*This review contains spoilers*
No need to adjust your trifocals, this site is correct in reporting that they really have made EIGHT of these `Land Before Time' movies. And I am sorry to report that I have watched them all. They are going to be making these things for about as long as the Mesozoic Period lasted. While almost all of the LBT movies are derivative and lousy, I did like the schmaltzy Part II and I thought Part VII was a very good entry. I watched Part VIII with the idea that, since it is hot off the heels of a good entry, it will be just as pleasing. Sure the rest stunk, but none of those have been THAT bad. Until now. `The Big Freeze' is hands down the worst entry in the entire LBT series.
In the plot, a natural catastrophe befalls The Great Valley, which leaves the adult dinosaurs squabbling as to how to handle the situation. The young dinosaurs leave the valley to search for their own solution, solve the conflict, and return to The Great Valley to enlighten the adults as to how wrong they have been. What's that you say? You say I just described the plot to EVERY `Land Before Time' film? Well, of course I did, because they just reuse the same plot over and over again, changing the catastrophe and sometimes adding in an extra character. This time, the disaster is a sudden and temporary drop in temperature. At first the dinosaurs are thrilled by the snow, but when the coldness causes a food shortage, the adults begin to worry. Meanwhile, a pack of wandering stegosauruses asks Spike's adoptive mother if Spike can join them. She lets Spike decide, and he goes with them after being egged on by Ducky. Soon after, Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Cera decide to go bring Spike back home. They are accompanied by Mr. Thicknose (voiced by Robert Guillaume), a stegosaur that is the oldest dinosaur in the valley and acts as the kids' teacher, though he knows very little about what is outside the valley. Before you can say, `Been there, done that,' the movie is over. And mercifully so. Sure, this plot doesn't sound very bad, and it really isn't, but `The Big Freeze' crossed the line for this reviewer too many times.
It's a given that any movie about dinosaurs is going to deliberately mess with the facts. Most notably, the fact that many dinosaurs seen together in movies lived millions of years apart from one another. But that is to be expected and ultimately accepted. But what about the other goofy things that happen? Cartoon films, particularly this series, always defy laws of science, but do they have to go this far? For instance, there is no way a dinosaur could stand the frigid temperatures for very long any more than today's surviving reptiles can without hibernation. Furthermore, there is a scene where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is clobbered by a rolling snowball, something which couldn't have gotten big enough to do much damage in the brief time it was rolling down the hill. These are forgivable, but there was one event in the end where I lost it. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! They come across a frozen lake and the babies step on the ice. Then Thicknose steps on it. He makes it a little ways and them flops down. Considering Thicknose must weigh many tons, you wonder why the ice slowly cracks instead of immediately caving in? Sillier yet, the water under it turns out to be a hot springs. How can ice form on hot water? Even sillier than that, it is revealed that the springs have given life to a lot of green plants that all the dinosaurs from The Great Valley can eat until the weather warms up. Yet when you get a wide shot of the entire area, there is hardly a green plant to be seen! END OF MAJOR SPOILERS
These nitpicks may have made me hate the movie, but they aren't the only things. Keeping with the LBT tradition, `The Big Freeze' harbors a handful of really lame songs that will certainly not have the kids singing along. In one annoying song, Cera sings to Ducky that it is okay to be angry. This could send the wrong message to children, who may not figure out by the film's end that the anger Ducky had was not right at all. There is also a song that Thicknose belts out near the end about learning. Listen closely to the actual words Thicknose sings. These are good lines which would have been excellent in dialogue, but instead the words are forgotten in the context of a poor song. What a shame that the best lines are given the worst delivery.
I suppose it may seem like I am being too harsh, but really, there was no need for this gut-wrenching entry. It exemplifies everything that makes this series lackluster. When the ninth entry is inevitably made, I hope it learns from Part VIII what not to do. But since they haven't figured it out by now, they probably never will. Zantara's score: 2 out of 10.
