History YMMV / Thelandbeforetime

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Believe it or not, some songs in this series aren't just stomachable, but enjoyable! The touching "No One Has To Be Alone" is a good example. There are several big tearjerkers, most notably "Always There".

** The Plated Sharptooth (a ''Giganotosaurus''), despite his limited screentime, has left quite an impression on the fandom, for being an utterly terrifying KnightOfCerebus that could give the original [[MemeticBadass Sharptooth]] a run for his money. He cements his badass credentials by holding his own while fighting two T. rex.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Cera's immediate dislike of Ali in ''Journey Through The Mists'' comes across this way. Is she just upset about Littlefoot having a new friend outside of the group because she's worried Littlefoot will stop hanging out with them in favor of Ali? Or is she jealous of Littlefoot hanging out with a new female dinosaur? None of the other kids have a problem with Ali and want to invite her to play with them; it's only Cera who shows hostility towards her.
* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: In ''Journey Through The Mists'', Ichy sings to Dil "I need you like a sock on the nose!" This was presumably a slang term for being punched on his nose, but some thought he meant ''wearing a sock'' on his nose, which would be a blatant anachronism for the setting.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** Believe it or not, some songs in this series aren't just stomachable, but enjoyable! The touching "No One Has To Be Alone" is a good example. There are several big tearjerkers, most notably "Always There".
** In ''Journey Through The Mists,'' Littlefoot's grandmother sings a genuinely lovely and bittersweet solo song, titled simply "Grandma's Lullaby," about the circle of life and its many ends and beginnings to try to help Littlefoot understand and cope with his grandfather falling deathly ill. The fact that it's Littlefoot's maternal grandmother singing it [[OutlivingOnesOffspring makes it even more poignant]].

* DesignatedHero: Old One is supposedly a wise leader to be admired, but really comes across as a {{Jerkass}} who isn't willing to do what it takes to save a dying fellow longneck.

** Dil tries to eat the heroes, yes, but she has to since she's a carnivore and is generally the nicer of the BigBadDuumvirate (for example, she [[PetTheDog apologizes to Icky]] when she accidentally eats him.) Since all Icky gets as comeuppance is getting tail-whipped over the horizon, Dil getting [[ExitPursuedByABear chased and presumably killed offscreen by a plesiosaur]] seems like KarmicOverkill.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: The first movie has Littlefoot's mom getting a chunk of flesh bitten off of her by Sharptooth (it would've been more frightening without the ShadowDiscretionShot), the mega-quake that split Pangaea, and at one point, the heroes get stuck in a tar pit.

** Believe it or not, some songs in this series aren't just stomachable, but enjoyable! The touching "No One Has To Be Alone" is a good example. There are several big tearjerkers, most notably "Always There", and at one point Cera's dad gets a ''rock song''. Said rock song, "Tough" is about the need to persevere no matter what and is Mr. Threehorn's IAmSong.

* JerkassWoobie:
** Hyp. You can clearly see where his "[[TheSocialDarwinist the big rule the small]]" attitude comes from when you see [[AbusiveParents how his dad treats him]].
** Pterano as well. Yeah, he's arrogant and does some pretty crappy things, but given how badly he's haunted by the fact that he [[MyGreatestFailure unintentionally led some herd members to their deaths]] during the migration to the Great Valley, it's hard not to feel at least a little sorry for him.

* HilariousInHindsight: ''The Great Valley Adventure'' has a pair of T-Rexes trying to retrieve their child, beating [[Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark Jurassic Park]] to the idea by three years.

* MoralEventHorizon:
** In the climax of ''The Great Valley Adventure'', Ozzy suddenly does this when he [[spoiler:tries to kill both Littlefoot and Chomper by throwing them off the wall between the Great Valley and the Mysterious Beyond. Luckily, Chomper's parents come in to "save the day"]].
** Sierra in ''The Stone of Cold Fire'' once he [[spoiler:almost kills Ducky ForTheEvulz]].

** It's hard to see Ozzy continually fail to get his meal. Of course, this doesn't excuse his attempt to kill Littlefoot.

** Rooter, the wandering Scolosaurus (played by the late Pat Hingle), who only makes a single appearance that lasts two minutes in the entire film. He is fondly remembered for kindly helping Littlefoot and the audience get over a truly tear-jerking death scene, but some don't care for how he subsequently leaves Littlefoot by himself. To be fair, Rooter was added to the story very late in the production as a means to help Littlefoot and the audience cope with the tragedy, and he gives the impression that he doesn't feel like he himself has much longer to live so taking care of Littlefoot wouldn't be helping matters.

