You know what's a quality movie that I had forgotten about until a few weeks ago? The Land Before Time.
I grew up on this movie, and its numerous sequels (although sadly, I can not say that I've seen all thirteen of them). It was good to me in my youth and like most children's movies, is still entertaining now.
The Land Before Time is such a great movie because it appeals to so many audience groups. There are, of course, the children. This movie is educational, giving a bit of information about dinosaurs. It also contains many important themes, like loyalty, respect, and determination. But perhaps most importantly, The Land Before Time features almost exclusively young characters. I don't remember exactly, but I imagine it was nice as a child to see such strong, hilarious, lovable, little kids in a movie, even if they were animated dinosaurs.
There are also strong racial and social themes present in The Land Before Time. My siblings and I were shocked when we realized this, since none of us remembered that aspect of it from our childhood. But the writers made their message pretty clear. Once Littlefoot (the main dinosaur, a "long neck") asked his mother why he couldn't play with another little dinosaur (Cera, a "three-horn"), and she openly replied "we all stick to our own kinds...because we're different. It's always been that way". I almost started laughing at how blatant this message was, but I suppose it's an important one to get out, especially to little kids.
So parents love it, kids love it, and on a slightly more comical note, stoners love it. Seriously. My brother told me he read this long forum online about the drug innuendos in the movie. My siblings and I watched it with that in mind, and I'm not going to lie, a lot of what he was pointing out made sense. But in my opinion, that doesn't at all take away from the movie, just adds another level of complexity to it.
The Land Before Time. Quality. If you haven't seen it, no matter who you are, do.
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