The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure

The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure is a film in the The Land Before Time series. It is the first of many animated sequels to the original film, The Land Before Time. It was released direct-to-video on December 13, 1994; six years after the theatrical release of the first. After this sequel's release, all the films in the series have been released at a rate of one film every one or two years.
The Great Valley Adventure focuses on the experiences of the characters Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike, after they have arrived in the Great Valley. The characters feel frustrated by their parent's attentiveness, and decide to temporarily run away from home. They encounter dinosaurs who feed off of eggs, after a mishap involving a kidnapped egg, end up accidentally taking the egg of a Sharptooth to the Great Valley where it hatches. The tone, lighting and plot of the film was made much softer than that of the original, in order to appeal to a younger audience.
The film's reviews were considerably set back, when compared to the critical reaction to the original The Land Before Time. Still, most of the critics believed The Great Valley Adventure to be good for young children. Perhaps in part due to the popularity of the character Chomper, this movie has been released to VHS, laserdisc and DVD many times over since its original 1994 video release. To this day it is considered by all if not by most fans to one of the best The Land Before Time sequels of its time.
== Plot ==
The children have made it to the Great Valley, and are living a peaceful and playful life under the watch of their families. However, they eventually decide that they don't want to be treated like helpless hatchlings any longer, and try to prove themselves independent by temporarily running away into the Mysterious Beyond.
Meanwhile, two egg nappers named Ozzy & Strut have shown up in the Great Valley, and have stolen an egg from Ducky's nest. The gang find this out, and chase them into the Mysterious Beyond, where a landslide occurs during the pursuit. Both parties remain relatively unharmed, but Littlefoot fears the egg got smashed. Ducky starts to cry, until she notices the egg in tact - and larger than before. The five work together to bring it home again, but find that it was there all along.
They stand around it, waiting for it to hatch and planning how they will take care of it. When it hatches, they run away in fear upon realising that the egg contained a baby sharptooth. Littlefoot gets hurled back to the infant when he runs into a vine in the forest, and he realises the baby isn't so dangerous after all. He names him Chomper because of the noise he makes when eating the dragonflies he catches, and heads off for a moment to ask his grandparents how to look after a baby.
As he is continuing to teach Chomper how to function, the others get attacked by Ozzy and Strut, who are angry at them for interrupting their dinner the night before. Littlefoot hears their cries, and runs to help, while Chomper follows. Chomper's shadow makes him appear like a large sharptooth, which scares the egg nappers off. Everyone else then sees that he's nice, and welcome him into the Great Valley - until he bites Cera's tail out of instinct. Cera then dismisses him, but Littlefoot tries to direct him on the right path and explains that that's not allowed in the Great Valley. He feels hurt, and heads off to one of the smoking mountains, where he chases more dragonflies. The others try to get him down from there, while Ozzy and Strut are trying to get an egg from a flyer's nest. The children's voices alert the mother, who scares the duo off. Fed up this time, they try once more to harm the children, and find out that Chomper's a baby.
Just then, two adult sharpteeth show up and enter the Great Valley by means of an opening caused by the landslide. Everyone in the valley is alarmed, and a local battle breaks out, with even the children participating somewhat. The sharpteeth are defeated, and the adults question how they got in. Cera then explains what happened the night before, and they go off to fill up the entrance; telling the kids to stay behind.
Littlefoot remembers Chomper, and runs off to find him. When he does, the lighter coloured sharptooth (the female) comes and attacks them. As they are running, Littlefoot falls into a rotten log acting as a bridge along a canyon, and gets his leg stuck. Both sharpteeth show up then, and when Chomper roars at them, they realise who he is - their son. A lot of nuzzling and licking ensues, and the family then walk off together. Littlefoot, once out of the log, however, gets caught by the egg nappers, who then take him to a cliff to throw him off. Chomper and his parents come along, when they hear Littlefoot's cries, and chase Ozzy and Strut into the Mysterious Beyond.
Back at the opening, the children get to be present, and Littlefoot even gets the honor of flinging a large stone at several loose rocks on a ledge up above. As the rocks fall down, covering up the hole, the herd returns home and resumes their peaceful life in the Great Valley. Littlefoot then realises that being young is not so bad after all, but decides he still looks forward to growing up.
== Cast ==
Candace Hutson, in the role of Cera, is the only voice actor from the original The Land Before Time to resume her role for the sequels, with Gabriel Damon (Littlefoot) replaced by Scott McAfee, Judith Barsi (Ducky) replaced by Heather Hogan, Will Ryan (Petrie) replaced by Jeff Bennett, Pat Hingle (The narrator) replaced by John Ingle, Burke Burnes (Mr. Threehorn) replaced by John Ingle, and Bill Erwin (Grandpa Longneck) replaced by Kenneth Mars.
