The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island

The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island

Directed by	Charles Grosvenor
Produced by	Charles Grosvenor Rocky Solotoff
Written by	John Loy
Starring	Jeff Bennett Aria Curzon Thomas Dekker Miriam Flynn John Ingle Brandon LaCroix Tress MacNeille Kenneth Mars Anndi McAfee Rob Paulsen Christina Pickles Cannon Young
Music by	Michael Tavera James Horner (music from The Land Before Time)
Distributed by	Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release date(s)	December 9, 1997
Running time	73 min.
Language	English
Preceded by	The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists (1996)
Followed by	The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998)
IMDb profile

Ratings
United States:	G

The Land Before Time V: The Mysterious Island (1997) is an animated film directed by Charles Grosvenor.

Plot summary

After a cloud of “Swarming Leaf Gobblers” (locusts) descends upon the Great Valley, devouring all plants and leaving it a barren wasteland, the inhabitants have no choice but to leave and seek for another place where they can survive until the plants in the Great Valley have grown back. However, the “Swarming Leaf Gobblers” have left a path of devastation behind them, leaving no food for the dinosaurs to find . After erring for days and days through this desolation, the herd quarrel and threaten to separate.

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike, not willing to let the grownups' decision separate them, set out by themselves in order to keep the grownups (who would follow their children) together and find enough food for all.

When after a long walk, during which they try to leave a distinct trail for the grownups, they are at the edge of giving up the endeavor, they finally reach something they have never seen before; the Big Water (ocean). Nearby, they discover a verdant island connected to the mainland by a very thin land bridge. While they are crossing the bridge, they are surprised by an earthquake that nearly drowns them and destroys most of the bridge, trapping the group on the island.

Unable to call the attention of their families, who have indeed followed the trail of the children to the beach, the children attempt to escape from the island on a floating log. This attempt fails, however, when a hungry Swimming Sharptooth (Megalodon) attacks. The kids barely make it back to the island. Littlefoot and the gang find a spot to sleep for the night.

The next morning, Littlefoot wakes up and sees the shadow of a Sharptooth. He wakes up the others; they flee, with the still unseeen Sharptooth chasing them. Soon they are cornered; however, the Sharptooth turns out to be Chomper, the Sharptooth they hatched in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure. Chomper assists in helping them hide from his parents, who also live on the island.

Despite all efforts of Chomper to hide his friends, make them feel comfortable, and provide them with green food (plants), Cera keeps a great distrust for Chomper and shows it openly. This grieves Chomper, who departs. Littlefoot follows to apologize, but they are interrupted by Chomper's mother. She nuzzles her son gently, ignoring Littlefoot (whom she presumes is prey, despite the total lack of any sauropod presence on the island). Littlefoot is amazed that Sharpteeth are capable of generating or experiencing Love.

Unaware of Chomper, his parents, or anybody else, another Sharptooth (thought to be a Giganotosaurus by some fans) has come to the island. He surprises the herbivores in their hiding place. A wild chase results, then ends at the edge of a cliff above the ocean, where the Sharptooth traps Littlefoot and his friends. At this moment Chomper, and soon after his parents, show up and begin a fierce fight with the Giganotosaurus. The fight ends when the foreign Sharptooth is knocked over the edge of the cliff by Chomper’s dad. While falling, the Giganotosaurus sweeps Chomper off the cliff and into Big Water. Firmly determined not to forsake his friend, Littlefoot jumps after him to save Chomper from drowning.

Both are rescued by friendly Elasmosaurus named Elsie, who sets Littlefoot and Chomper ashore. The herbivore children are at first frightened that Chomper's parents will eat them, but the sharpteeth are thankful for the rescue of their son, and therefore promise that no harm will be done to Littlefoot and his friends by them. Even under the Sharpteeth's protection, Littlefoot and the others are afraid to live on the island and never see their families again. Overhearing their trouble, Elsie offers to carry Littlefoot and the others over Big Water back to their families, an offer they gladly accept despite Chomper’s sadness about this decision.

Meanwhile, their families have found a lush, green place at the shore, where they may live until the Great Valley is regrown, at which time they return.

Voice cast

English voice cast

Jeff Bennett .... Petrie/Kosh
Aria Curzon .... Ducky
Thomas Dekker .... Littlefoot (singing voice)
Miriam Flynn .... Grandma Longneck
John Ingle .... Narrator/Cera's Dad
Brandon LaCroix .... Littlefoot
Tress MacNeille .... Ducky's Mother
Kenneth Mars .... Grandpa Longneck
Anndi McAfee .... Cera
Rob Paulsen .... Spike
Christina Pickles .... Elsie
Cannon Young .... Chomper
Frank Welker .... Sharptooth (uncredited)

Japanese voice cast

Note: The Japanese voice actors are appearing so far.

