In einem Land vor unserer Zeit III – Die Zeit der großen Gabe (Video 1995)

In einem Land vor unserer Zeit III – Die Zeit der großen Gabe: Directed by Roy Allen Smith. With Scott McAfee, Candace Hutson, Heather Hogan, Jeff Bennett. When a sudden shortage of water threatens all life in the great valley, The gang of young dinosaur must cooperate with a group of bullies to make a risky journey outside the valley and find the cause.

“First of all, I do think it is an improvement on Land Before Time 2, which was passable, but lacked heart, which was what made the original so poignant. The Time of the Great Giving is probably the best of the countless sequels that border from good to unwatchable, but suffers from being too preachy at times. The animation is surprisingly good, but isnu0026#39;t quite true to the style of animation in the original. In most scenes it had some lovely colours, but had some flat backgrounds in others. The incidental music by Michael Tavera was excellent, especially the Firebird-like music in the fire scene. It was nice to hear the heart-rending main theme from the original, but whereas in the original it made me weep buckets, it didnu0026#39;t have an effect on me here. The songs are okay, Kids Like Us being the best one, and Littlefootu0026#39;s singing voice is for once pretty decent, but the other two songs When Youu0026#39;re Big and When Youu0026#39;re Standing Tough came across as rather unmelodious. The story is a very nice idea, about the values of friendship, survival and sticking together. There is also some nice dialogue, but the film further suffers from being too short and being devoid of any real emotion. I will say that the voice talents were very impressive. Ducky is still funny, with similar dialogue we associate her with from the original, though it doesnu0026#39;t quite feel the same without the sweetness and vulnerability of the original voice actress, the late Judith Barsi. Scott McAfee is decent as Littlefoot, and I liked Linda Gary and Kenneth Mars as the grandparents. However, in correlation to the original, John Ingleu0026#39;s narration, as nice as it was, was somewhat unnecessary, but I was more impressed with his gruff characterisation of Cerau0026#39;s father. All in all, a surprisingly good sequel, though it doesnu0026#39;t surpass the first and the finest. 6/10 Bethany Cox.”