Game:

The Land Before Time (2001)

Duration: 2:19

52,232 views

443

The Land Before Time, while a classic, suffered heavily from many cuts forced upon it. Using storyboards, animation cels, concept art and all the scenes that ended up in the finished movie, I have reconstructed the "Sharptooth Attack" scene as it was originally supposed to pan out.

Notes:

Missing storyboards: 17, 30-33, 35-38

00:55 - this is my favorite thing I noticed while working on this video.
In the finished film, the shot you see here is used much, much earlier, as one of the first shots of the scene to be exact. You can see this quite clearly as in the shot's background you can see the tree from the beginning of the scene (which the Sharptooth was supposed to shake, which was cut), the pond and the "entrance" to the bramble bush. The interesting part is that by comparing this shot to the storyboards, I discovered that the animation was likely originally supposed to be used in the post-blinding fleeing-through-the-brambles scene, ie much later than where it ended up being put, and that the animation of the kids running was apparently simply pasted onto a different background while the team was restructuring the scene to make it look like it belonged into an earlier segment.
Here is a link to the original storyboard for this shot so you can compare it for yourself:
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MJ55Yx1tlPs/VYsHsEend5I/AAAAAAAAD5g/Hn0DCrI-e4A/s1600/Don_Bluth_Storyboards_Land_Before_Time__041.jpg
Pay close attention to the composition of the storyboard as well as the arrangement of the characters - this is one of the few times in the entire Sharptooth Attack scene where Cera is in front of Littlefoot instead of behind him. More proof that the animation from this scene was originally meant to take place in the brambles is that if you go frame by frame, the animated bits of wood flying around on the right side of the screen closely resembles the brambles in style and color.

02:13 - here a smash cut from one almost identical version of the scene (Sharptooth roaring at the kids) to a different version happens for a reason I can't quite discern. If you go frame by frame, you can see the sky change from completely red to having blue in it, the framing change, the ground change in style, and even the Sharptooth and Cera and Littlefoot's animation cels changing in style slightly.

Other Statistics