In einem Land vor unserer Zeit III: Die Zeit der großen Gabe

Shortly after the Great Valley experiences an event with "Flying rocks" (Meteorites), the Valley finds itself in a state of drought when the Thundering Falls that supplies the Great Valley with water suddenly stops. While the valley is dealing with tensions among the grown ups related to water/resource rationing, Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, and Spike are dealing with their own issues as they've become targets for Hyp the Hypsilophodon, Mutt the Muttaburrasaurus, and Nod the Nodosaurus, a trio of bullies who delight in antagonizing and threatening the group.

The Land Before Time III is yet another entry in the lucrative direct to video series spawned from the Don Bluth film, Land Before Time. The film is basically at more or less the same level as the previous one with animation provided by Universal's TV unit Universal Cartoon Studios. This time around the movie tries to be "edutainment" with plots involving resource conservation, dealing with bullying, and even fire safety. As is, Land Before Time III is perfectly serviceable.

The movie is what it is, a slice of life story (more or less) built around dinosaurs to try and teach life lessons. It's not particularly subtle about it, but it's not overly pandering either (except for maybe the song "Kids like us" that goes maybe a little too saccharine). There's an attempt at trying to breakdown and understand bullies by looking at lead bully, Hyp's, interactions with his father, but it comes so late into the movie it feels more like an afterthought. The titular "Great Giving" a thanks giving analog is basically a throwaway line of narration towards the end of the movie and feels like it was just put there as an excuse for the title.

The Land Before Time III is exactly what it is, a harmless slightly over an hour kids movie designed to keep your kids distracted with bright colors and songs for about an hour while you do something else in another room. It's well intentioned enough I suppose and there's nothing objectively wrong with it for what it is. Take it for what you will.

This film's main fault is that the share and care theme is laid on rather thick. When the Valley's water supply is blocked, our young heroes search for a new source. They are hindered by a trio of bullies and a pack of hungry raptors, as well as the unreasonableness of parents. The songs are okay, if forgettable. The raptors are well worth seeing. In spite of the preachy tone of some dialogue and narration, regular fans will not be disappointed.

First of all, I do think it is an improvement on Land Before Time 2, which was passable, but lacked heart, which was what made the original so poignant. The Time of the Great Giving is probably the best of the countless sequels that border from good to unwatchable, but suffers from being too preachy at times. The animation is surprisingly good, but isn't quite true to the style of animation in the original. In most scenes it had some lovely colours, but had some flat backgrounds in others. The incidental music by Michael Tavera was excellent, especially the Firebird-like music in the fire scene. It was nice to hear the heart-rending main theme from the original, but whereas in the original it made me weep buckets, it didn't have an effect on me here. The songs are okay, Kids Like Us being the best one, and Littlefoot's singing voice is for once pretty decent, but the other two songs When You're Big and When You're Standing Tough came across as rather unmelodious. The story is a very nice idea, about the values of friendship, survival and sticking together. There is also some nice dialogue, but the film further suffers from being too short and being devoid of any real emotion. I will say that the voice talents were very impressive. Ducky is still funny, with similar dialogue we associate her with from the original, though it doesn't quite feel the same without the sweetness and vulnerability of the original voice actress, the late Judith Barsi. Scott McAfee is decent as Littlefoot, and I liked Linda Gary and Kenneth Mars as the grandparents. However, in correlation to the original, John Ingle's narration, as nice as it was, was somewhat unnecessary, but I was more impressed with his gruff characterisation of Cera's father. All in all, a surprisingly good sequel, though it doesn't surpass the first and the finest. 6/10 Bethany Cox.

Meteorites hit all around the Great Valley. A big one lands just outside and the water source gets cut off. The social order deteriorates as the water level declines. While running away from bullies, Littlefoot and the gang stumble upon the river blockage.

This is a straight to video sequel. I like the environmental storyline. It's better than the previous sequel. The kids get to be the heroes. It's all very standard writing. The songs are not my favorite but most aren't anyways. I like this.

The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving of course is the third installment into the Land Before Time story. When I got the opportunity to see all the sequels, I definitely took up on it, even though these sequels are given such a hard time, I'm still curious what they were about. I do love just a nice little family movie every once in a while, something light hearted and an occasional laugh. Now the second Land Before Time movie wasn't as bad as I was expecting, so I went into the third installment with good hope. Now it's definitely to as good as the first or second Land Before Time, but it's still enjoyable and something that I'm sure your kids will enjoy.

Littlefoot and his friends are constantly being bullied and browbeaten by three teenage dinosaurs: Hyp, Nod, and Mutt. However, when a shower of meteorites impacts near the Great Valley and causes a rock slide in the Mysterious Beyond, which blocks the water supply of the Great Valley, Hyp, Nod, and Mutt are no longer the biggest worry of Littlefoot and his friends. The increasing lack of water causes conflicts between the inhabitants of the Great Valley, who have lived in relative peace and harmony until this event. When the interspecies situation becomes worse and worse, Littlefoot and the others set out to find water, to keep the peace in the Great Valley. They are pursued by Hyp and his friends. When Littlefoot and the others find a small lake, the teenagers emerge and claim the waterhole for themselves, demanding that Littlefoot and the others keep silent about their discovery. Unwilling to comply, Littlefoot and the others flee from the bullies and during the following pursuit discover the reason for the blockage of the Great Valley's water source. Before they can return and tell the other Valley inhabitants the truth, a lightning strike ignites a wildfire that spreads rapidly through the dried Valley. The dinosaurs barely make it to safety at the edge of the Mysterious Beyond while the fire ravages their home. When the protagonists tell the other dinosaurs of their discovery of the water's being blocked in the Mysterious Beyond by the rock slide, disunity about what to do prevents the adult dinosaurs from doing anything to utilize this knowledge. Hyp, Mutt, and Nod set out into the Mysterious Beyond on their own to get to the water first. But Littlefoot and his friends are on their tails to find a way for them to share the water with the rest of the Valley.

Over all The Land Before Time III: The Time of the Great Giving is a good movie, it's worth the watch for the kids, but is made more so for them rather than the adults to join in on it as well, but it's all good. Littlefoot and his friends are still a joy to watch on the screen as they get into these new adventures. So far these sequels are really not as bad as everyone says they are so I am looking forward to watching the fourth installment of the Land Before Time series, they're cute for the kids.

5/10