The Land Before Time

I recently received an email with the following photo:

Which caused me to look up the wiki page for the series.

I don’t remember how old I was when I saw the first Land Before Time movie, but I remember it being one of my favorite movies. In fact, the first few movies were favorites.

I don’t even know what it was about the series that made me like it so much. Hell, I don’t fully remember everything that happened. I remember certain key moments, but the full storyline and all of the other movies is absent from my mind.

I’m sure the VHS tape is damaged due to a number of reasons: I watched the movie more than any other child should have, probably didn’t exactly store it properly, and VHS isn’t exactly the most robust medium when it comes to kids handling them.

Thinking about the movie reminded me of how a few years ago someone had referred to Big Hero 6 as a ‘children’s movie’.

The labeling ‘children’s movie’ is something that I don’t quite get. Most children have a short attention span and way less than the 60 minutes or so that most ‘children’s movies’ are in length.

Maybe I’m being defensive because I enjoy many movies that happen to have an audience consisting of children with their parents. I think there’s a certain sort of inspiration that these movies/cartoons/films provide and it’s usually very uplifting, there’s almost always some hidden meanings, and sometimes the graphics are truly spectacular.

They have various levels of violence, usually don’t involve massive guns, sex scenes / vulgar wording, but the last I checked, none of these components by themselves make a movie. A movie is made by the story being told. The artifacts, characters, actions, etc that connect and play out the story are merely parts of the storytelling. I think that there are ways that films/movies are geared for a specific audience, but I don’t feel like my age is something that should bar me from enjoying a movie that is ‘kid friendly’.

At any rate, I just felt like sharing a few thoughts. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion as to what movies are appropriate for whichever audiences, but at the end of the day, those who enjoy a storyline, wether it’s written for age 6 or 60, is the one that comes out ahead of those who would rather spend time arguing their opinion of a movie.