Songs

The songs are written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom. This is their second collaboration in the series.

Big Water
Always There
Friends for Dinner

Home video release history

December 9, 1997 (VHS and laserdisc)
December 1, 1998 (VHS and laserdisc, the last laserdisc release - Universal Family Features)
December 4, 2001 (VHS)
April 1, 2003 (DVD)
December 2, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 2) and 9 Movie Dino Pack)
February 1, 2005 (DVD - 2 Great Movies Featuring Chomper)

Trivia

The first film in the series directed by Charles Grosvenor.
The first in the series to include blood explicitly (the original Land Before Time did include a scene of Sharptooth shredding Littlefoot's mother's skin off in shadow form, with no explicit gore, and scenes of blood in injury may have been cut).
The second appearance of Chomper and his parents. So far, Chomper was the only guest character to reappear in a full role until Tria (Mo reappeared in The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration, but he was a cameo).
In this film, Chomper has long, three-fingered hands which he uses to grab with. But in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure, he has the usual short, two-clawed hand.
In this film, Chomper and his family are living on an island. In reality, it is unlikely that two predators this large (+ one baby) would be able to find enough prey to sustain themselves on an island like this.
Unlike the first film featuring him, Chomper is shown to be able to speak fluent "leaf-eater" (English). How he was able to speak so well when he only spent a very short time with Littlefoot and friends (and why they were not surprised by his ability to speak) is never given.
Some European releases of the film did not include subtitles in which Chomper has conversations with his parents (apart from closed captioning).
During the song Big Water, Cera sings "We wish the sun would fly up", even though the sun is usually referred to as the "bright circle". Similarly, despite the fact that the sea is referred to as "big water" in this film, Cera refers to it as a sea in the song "Friends for Dinner".
At the beginning of the film, a Sharptooth with the same coloring scheme is seen, apparently making a meal out of some plant eaters. A Sharptooth with Chomper's father's coloring pattern can be seen at the start of the Great Valley Adventure, where Chomper also appears. Whether or not this Sharptooth and Chomper's mother are the same is not known.
This was the first film in the series in which Anndi McAfee (Scott McAfee's sister) and Aria Curzon voiced Cera and Ducky.
This was the only time Brandon LaCroix voiced Littlefoot. Thomas Dekker portrayed Littlefoot's singing voice for the first time in this film. Thomas Dekker never portrayed Littlefoot's speaking voice until The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock.
A shorter version of Friends for Dinner was heard in an episode of The Land Before Time TV series. It features Ruby singing as well.^[1]
A shorter version of Big Water was heard in an episode of The Land Before Time TV series. It features Chomper, Ruby, and Mo singing as well since the song Big Water was played in this film before Chomper showed up again in this film. An even shorter version was sung in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water.^[2]
Ikue Ōtani, the Japanese voice of Chomper, is also the voice of Pikachu on Pokémon.
Rica Matsumoto, the Japanese voice of Cera, is also the Japanese voice of Ash Ketchum on Pokémon.
This was the first animated film to use the 1997-present Universal Studios logo at the beginning, but the logo contained cue music instead of original music by Jerry Goldsmith. It was also Universal's first direct-to-video film to use a Universal Studios logo in the United States and Canada; American and Canadian versions of Universal's previous direct-to-video films contained the 1991-2006 Universal Cartoon Studios logo replacing the 1990-1997 Universal Studios logo.
This was the first direct-to-video film to use the 1991-2006 Universal Cartoon Studios logo at the end, due to the 1997-present Universal Studios logo at the beginning.
Chomper's growl sounded more like a baby bear's growl.
This marked the only appearance of a Giganotosaurus.

References

^ View the TV series version here.
^ View the second film version here.

External links

The Land Before Time

Film series: The Land Before Time (1988) • The Great Valley Adventure (1994) • The Time of the Great Giving (1995) • Journey Through the Mists (1996) • The Mysterious Island (1997) • The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998) • The Stone of Cold Fire (2000) • The Big Freeze (2001) • Journey to Big Water (2002) • The Great Longneck Migration (2003) • Invasion of the Tinysauruses (2005) • The Great Day of the Flyers (2007) • The Wisdom of Friends (2007)
Characters: Littlefoot • Cera • Ducky • Petrie • Spike • Chomper • Ruby • Mr. Thicknose • Sharptooth • List of characters
Miscellaneous: The Land Before Time TV series • List of voice actors • List of songs

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