# Scott McAfee as Littlefoot
# Candace Hutson as Cera
# Heather Hogan as Ducky
# Jeff Bennett as Petrie/Ozzy
# Rob Paulsen as Spike/Strut/Chomper
# Linda Gary as Grandma Longneck
# Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck
# John Ingle as the Narrator/Topsy
# Tress MacNeille as Mama Swimmer/Mama Flyer/Mother Maiasaura
# Frank Welker as Papa Sharptooth/Mama Sharptooth
== Music ==
The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure was the first of the movies in the Land Before Time franchise to feature a musical element. Since then, every one of the movies has featured at least three lyrical songs, with some containing four.
=== Songs ===
The songs are written by The Roches.
# Peaceful Valley
# Eggs
# You're One of Us Now
=== Soundtrack ===
# Genesis C
# If We Hold On Together (instrumental)
# Bedtime
# Sharptooth Encounter (Original)
# Sharptooth and the Earthquake
# Whispering Winds
# The Rescue
# Ozzy & Strut
# The Valley
== Trivia ==
# In the Japanese version of this film, Chomper's voice is provided by Ikue Ōtani, the voice of Pikachu on Pokémon.
# A verse from the opening song states "We finally found a peaceful valley and everyone's having a good time now!" This indicates that this film takes place only a short time after the first film. That may or may not indicate that the creeping Egg-stealer/Struthiomimus seen in the end credits of The Land Before Time is Ozzy.
# Because Chomper is so young, the film's creators can get away with a bit more violence with him than with other Sharpteeth. Chomper is so far the only Sharptooth allowed to eat on-screen (a dragonfly in this film), and is the only Sharptooth to have directly injured one of the original five (when he bites Cera).
# This was the first time Spike "sings"; his lips can be seen moving during You're One of Us Now.
# Chomper has several speaking roles in this film; as Littlefoot tells him to get ready to pull the vine to knock down a Sharptooth, he says "Okay". He also says "Huh" several times during the film. In the scene where Chomper bites Cera, he makes a sound similar to "What did I do?" after Littlefoot calls him off.
# In the song "Eggs", Ozzy refers to himself as a Struthiomimus, the scientific name of his species; whereas in the Land Before Time films and TV series, this species and others similar are usually referred to as "egg stealers", "egg nappers", or "claw-hands".
# Also, one verse of Peaceful Valley, in the end/credits, has the word "sun" in it, where in all other references to the sun the use the words "Bright Circle". The beginning of the song has the word cloud in it, where in all other references to clouds use the words "Sky Puffies". Finally, the word "dreams" is used twice in the song, although the characters usually refer to dreams as "Sleep Stories."
# The opening sequence depicts asteroids and meteoroids impacting the Moon during the time of the dinosaurs. In reality, the Late Heavy Bombardment Period (the time in history when a majority of lunar craters were formed) occurred 4-3.8 billion years ago.
== Goofs ==
# Sometimes the characters' color scheme gets lightther and then returns to its normal darker shade in the next shot.
## One example of this is when Grandpa Longneck says "The Valley is a wonderful place to grow up."—the folds of skin underneath his eyes are dark grey, much like the rest of his skin color. In the next shot, the folds go back to their regular dark navy blue color.
# When Petrie's mom goes to distract the female Sharptooth,she has the same color scheme as her son,but in the next shot she's back to blue.
# In one scene when the gang is looking for Chomper,if you pay enough attention you'll see Littlefoot is walking on mid-air.
== Character debuts ==
# Characters who make a reappearance:
## Chomper
## Chomper's parents
# One-off characters
## Ozzy and Strut
# Species introduced in this movie:
## Kuehneosaurus
## Brachiosaurus
## Plateosaurus
## Edmontonia
## Struthiomimus
## Maiasaura
## Nothosaurus
## Euoplocephalus
## Scutosaurus
## Moschops
## Palaeobatrachus
Category:1994 films
Category:The Land Before Time
Category:Direct-to-video sequel films
Category:Universal Pictures
Category:Universal Animation
Category:Film scores by Michael Tavera
Category:Film scores by James Horner
Category:Films about dinosaurs
Category:1994
Category:Animated films
Category:G-rated films
Category:BBFC U-rated films
Category:Universal Animation Studios animated films
Category:Films directed by Roy Allen Smith
Category:Direct-to-Video Movies
Category:Films starring Jeff Bennett
Category:Films starring Rob Paulsen
Category:Films starring Tress MacNeille
Category:Universal Animation Studios