The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze

Plot synopsis:
Ducky's relationship with her brother Spike becomes turbulent when he repeatedly keeps her awake at night with his snoring, and for eating her leaves. She tells Cera about her feelings, and confides that she does not know how to express them; Cera agrees to teach her. Meanwhile, the children are attending a school in which they are taught by an old Pachyrhinosaurus named Mr. Thicknose, who professes to have been everywhere and seen everything. Littlefoot eagerly questions the topics they cover, to the old dinosaur's irritation. Eventually, Mr. Thicknose complains to Grandpa Longneck about Littlefoot's behavior. Grandpa, knowing Littlefoot meant no harm, explains to him why he must be more respectful to Mr. Thicknose.
Meanwhile, as Ducky treats Spike coldly, Spike meets and befriends Tippy, a young dinosaur from a migrating Spiketail herd that has recently arrived in the Great Valley. Ducky begins to miss Spike when he spends more and more time with the Spiketail herd. One day, the entire Valley is surprised by an overnight snowfall. While the children together have fun frolicking in the snow, the adults complain that Mr. Thicknose, purportedly the wisest in all of the Valley, did not warn them about this impending weather, and suspect that he does not know as much as he claims.
As time goes on, the dinosaurs begin to suffer from the freezing temperatures and the lack of food growth. The Spiketail herd leaves, as they consume more food than most species. Tippy's mother asks Ducky and Spike's mother, Mama Swimmer, if she can take Spike along during the cold time; Mama Swimmer decides that Spike should choose between staying in the Valley or leaving with the Spiketails. Spike is unsure, so Ducky angrily tells him to leave, which he agrees to do. Afterwards, however, she regrets her actions, and later sneaks away to follow the herd.
When her friends find out, they head off into the Mysterious Beyond to find her, but are interrupted by Mr. Thicknose, who decides to accompany them. After several mishaps, one involving a Sharptooth, and successfully finding Ducky, they come across a frozen pool of water that they accidentally break. Underneath the ice is a warm spring, and they notice there is lush food nearby. While they relax in the water and feed, Mr. Thicknose confesses that most of his knowledge comes from secondary sources; he listened to the stories of other travelers when he was a child, and in his adult years, he shared those stories to the children in the Valley.
Later, the group tries to contact the Valley's residents but find that a wall of snow has blocked them from entry. Ducky, remembering what Cera taught her, suggests that Cera get angry. She does so, and her enraged screaming causes the snow to fall down, enabling the Valley's residents to pass through. Meanwhile, the Spiketail herd is starving until Spike picks up the spring's scent. He leads the Spiketails there and reunites with Ducky. However, he falls into a deep part of the spring, and as he is unable to swim, Mama Swimmer jumps in to save him. When she places him on dry ground again, Tippy's mother says that Spike should stay with his family, rather than her herd. Ducky promises to Spike that she will not get angry at him whenever he snores, ever again.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Unfortunately, this LBT has a spoilt, usually positive Ducky who is now grumpy and a storyline that is good for teaching but not very good for a LBT film.
Luckily, the plot is all right and the songs are good, especially "Family" and the learning songs.
The animation is quite good as well, sort of in between LBT 7's animation and LBT 9's animation.
The new characters are entertaining.
Mr. Thicknose is a wise threehorn (they are all dinosaurs) who likes to teach Littlefoot and his friends.
While he talks to them again, Ducky is angry at Spike and Littlefoot is worried that he is seeming to upset Mr. Thicknose.
The film continues on as a pretty good learning adventure and an adventure good for an animated film.The best character in this who is one of the main five is Petrie.Ah well.
Enjoy "Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze"..
Decent but not great.
While a long way from being the worst, this sequel isn't the best either.
It does benefit from some nice colourful animation, a sweet story and a sterling vocal turn from Robert Guillaume(who also voiced Rafiki in "The Lion King").
Actually in general the whole voice cast was very well done.
However, while sweet the songs aren't exactly memorable, some of the dialogue is a little on the corny side and the film is too short.
I may be alone as well in thinking the singing was a tad weak, Guillaume has done much better singing before.Overall, I do recommend it for kids, they will definitely love it.