No need to adjust your trifocals, this site is correct in reporting that they really have made EIGHT of these `Land Before Time' movies. And I am sorry to report that I have watched them all. They are going to be making these things for about as long as the Mesozoic Period lasted. While almost all of the LBT movies are derivative and lousy, I did like the schmaltzy Part II and I thought Part VII was a very good entry. I watched Part VIII with the idea that, since it is hot off the heels of a good entry, it will be just as pleasing. Sure the rest stunk, but none of those have been THAT bad. Until now. `The Big Freeze' is hands down the worst entry in the entire LBT series.
In the plot, a natural catastrophe befalls The Great Valley, which leaves the adult dinosaurs squabbling as to how to handle the situation. The young dinosaurs leave the valley to search for their own solution, solve the conflict, and return to The Great Valley to enlighten the adults as to how wrong they have been. What's that you say? You say I just described the plot to EVERY `Land Before Time' film? Well, of course I did, because they just reuse the same plot over and over again, changing the catastrophe and sometimes adding in an extra character. This time, the disaster is a sudden and temporary drop in temperature. At first the dinosaurs are thrilled by the snow, but when the coldness causes a food shortage, the adults begin to worry. Meanwhile, a pack of wandering stegosauruses asks Spike's adoptive mother if Spike can join them. She lets Spike decide, and he goes with them after being egged on by Ducky. Soon after, Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, and Cera decide to go bring Spike back home. They are accompanied by Mr. Thicknose (voiced by Robert Guillaume), a stegosaur that is the oldest dinosaur in the valley and acts as the kids' teacher, though he knows very little about what is outside the valley. Before you can say, `Been there, done that,' the movie is over. And mercifully so. Sure, this plot doesn't sound very bad, and it really isn't, but `The Big Freeze' crossed the line for this reviewer too many times.
It's a given that any movie about dinosaurs is going to deliberately mess with the facts. Most notably, the fact that many dinosaurs seen together in movies lived millions of years apart from one another. But that is to be expected and ultimately accepted. But what about the other goofy things that happen? Cartoon films, particularly this series, always defy laws of science, but do they have to go this far? For instance, there is no way a dinosaur could stand the frigid temperatures for very long any more than today's surviving reptiles can without hibernation. Furthermore, there is a scene where a Tyrannosaurus Rex is clobbered by a rolling snowball, something which couldn't have gotten big enough to do much damage in the brief time it was rolling down the hill. These are forgivable, but there was one event in the end where I lost it. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! They come across a frozen lake and the babies step on the ice. Then Thicknose steps on it. He makes it a little ways and them flops down. Considering Thicknose must weigh many tons, you wonder why the ice slowly cracks instead of immediately caving in? Sillier yet, the water under it turns out to be a hot springs. How can ice form on hot water? Even sillier than that, it is revealed that the springs have given life to a lot of green plants that all the dinosaurs from The Great Valley can eat until the weather warms up. Yet when you get a wide shot of the entire area, there is hardly a green plant to be seen! END OF MAJOR SPOILERS
These nitpicks may have made me hate the movie, but they aren't the only things. Keeping with the LBT tradition, `The Big Freeze' harbors a handful of really lame songs that will certainly not have the kids singing along. In one annoying song, Cera sings to Ducky that it is okay to be angry. This could send the wrong message to children, who may not figure out by the film's end that the anger Ducky had was not right at all. There is also a song that Thicknose belts out near the end about learning. Listen closely to the actual words Thicknose sings. These are good lines which would have been excellent in dialogue, but instead the words are forgotten in the context of a poor song. What a shame that the best lines are given the worst delivery.
I suppose it may seem like I am being too harsh, but really, there was no need for this gut-wrenching entry. It exemplifies everything that makes this series lackluster. When the ninth entry is inevitably made, I hope it learns from Part VIII what not to do. But since they haven't figured it out by now, they probably never will. Zantara's score: 2 out of 10.