile and lighter-tone, this film can get surprisingly mean-spirited, even for Don Bluth standards. Special mention goes to the scenes where Ozzy treats his own brother Strut like a punching bag though out the film.
   1. Specking of which, there's a very mean-spirited and out-of-nowhere scene were Ozzy grabs a hold of Strut's neck and smacks him across the face to spit out grass when the latter is just trying to eat because he's hungry.
8. Cera can still be unlikable sometimes, though at least not as much as in the first movie.
9. As mentioned on WIS #6, most of the songs come out of nowhere, and the first movie was not even a musical.
   • Speaking of such, the songs themselves are forgettable, cringe-worthy, and ear-grating.
10. Some of the dinosaurs in the movie might be too frightening for even younger audiences.
11. Just like the first film, there are still some animation errors.
12. The animation, while not terrible and a little cleaner than the first movie, is a little off-balance, cheap, and cut-rate (but that is actually expected for a direct to video animated film) when compared to the original, as it does not have a lot of the charm the original film had.
13. Unlike the first movie, which did appeal to adult viewers as much as children, this one does not, as it should be worth noting that this sequel is better suited for children.
14. The message of tolerating those with different lifestyles doesn't work very well because it used a character trying to fit in with members of a group from whom he would kill, to maintain his lifestyle.
15. Tho the voice acting is great, it was kind of hypocritical to have them get Candy Hutson reprise her role as Cera, but never get any of the other voice actors, though Judith Barsi not returning for her role as Ducky was kind of understandable, considering her awful and very tragic death back in 1988 (four months before the original movie was released).
16. The voice acting, while not that bad, can get annoying at times.
17. Too many scenes that contain boring filler which has not enough to do with the plot of the movie.

Great Valley Qualities

1. Some of the songs are good, such as "Eggs", which was a pretty funny song.
2. Despite being cheap, the animation looks alright for a straight to video film.
3. Good voice acting, despite it being obnoxious at times, and even with the new actors, while Candace Hutson is the only one who returned to reprise her role as Cera, and her delivery here and in its next two sequels sounds decent. Also, Heather Hogan is an okay replacement for Judith Barsi.
4. Ducky is still really cute, and even Chomper is a very cute new addition to the series and stole the show.
5. The characters are still pretty likable.
6. At least it is not as bad compared to most direct to video sequels of the franchise.
7. Unlike some of the later sequels fallowing the tenth The Land Before Time film, The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley is a film that does actually feel like a sequel to The Land Before Time as it continue the story of the first movie, since the first one ended in the Great Valley, this also holds true for the next eight films that fallow up after this one too.
8. The film does have its funny moments, like when Littlefoot and Ozzy bump into each other after Ozzy accidently grabs Littlefoot by the head attemping to eat Ducky's egg, which cause both of them to scream, and unintentionally send everyone else screaming and running blindly through the caves.
9. And also unlike the later sequels, this movie doesn't treat it's target audience like idiots, as it actually tries to let it's audience know what's happening without dumbing it down or explaining it.
10. Good music by Michael Tavera that tries to emulate James Horner's music from the first movie.
11. A decent message about accepting responsibility.
12. The film introduced the character of Chomper, who would later become a signature character to the series.

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