However depending on whether you loved the first film, I did, or how old you are, others may find it disappointing.
It does do the right thing though, provides decent entertainment for its target audience.
Although the original film (10/10) can never be matched, this heartwarming sequel comes close.
This time Ducky & Spike take centre stage as their "sibling" relationship is tested.
They love each other but know that they are different.
Spike faces a difficult decision when a herd of spiketails, including a cute infant, invite him to join them.
The friends see snow for the first time and learn how it can be good and bad.
The characters are as loveable as ever and the songs are not unpleasant.
I am proud to own all 8 films and this is one of the best.
Long live the Land Before Time!.
Ah, I remember the good old days.
1988 it was, I was a little kid and had just been taken to see a great movie called Land Before Time.
I really enjoyed it and wanted to see more of the cute talking dinos.
Each sequel to the film has degenerated farther and farther from the original nice story into pure theatrical sludge.
The characters have become increasingly more annoying, the plots are trite, the songs make you pray for the ice age and those are the series's GOOD points.As for this latest cinematic suppository, I can't help but say, in all honesty, that I would rather be castrated with a rusty pizza cutter then sit through it again.
Five minutes of Land Before Time VIII can turn your brain into cottage cheese.
This is the worst case of sequelitus I have ever seen.It's high time these dinosaurs became extinct!.
this movie is red hot.
some of my friends laugh cause i still watch these movies to this day ...
I've been watching them for 15 years and i never get sick of them.
.i hope that they end up making at least 20 ..
because i know that i will still be watching them .
cause I'm sure almost everyone agrees how AWESOME all the Land Before Times are : ) me and my friends watch it all the time ..
and were 15 and 16 years old.
and we STILL love iti think that everyone should watch this movie ..
because land before time is RED HOT !!!!!!!!
Boy that Universal really knows how to milk (or should I say "Mine") a franchise to death, these sequels seem to get cheaper & cheaper every time, it's really sickning that one of Don Bluth's classic mytho's is getting buchered more & more with near low quality sequels like this, I wonder how Don feels about this?I'm sure glad MGM didn't take The Secret Of Nimh to the same direction as Land Before Time (hey, one dog ugly sequel was bad enough), if there's ever a Land Before Time 9, I think they should try "Land Before Time IX, The Mushroom Cloud"..
The Big Freeze.
The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze, the eight installment in the Land Before Time series.
I can't believe how many more movies there are to this series, it's a bit crazy, I feel like I'm on a Lord of the Rings type journey.
But still it has been a decent one, you know each time I go onto the home page of the new Land Before Time sequel, the rating is low and the reviews are all very bad, just saying how sick everyone is of this franchise.
Personally though I've enjoyed it, each film as silly as it may be, has a very good message and I think is just a great family film.
Something that both the kids and the adults can enjoy together.
After all it may be cheesy, but look who this was made for, the kids.
I like these stories, they're very cute and always teach something.Littlefoot and his friends are being tutored by a dinosaur named Mr. Thicknose who claims that he's been there, done that, seen it all, heard it all, etc.
When Littlefoot questions him, he gets angry and Grandpa tells Littlefoot that they all respect Mr. Thicknose and his "experiences".
Ducky is also getting annoyed with Spike lately, she can't get any sleep because of him, but when Cera tells her to express herself, she takes it the wrong way and gets angry with Spike letting him clearly know on how angry she is with him.
When the dinosaur families get trapped in a valley by an ice storm, one family of spike tail dinosaurs volunteers to leave since they consume more food than the others.
Meanwhile, the young dinos and Mr. Thicknose, head out to bring back their friend Spike, who has left his friends to be with members of his own species.
Spike also starts to miss Ducky, but they have bigger problems when the food is extremely scarce.
But realizing that Mr. Thicknose may not exactly know all, Littlefoot and his friends are now facing this challenge head on facing the extreme cold weather.The Land Before Time VIII: The Big Freeze I think is a film definitely worth watching.
I loved watching Ducky and Spike's relationship being renewed, that they can get annoyed with each other but still end up loving each other more than ever in the end.
I also thought it was kind of funny with the story between Littlefoot and Mr. Thicknose, sensing that Mr. Thicknose was somewhat jealous of Littlefoot's curiosity and questions.