* FanPreferredCutContent: Many fans wish the scenes left out of the film (for being too scary) would have at least been released in some form.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The last act of the film was completely changed from the original plan; after the PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure was when Littlefoot would view the apparition of his mother, and he'd find the Great Valley on his own. Initially happy at having got there, he'd realize it wouldn't mean very much without his friends, and he'd go back to help them. The confidence from finding the Great Valley would also give him the character development necessary to take on Sharptooth. In the final cut, he and his friends come together to defeat Sharptooth before they find the Great Valley, making Littlefoot's despair in the next scene ("It's just too hard!") seem out of place.

** For similar reasons, Chomper’s parents are also popular with fans, since unlike with their more [[SpotlightStealingSquad controversial]] [[TastesLikeDiabetes son]], the series doesn’t sugarcoat their threatening nature and status as dangerous predators, but at the same time, doesn’t present them as [[DesignatedVillain Designated Villains]] but rather beings with thoughts, feeling and the capability to love, [[CommonalityConnection much like the herbivorous protagonists]]. Papa Sharptooth’s occasional DeadpanSnarker quips (done via subtitles) also help.

** Accept the movies up to ''The Great Day of the Flyers''. ''The Wisdom of Friends'' tends to be ignored, [[UpToEleven even by diehard fans of the sequel films]], due to its [[DenserAndWackier overly silly nature]].

** The film's signature tune "If We Hold on Together" should feel like an utterly saccharine and syrupy song. But given it's placement after a lot of the film's dark and almost disturbing tone one can't help but find it to be utterly heartwarming.

* HarsherInHindsight: Two examples.

** Littlefoot’s mother’s death was heartbreaking enough, but at least she successfully saved the life of her son from Sharptooth. (Also, Littlefoot was the only one of the eggs she said to successfully hatch.) Eleven years later, “Death Of a Dynasty”, the final episode of ''Series/WalkingWithDinosaurs'', showed a mother ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (the exact same species as '''Sharptooth''') right before the KP-g Mass Extinction. Not only did her last brood fail to hatch, but only three out of the twelve eggs hatch, with the youngest implicitly killed by its siblings, but the mother herself, in an eerie mirror of Littlefoot’s mother, fights an ''Ankylosaurus'' to protect her final two chicks, and her reward is to get fatally injured and suffer a slow and painful death. Finally, ''the very next day'', as her two surviving baby ''T.rexes'' try in vain [[PleaseWakeUp to wake their dead mother]], like Littlefoot did - the asteroid that would cause the KP-g Mass Extinction crashes into Earth, and the asteroid’s blast wave [[ShootTheShaggyDog sweeps the babies away to their deaths, heralding the final extinction of ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' and all remaining non-avian dinosaurs]].

* HarsherinHindsight: Two examples.

** The Plated Sharptooth (a ''Giganotosaurus''), despite his limited screentime, has left quite an impression on the fandom, for being an utterly terrifying KnightOfCerebus that could give the original [[MemeticBadass Sharptooth]] a run for his money. He cements his badass credentials by holding his own while fighting two T. rex/

** The Plated Sharptooth for being a KnightOfCerebus. Being based on the newly discovered Giganotosaurus doesn't hurt.

** Pterano is a favorite among fans as well, thanks to being a TragicVillain.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Believe it or not, in the Japanese dub this was Creator/MaayaSakamoto's debut role as a voice actress voicing Cera.

** Mr.Clubtail for being one of the very few [[{{RecurringExtra}} recurring]]background characters with a name and for his good-natured if sometimes gruff personality. He often appears in fanfictions with him being mistaken for another same species character named Kosh.

* Adorkable: Petrie! His YouNoTakeCandle accent and clumsiness make him surprisingly endearing.

** Opinions on Bron are divided. Some think he's a tragic character, while others don't believe his [[{{DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou}} story.]]

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: In ''Journey Through The Mists'', Ichy sings to Dil "I need you like a sock on my nose!" This was presumably a slang term for being punched on his nose, but some thought he meant ''wearing a sock'' on his nose, which would be a blatant anachronism for the setting.

** Accept the movies up to ''The Big Freeze'' and ignore the rest [[note]]with the only exception being ''The Great Longneck Migration''[[/note]]. We met the cool and compelling Pterano in the last movie, and here we see Ducky and Spike's relationship get some interesting attention. But after this, the movies are more sitcom-like in nature, with multiple gag plots, characters like Cera's dad acting wildly OutOfCharacter, and [[{{Anvilicious}} even more explicit morals]] than with the first eight sequels.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: The sequels get this reaction sometimes, with their [[LighterAndSofter lighter tone]] compared to the first film, the bright color palette, and the constant use of songs that often [[ThatRemindsMeOfASong come out of nowhere]].

** In ''Journey Through The Mists,'' Littlefoot's grandmother sings a genuinely lovely and bittersweet solo song, titled simply "Grandma's Lullaby," about the circle of life and its many ends and beginnings to try to help Littlefoot understand and cope with his grandfather falling deathly ill.

** The Plated Sharptooth for being a {{Knight of Cerebus}}. Being based on the newly discovered Giganotosaurus doesn't hurt.