Alla ricerca della valle incantata 3 - Il mistero della sorgente

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.

If arguably marked by some heavy-handed and unsubtle writing, the first film of 1988 remains a modern classic that holds up well. The same can't quite be said of the first "direct to video" sequel of 1994, 'The Great Valley adventure'; enjoyable on its own merits, the flick is nevertheless one of unsophisticated flavor and fun more than earnest storytelling and substance like its elder. With Don Bluth out of the equation since the progenitor, and a cast and crew returning from 'The land before time II,' it's only reasonably to bear mixed to low expectations of 'The time of the Great Giving.' Still, there's always the chance that it could boast value of its own, so where does the third feature of the franchise actually stand? For better and for worse, it doesn't take long to discern that this is pretty well kith and kin with its immediate predecessor.

Right away we see the same strengths and weaknesses that characterized TLBT2. On the one hand, a tiny science lesson that's a tad forced, overly simplistic narration, gauche and childish songs, extra cutesy voice acting generally, and writing at large - characters, dialogue, story, and scenes - that are decidedly uncomplicated and straightforward, catering directly to the very, very youngest of viewers while favoring the conventional, tried and true, easy, and artless over heartfelt sincerity, drama, and complexity that may appeal to a wider audience of more ages (if not all ages). On the other hand, voice acting that is respectable in and of itself, a swell score, and terrific and detailed animation, including gorgeous backgrounds, lovely effects, and splendid characters designs and other active elements. There are, in fact, solid ideas in the story and scene writing as our core characters, young dinos Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike, find themselves getting involved in new adventures in and around the prehistoric haven of the Great Valley. I'll even admit that those songs that are undeniably outwardly gauche are kind of catchy.

We even see a wider variety of dinosaurs this time around, even if only in passing, and I'm pleased to note that, as the Great Valley faces hardship, to some degree the picture again touches upon the meaningful themes of prejudice that dominated the first installment. I'd even go so far as to say that overall the thematic foundations are unexpectedly strong - dealing with some notions that are all too real - and once again, there are tinges of mild humor to go along with the mild adventure and the mild drama. It's just unfortunate that in approaching that material, the title seems to have been shaped with a mind for relatively shallow entertainment over nuanced, impactful accentuation of the underlying concepts. In more recent years especially we've seen a boatload of family-friendly fare that respects kids' intelligence and refuses to reduce the more involved and elaborate thoughts on hand. 'The time of the Great Giving' does not necessarily fit into that category, and my issue is that it easily could have.

Nevertheless, no matter how much we may deign to critique the film, it's hardly as if it's bad. This was not molded in a manner that fully meets its potential, but all involved still turned in good work under those circumstances. It's a suitably good time, and we get at least some measure of what we came for. No, it's nothing that demands viewership, and it pales in comparison to the progenitor, but that doesn't mean it's altogether unworthy. Given its shortcomings 'The land before time III' won't stick in our memory after watching, but so long as you can abide such matters, then if you have the chance to check it out then it's good enough for something light.

The land before time III: The time of the great giving i think was a good movie. I like what i saw in the movie. The story is about Littlefoot and his pals when they get bullied by Hyp and co. Later on the water fromthe thundering falls stops giving water. Littlefoot and his pals travel to free the watch as the water was stuck with aload of branches/twigs etc: Hyp and co become friends with littlefoot and his friends when he is been rescued as he is gets sucked down in the water. I give this movie a score 8 out of 10.

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.

Genre: Animated film about dinosaurs and a major water catastrophe.

What happens: In the Great valley for the gang, there are TWO annoying problems (unfortunately, not one or none). There are three bully dinosaurs who are CONSTANTLY picking on the poor good dinosaurs and to top all the depression, the waterfall in the Great Valley has stopped flowing. Though the lovely gang (Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky Petrie and Spike) are sad and annoyed, they have a positive view as well over this mess and decide to work together to find water…

My thoughts: I like most of the L.B.T films. Unfortunately, this one is not at the top of my list for me. It is just too depressing! All the songs focus on some bad thing or other, unlike in all the films, where at least one focuses on just happiness! It also concentrates on the crisis of the film WAY too much for my liking. The music sticks to the depressing tune for 75% of the film, everyone is EXTRA grumpy because of the crisis and it's just too annoying! When there IS happiness, it feels deflated, like rather floppy balloon, it just isn't STRONG enough. Luckily, I prefer this film to "Land Before Time 11", which is my least favourite L.B.T, but this one is still not NEARLY as good as most of the others for me. I know lots of other people like it, but for me, it's just too depressing, too annoying, too deflated and too pessimistic. So there. I like the main characters of course. The new characters are not all that good, because they're bullies.

Recommended to: People who like the eleventh L.B.T, people who find all the other L.B.T's too happy and jolly and people who do not mind becoming a little too depressed by an animated film.