The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure (1994)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I liked the original Land Before Time and I considered it as one of Don Bluth's best films in the 1980s along with Anastasia (1997). I saw this and the rest of the sequels as a child and I liked them, but in terms of having been grown up as a young adult (I'm 18 this year), I think that some of them were decent (with TOTGG, SOSR, SOCF, and GLM as the best) and some that are awful (IOTT and TWOF) and this one is also good, but not as great as the original was.I'll get to the negatives. The story's predictable and lacked heart at it's best. The dialog is quite unnecessary and the songs are extremely forgettable (with Eggs as the exception, that was pretty good). There's also the fact that it's quite short.However, it does have some nice animation despite it's average editing and some of the characters are likable enough. I also liked listening to the same music from the original and has some of the best peril ever with it's moments with the sharp-teeth. Ozzy and Strut, although not the greatest villains, are decent and funny at the same time. The main characters were good, especially Ducky, but the only character that I liked the most was Chomper because he was so adorable and the part where he and Littlefoot say goodbye to each other was so touching.Overall, despite it's lack of heart to the original and it's predictable story, The Land Before Time II is a very decent sequel to a classic from the late 80s. I'm sure kids will like it, but for others, stick to the original.

Along with "The Time of the Great Giving", "The Great Valley Adventure" is one of the better sequels. As a sequel it is decent, but the original which is a timeless, haunting and poignant masterpiece will always be the best. The film does have its problems; it is too short, I did find the songs forgettable (with the exception of "Eggs"-that was catchy), the dialogue uninspired and the plot meandering in places. Consequently it lacks the heart of its predecessor. However, there is some nice colourful animation and above average editing, and it was a delight hearing the heart-rending main theme from the original again. This is definitely the Land Before Time sequel with the best peril, with the sharp teeth quite sinister sometimes. The main villains, called Ozzy and Strut are quite likable and very funny. When I first saw this when I was little I actually thought Tim Curry voiced Ozzy, there are parts when he sounds like him. Actually it was Jeff Benett and he did a great job with the voice, I barely recognised him. The voice acting was very good, with Heather Hogan delightful as Ducky(if somewhat lacking the innocence and vulnerability of Judith Barsi) and Kenneth Mars dignified as Grandpa. The best asset of this sequel though was Chomper, he is absolutely adorable and by far the best character of the movie and possibly the cutest supporting character in any of the sequels put together. The part when he and Littlefoot say goodbye at the end was the closest I came to crying, and I did genuinely have tears welling up at that bit. Overall, while lacking the heart and charm of its predecessor, it is a decent sequel and easily one of the better sequels of the Land Before Time franchise. 6/10 Bethany Cox

After the original classic animated film "The Last Before Time", there came many direct-to-video release sequels with which the original director and animation crew had no relation with. A lot of the sequels, and there are many of them, are not all that good, especially not when compared to the original. The original "Land Before Time" showed the dinosaur world as being tough and frightening even to viewers. The sequels are not so frightening or tough, less violent, and are notorious for their reaching out to really young children audiences with their singalong songs. And the first of the sequels, being this film, is a bit like that.I have only recently seen this film for the first time in years. I had seen a few of the later sequels before this and was very unimpressed. But the first sequels is by far, much better than those that followed. It sticks the closest to the original film's style and although nowhere near as good, is still a fine family film. This is the one sequel in the series I think the whole family will enjoy.This one also has the best peril in it, making the tyrannosauruses (called sharp teeth) a lot more frightening and compelling villains than those that followed. And unlike the later sharp teeth, who mostly just growled, these ones roar like the original Sharptooth, the antagonist from the first film. And they are more violent and frightening and thus, more convincing. The other villains are a pair of egg-stealing struthiomimuses named Ozzy and Strut who are bumbling villains just trying to find lunch, but keep missing their meals. Ozzy and Strut are actually very comical and somewhat likable villains, even though they aren't nice guys. And in fact, their song "Eggs" is the only song in the entire series that I find catchy.The film also retains the qualities and characteristics of the character the best. They are more serious in the first sequel than the later ones. True, they do sing annoying songs, but are still shown struggling to grow up and mature in life and prove that they believe they can take care of themselves, very much like the audience members who primarily watch movies like this. But Littlefoot is still the most cautious, Cera the strongest, and so on and so forth. The character of Chomper was a fine addition to the cast and thankfully, he doesn't talk like he would in later sequels.Bottom line, out of all the notoriously bad sequels that followed the original "Land Before Time", the second one "The Great Valley Adventure" is by far, the best out of them all. And it's not all that bad really. I actually found it to be quite entertaining in its own way. So this one I can recommend. But those that followed after this one, I can't really speak as highly of.

Why doesn't the movie industry learn to leave a good thing alone? Why must they force out sequel after sequel (and each one is progressively worse)? It completely ruined the effect of the first movie when this and the sequels came out. The kids I baysit want to know why Littlefoot and the others don't sing in the first one, and keep pointing out where they think songs should go. I've had one kid insist they should redo the movie, since there are no songs. Really...singing dinosaurs? Why is this necessary?