This is a good sequel to the series, yeah, I agree that there are a lot of these movies, but each one has been good for different reasons.
So I would recommend watching this one, so far all the sequels have been good, so I don't know what to expect in the next sequel, but I still have good hopes since this has been a great series to get into.5/10.
These need to go the way of the dinosaurs....
I loved the Land Before Time (first one).
I love Don Bluth movies in general.
I would like to point out The first LBT was the ONLY one that Don had a hand in.
You will notice that it is a new director every 3 or so movies after that.
It is so sad that it has become the norm now to take something that was wonderful and heartfelt and turn it into a marketing scheme =(.
I have only seen this sequel, and I don't plan on seeing any of the others, I prefer to leave my childhood memories of Littefoot, Petrie, Cera and the others intact.
I miss animated movies that had imagination and an obvious amount of thought and effort put into them, most movies now a days are cranked out for the soul purpose of making money.
Actually worth watching..
Until now, I have watched every sequel to the beloved Land Before Time (1988).
From the fifth installment on, I actually must confess that they have almost solidified on a decent level of quality.
The film is a little slow in the first approximately 15 minutes, but when the snow kicks in, the good stuff does too.
The film has pretty backgrounds and good messages about identity and family.
Most of the songs are also serving the movie and the story well, and what more can you ask for from a direct-to-DVD film?
I can't be mad at this film.
Yeah, 8th sequel in an everlasting line of them, I know.
I like it and will not feel guilty if I in the future will be showing it to my kids..
I wish they had died in the snow....
It is terrible in every respect: the "music" is insanely bad, the artwork isn't much better, and somehow the film manages to turn everything that's interesting about dinosaurs into boring klichés about friendship and the importance of not stripping old people of their dignity.
My favorite moment is when the dinosaurs decide to have a little snowball fight after the freeze sets in....
Great film, a bit light on action.
The action is not exactly long, but I think "Family" makes up for it.
(SPOILER) Snow falls on the great valley and there are a few days of snow fun.
Spike and Ducky get a bit mad at each other and Spike goes off with a migrating herd of Stegos.
The kids enlist the help of know-it-all fraud Mr. Thicknose to guide them through the Mysterious beyond.
They are reunited with ducky and face a rex.
They find a hot spring and green food.
Thicknose admits his fibbing.
Later, they go to the great valley to show the others the spring.
They are soon joined by the spiketails.(SPOILERS END) I still can't help praising "Family" for its significance to the plot..
This series needs ex-STINK-tion.
*This review contains spoilers*No need to adjust your trifocals, this site is correct in reporting that they really have made EIGHT of these `Land Before Time' movies.
And I am sorry to report that I have watched them all.
They are going to be making these things for about as long as the Mesozoic Period lasted.
While almost all of the LBT movies are derivative and lousy, I did like the schmaltzy Part II and I thought Part VII was a very good entry.
I watched Part VIII with the idea that, since it is hot off the heels of a good entry, it will be just as pleasing.
`The Big Freeze' is hands down the worst entry in the entire LBT series.In the plot, a natural catastrophe befalls The Great Valley, which leaves the adult dinosaurs squabbling as to how to handle the situation.
The young dinosaurs leave the valley to search for their own solution, solve the conflict, and return to The Great Valley to enlighten the adults as to how wrong they have been.
You say I just described the plot to EVERY `Land Before Time' film?
Well, of course I did, because they just reuse the same plot over and over again, changing the catastrophe and sometimes adding in an extra character.
This time, the disaster is a sudden and temporary drop in temperature.
At first the dinosaurs are thrilled by the snow, but when the coldness causes a food shortage, the adults begin to worry.
She lets Spike decide, and he goes with them after being egged on by Ducky.
Soon after, Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Cera decide to go bring Spike back home.
They are accompanied by Mr. Thicknose (voiced by Robert Guillaume), a stegosaur that is the oldest dinosaur in the valley and acts as the kids' teacher, though he knows very little about what is outside the valley.
Before you can say, `Been there, done that,' the movie is over.
