Le Petit Dinosaure: La légende du mont Saurus

I have enjoyed watching this film with my 5-year old daughter many times. The typical hokey references to evolution are overshadowed by a good story line, memorable scenes and pleasant characters. Doc (Kris Kristofferson), the Lone Dinosaur, is a real treat.

This film may not have the exact same charm and originality from the first Land Before Time, but all-in-all, this is an even better sequel than the previous films and even surpasses "The Time of the Great Giving" as the best of the series.

Sure, the story's episodic, although the lesson about responsibility was very nice to educate the young, and the dialog may felt clunky at times, but there are some redeeming qualities that make this worth watching. The animation is very decent and the backgrounds are really nice. The songs, although not memorable, are very pleasant to listen to especially the song "Lone Dinosaur" and "Bad Luck". The reused music from the original is great and the pacing moves along very briskly.

The characters are still very decent as is Cera's baby twins Dana and Dinah and boy were they so adorable you just want to pinch those cheeks of theirs. The strongest aspect is the voice acting with Kris Kristofferson's greatest cameo as Doc, the lone dinosaur.

Overall, not excellent, but still a very watchable sequel to the series. Thumbs up!

Up until now this series has been suffering from the 'odd-numbered sequel good, even-membered sequel bad' syndrome and so I approached this latest entry with caution. I needn't have worried. This is a well-made, entertaining and memorable film which will appeal to people of all ages. The Lone Dinosaur (based on the Lone Ranger) is a particularly good character and the dream sequences add a surreal edge to the film. A must-see.

I don't think it is the best LBT sequel, but it is nice to watch, and I do recommend it for kids. It is too short though so you don't feel the emotional attachment you get from watching the first film, the dialogue is mostly uninspiring(this is from a more adult perspective, but I am sure kids will overlook this) and the story is quite simplistic. However the animation is good, with nice colours and decent editing. The music is lovely, and the songs while not memorable are pleasant. The twin baby dinosaurs Dana and Dina are adorable, and the voice acting is solid. All in all, this is a decent sequel, definitely one of the more watchable sequels of the franchise. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky Petrie, and Spike listen to Grandpa Longneck's stories of a heroic longneck known as The Lone Dinosaur who heroicly and selflessly protected those at the mercy of Sharpteeth. The story ends with the Lone Dinosaur leaving as mysteriously as he came and a Longneck shaped rock appearing during in earthquake that they name Saurus Rock, along with a legend stating that should anything happen to it a curse of bad luck will descend upon the Great Valley. Littlefoot becomes fascinated with the Lone Dinosaur legends, even acting them out with his friends, only to find the sudden appearance of a soft spoken Dinosaur named Doc who bares a striking resemblance to the Lone Dinosaur.

The Land Before Time: The Secret of Saurus Rock marks the sixth entry in the direct to video film series and the last to use traditional cell animation before all Universal Home Video exclusives switched to digital ink and paint. The movie continues with the Charles Grosvenor era of Land Before Time sequels going for more high concept premises than the relatively grounded "lesson based" affairs of the Roy Allen Smith entries. This time Grosvenor along with writers Libby Hinson and John Hoy, give us a very odd sequel with western hero subtext.

When we are introduced into the movie by Grandpa Longneck's story (with an amusing sight of the group gathered around a volcanic vent as if it were a camp fire that was mildly amusing) the amount of western references in the story is enough to make your head spin. Not only do we have the rather obvious parallel between Lone Dinosaur and Lone Ranger, but the story even ends with a reference to the Alan Ladd movie Shane. Even Doc who may or may not be the Lone Dinosaur (the movie never makes it clear if he is or not) is voiced by Kris Kristofferson who plays the "man of few words" trope to a "T".

There's sort of an endearing cheesiness to Secret of Saurus Rock with its on the nose western themes (including a song Little Foot sings that's reminiscent of singing cowboy movies) that it's honestly kind of hard not to crack a smile. The rest of the movie is pretty standard land before time stakes involving a macgruffin that needs to be chased, retrieved, or etc and encounters with various hazards and obstacles. The one draw back is a pair of obnoxiously high pitched baby three-horns, Dana and DInah (confusingly identified as Cera's nieces since Cera calls herself "Auntie Cera") who are basically chaos engines designed to get in trouble and spout gibberish.

Land Before Time VI continues the franchise for better or worse. It's a decent enough movie for kids as far as children's direct to video films go.