The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration

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The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration
Directed by	Charles Grosvenor
Produced by	Charles Grosvenor James Wang Daniel J. Wiley
Written by	Judy Freudberg Tony Geiss John Loy
Starring	John Ingle Alec Medlock Kenneth Mars Miriam Flynn Aria Curzon Jeff Bennett Rob Paulsen Anndi McAfee Brandon DePaul James Garner Bernadette Peters Kiefer Sutherland
Music by	Michele Brourman (songs) Amanda McBroom (songs) Michael Tavera Jerry Goldsmith (Universal logo only)
Distributed by	Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release date(s)	December 2, 2003
Running time	84 min.
Language	English
Preceded by	The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water (2002)
Followed by	The Land Before Time XI: Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2004)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration (known internationally as The Land Before Time X: The Great Migration) is the tenth film in the Land Before Time series.

[edit] Plot

Plagued by mysterious dreams, Littlefoot, his grandparents and all the other Longnecks depart the Great Valley, joining up with other Longneck herds as they travel to a single location; with Cera, Petrie, Spike, and Ducky (Littlefoot's friends) following the herds to an enormous crater, which they believe is the culmination of their journey. Littlefoot learns that long ago, that the Bright Circle (sun) was going to fall. However, a number of Longnecks came together to this very spot and raised up their necks, lifting the Circle back to where it had been. According to this creation myth, this stretching of their necks is how the Longnecks got their long necks. History is about to repeat itself, and so the Longnecks have returned to the crater in order to save the sun once more.

However, another surprise is in store, as Littlefoot meets his father, Bron, for the first time in his life. However, Bron isn't alone. Since parting from his now deceased wife (a song from The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists reveals that the concept of marriage does exist in The Land Before Time universe), he has become guardian to another young Longneck, Shorty, who becomes jealous of Littlefoot since Bron is spending more time with him. One dawn, Shorty tries to run away, but Littlefoot stops him and convinces him to rejoin the migration, he even goes as far as to suggest they become brothers. At this point, Littlefoot's friends arrive. Soon after, following a Sharptooth attack, the time comes for the Longnecks to save the sun again. They succeed and save the world. (However, the audience watching the film will recognize that what happened was, in fact, a solar eclipse; the Longnecks merely thought the sun was falling.)

With their mission completed, the herds depart. Knowing their true places, Littlefoot tells Bron to take care of Shorty, and returns to the Valley with his friends and grandparents.

[edit] Voice cast

• John Ingle .... Narrator/Cera's Dad
• Alec Medlock .... Littlefoot
• Kenneth Mars .... Grandpa Longneck
• Miriam Flynn .... Grandma Longneck
• Aria Curzon .... Ducky
• Jeff Bennett .... Petrie
• Rob Paulsen .... Spike
• Anndi McAfee .... Cera
• Brandon DePaul .... Shorty (as Brandon Michael DePaul)
• James Garner .... Pat
• Bernadette Peters .... Sue
• Kiefer Sutherland .... Bron

[edit] Songs

The songs are written by Michelle Bourman and Amanda McBroom. The end credit song, Best of Friends, is performed by Olivia Newton-John.

• Adventuring
• Me and My Dad
• Bestest Friends (a.k.a Best of Friends)

[edit] Home video release history

• December 2, 2003 (VHS and DVD)
• September 19, 2006 (DVD - 2 Tales of Discovery and Friendship)

[edit] Trivia

• Pat's name is, like Bron's, likely derived from Apatosaurus.
• Mo makes a cameo appearance as the ichthyosaur jumping out of the water during the Adventuring musical number.
• This was the only Land Before Time film in which Alec Medlock provided Littlefoot's voice. In every film from this one onwards, there has always been a different voice of Littlefoot. However, Cody Arens voices Littlefoot in every episode of The Land Before Time TV series, except The Longneck and the Cobbler episode of the TV series, in which Aaron Spann still voices Littlefoot.
• The first film in the series to use fully computer-generated backgrounds and dinosaurs.
• This was the first film in the series that did not use James Horner's original score. This was Michael Tavera's first and so far only completely original score in the series (older themes from the previous sequels were not used in this installment).
• It is revealed in this film that Bron was called "Littlefoot" as a child. Therefore, Littlefoot's mother gave her son her husband's nickname as a real name.
• For years it was unknown whether Littlefoot's mother was his grandparents' daughter or daughter-in-law. With how Bron refers to Littlefoot's grandfather as "Papa Longneck" instead of "Father", its likely that Littlefoot's mother was his grandparents' daughter.
• Bron's name is likely derived from "Brontosaurus" the now obsolete scientific name for his species Apatosaurus.
• While both Littlefoot and his father, Bron, are saddened by his mother's death at the hands of Sharptooth, Littlefoot is more understanding of sharpteeth; this is probably due to his experience with Chomper. Bron, however, having had nothing to dissuade him from such feelings, hates carnivorous dinosaurs and calls them "cowards."
• The first sharptooth to appear in the film has coloring that seem to match Chomper's coloring in the films. The next two have Chomper's parent's coloring.
• The title for the film had sparked rumors that we would see a return of Ali, the guest character from the fourth film (due to the fact she was part of a migrating herd). Many older fans were disappointed to see that this was not true. However, she did reappear in an episode of The Land Before Time TV series.
• The original title for the film was simply: "The Great Migration", which caused a fair amount of speculation^{[citation needed]}, owing to the fact that this was the name of one of the tracks on the original film's soundtrack.
• A shorter version of the song Adventuring was heard in three episodes of The Land Before Time TV series. It features Chomper and Ruby singing as well, except that the third TV series version only features Ruby singing as well, since Ducky and Chomper are stuck on the high land with Thud in one episode. View the first TV series version here.
• This was last time Littlefoot was an orphan; he finally found his father Bron in this film.
• This was the fifth time Spike sings; he can be heard humming at the end of Adventuring, even though Rob Paulsen was not credited for performing the song.

[edit] External link

• The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration at the Internet Movie Database