Sure, this plot doesn't sound very bad, and it really isn't, but `The Big Freeze' crossed the line for this reviewer too many times.It's a given that any movie about dinosaurs is going to deliberately mess with the facts.
Most notably, the fact that many dinosaurs seen together in movies lived millions of years apart from one another.
Cartoon films, particularly this series, always defy laws of science, but do they have to go this far?
For instance, there is no way a dinosaur could stand the frigid temperatures for very long any more than today's surviving reptiles can without hibernation.
Furthermore, there is a scene where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is clobbered by a rolling snowball, something which couldn't have gotten big enough to do much damage in the brief time it was rolling down the hill.
Then Thicknose steps on it.
He makes it a little ways and them flops down.
Considering Thicknose must weigh many tons, you wonder why the ice slowly cracks instead of immediately caving in?
Sillier yet, the water under it turns out to be a hot springs.
How can ice form on hot water?
Even sillier than that, it is revealed that the springs have given life to a lot of green plants that all the dinosaurs from The Great Valley can eat until the weather warms up.
END OF MAJOR SPOILERSThese nitpicks may have made me hate the movie, but they aren't the only things.
Keeping with the LBT tradition, `The Big Freeze' harbors a handful of really lame songs that will certainly not have the kids singing along.
In one annoying song, Cera sings to Ducky that it is okay to be angry.
This could send the wrong message to children, who may not figure out by the film's end that the anger Ducky had was not right at all.
There is also a song that Thicknose belts out near the end about learning.
Listen closely to the actual words Thicknose sings.
These are good lines which would have been excellent in dialogue, but instead the words are forgotten in the context of a poor song.
What a shame that the best lines are given the worst delivery.I suppose it may seem like I am being too harsh, but really, there was no need for this gut-wrenching entry.
It exemplifies everything that makes this series lackluster.
When the ninth entry is inevitably made, I hope it learns from Part VIII what not to do.
What I Once Called the Best Sequel.
Another good sequel!
I know, what dimension is this?
The family dynamic in this movie is almost as good as the first movie.
They really dive into what a family is and how it functions.
The connection is very deep and it made Ducky's mom a good character!
Speaking of Ducky, she is developed very well here and I liked how they portrayed the sibling relationship between Spike and Ducky.
It was also one of the only Land Before Time movies that doesn't talk down to it's audience.
The solution to getting back into the valley isn't actually that obvious giving the movie higher stakes and let's the audience focus on the adventure and heart-felt, deep moments.
The final scene where Spike nearly drowns and his "mother" saves him was just outstanding!
In conclusion, I once considered this the best sequel but then another sequel came along.
Heck, I could go on and on about how deep this movie is but I want to keep this a short review because I might repeat myself if I go on anymore..
This one was made in 2001, a year after the 7th's release.
The story is about where Snow falls in the great valley for the first time, Spike meets a new friend called Tibby.
Tibby's mother asks Spike's mother permission if he could go with Tibby and his family on a long walk to where they lived.
Ducky gets jealous as she thinks that Spike doesn't want his intrests in Ducky no more..
LBT On Ice. The next entry in the Land Before Time saga, The Big Freeze, is not as good as the previous film The Stone Of Cold Fire, but it still manages to stand on its own.
Just as Stone of Cold Fire focuses more on Petrie, The Big Freeze puts Ducky and Spike into the limelight.
This marks the first time that we see any stegosaurs other than Spike, which is significant because before this point all that Spike knew was Ducky's family.
So when Spike befriends Tippy, a young member of the visiting spiketail herd, it's suggested that he spend more time with them.
Meanwhile, Ducky is torn between letting Spike go with the migrants once they leave or having him stay with her.
I won't give anything more away but I will say that this is yet another enjoyable entry in the series.
As mentioned, it's not as good as the previous one but it still manages to have much of the same charm and I like how, just as Stone of Cold Fire did with Petrie, it gives Ducky and Spike a chance to be in the spotlight and gives the viewer a chance to get a glimpse into their lives.
Mr. Thicknose is also very interesting, especially when he tells the story of his life.
It helps that he has the same voice actor as Rafiki from The Lion King.
But the highlight for me is simply adorable relationship shared by Ducky and Spike, who despite any differences seem like true siblings.