There are some things from my childhood that aged well into my adult years (Star Wars, Muppets, Tom & Jerry) and some that I’m a little embarrassed to admit I liked (Pokemon, Barney). For the life of me, I did not think The Land Before Time II would fall into the “aged well” category (yeah, I’m using Roman numeral; I’m classy :) ). I haven’t watched it since the 90s and I have given little thought to one of my favorite film franchises as a kid since (so why did I rent it this past weekend? Don’t rush me, I’ll get to it). Well, I was in for a pleasant surprise: I still enjoyed the film.
Don’t get me wrong, this is no hidden masterpiece of film art. It’s a 90s direct-to-video film and it shows. The story’s not deep, the animation is a bit stiff at times, and the songs can be annoying depending on your taste in music.
That said, not every film needs to be Schindler’s List. It’s still a cute adventure film that teaches kids not to hurry growing up that wasn’t too preachy. It’s bright and colorful but not exceedingly so and the songs are pretty catchy (I stand by “Peaceful Valley” being one of my favorite songs). The animation IS decent. There are some weird choices (even as a kid, I always thought Littlefoot was swallowing just before the last chorus of “We’re a Family and You’re One of Us Now”) and it can sometimes be stiff, but it’s certainly not the worst I’ve seen. It’s not Disney, Pixar, or even Don Bluth quality (that last one is important considering why there’s a II in this film’s title) but it’s a lot better than Hanna-Barbera or Filmation animation.
I’ll use that to segue into WHY I decide to re-watch the film when my first paragraph made it clear I was otherwise uninterested. It was nostalgia mixed with curiosity about the film being available in HD on Amazon (which I found out just playing around the site one day). Let me say, it was very good looking, with clear and colorful video. The backgrounds were gorgeous and almost stole my attention for the dinos in front of them. That’s not to say the characters didn’t look great. The linework was solid, with even the paler colors looking great. It’s not a perfect picture, but any faults are because of the relative cheapness in making the film in the 1990s, not the remastering in the 2010s. To those who like watching films in HD, love the Land Before Time series, but loathe giving up physical media: I’m sorry to say this to you but digital streaming is currently the best option to watch The Land Before Time II and the other sequels unless a Blu-Ray set is coming (I haven’t watched the others but my guess is they’re about the same).
Now to explain the 2nd half of my title: the trailer (actually just a 2-minute section of the film) is sourced from the 1994 master (there’s a 2012 copyright notice at the end of the trailer but I’m figuring that trailer’s video was a digitization of the 1994 tape master and the actual celluloid wasn’t rescanned before the HD remaster) and, while it’s still a good image, it doesn’t reflect the quality of the remastered feature film and shouldn’t be used to judge the video quality (I don’t how the SD copy looks; sorry).
It’s not the greatest animated film and it certainly suffers with so many better kids’ films available, up to and including its own classic predecessor. However, there are far, FAR worse films you can show kids that are shallower than this (Minions and Angry Birds would, for me at least, lose to this film). The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure is a fun film and definitely worth at least one viewing, especially if you watched it as a kid, have a kid, or are a kid at heart who can appreciate a less-than-great film for its good points.