The fourth film in the Land Before Time franchise. It was released on December 10, 1996.
A tribe of wandering Longnecks has entered the Great Valley, including Ali, who's around Littlefoot's age. But when Grandpa Longneck falls sick, the only thing which can cure him are the mysterious Nightflowers of the Land of Mists, the place Ali came from. Littlefoot and his friends must venture outside the Great Valley once again if Grandpa Longneck is to survive.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Probably the worst example in the series up to this point. The grown-ups' response to Grandpa Longneck dying is along the lines of "Oh well, that's life", forcing Littlefoot and the others to take matters into their own hands. Averted with Archie, though, who helps save Littlefoot's life.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The kids are pursued by a nearly-blind Deinosuchus, Dil, while her partner Ichy acts as her eyes. They continually argue about not needing each other, but just when Dil finally gets fed up and sends Ichy flying off, she realizes there is angry Hydrotherosaurus towering over her.
- Anachronism Stew: On the original poster, and VHS cover, Ichy is shown spying on the main cast with a pair of binoculars.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- Being a seabird, Ichthyornis like Ichy would be hunting small fish on the coast, not trying to eat dinosaurs inland. They also wouldn't have grasping feet like a bird of prey.
- The elasmosaur that chases after Dil at the end is HUGE, easily as big as Littlefoot’s grandparents. In real life, the largest elasmosaurs maxed out at 40 feet and it’s more likely that they would have been hunted by Deinosuchus such as Dil, which are known to have ventured into the ocean.
- Big Bad: Ichy with Dil serve this role, as they pursue the protagonists throughout the film.
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: The Nightflowers that Littlefoot and company are searching for illuminate when night falls.
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: An odd example. The giant elasmosaur arrives to chase Dil after the heroes have already escaped her and—between the steep cliff and losing Ichy—she probably couldn't threaten them again anyway. Even though it wasn't specifically trying to help the heroes, had it shown up just a minute earlier it would've helped a lot.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Ichy and Dil are a significant change of pace from the predatory dinosaurs who menaced our heroes in previous entries of the series. Unlike Sharptooth from the first movie and the Sharpteeth from the preceding film, they are two predators of completely different species, a prehistoric bird and Crocodile respectively, working in a begrudging partnership on account of Ichy needing Dil's size and muscle to get food that he's too small to catch alone and Dil's deteriorating eyesight forcing her to rely on the more keen-eyed Ichy to point out her prey. Their pursuit of Littlefoot and his friends as their next meal make them legitimate threats, but their tendency to butt heads serves to balance out their menace by giving them some Laughably Evil moments.
- Cool Old Guy: Archie, an elderly hermit Archelon who befriends Littlefoot and tries to help him escape from the cavern. He’s even willing to risk his own life by shielding Littlefoot from Dil, saying, “The kid’s a snack, I’m a meal!”.
- Covers Always Lie: Bizarrely enough, the poster above shows Ichy spying on Littlefoot and his friends with binoculars. Not only is this an egregious case of Anachronism Stew, but at no point does it even appear in the movie.
- Demoted to Extra: Mr. Threehorn, especially compared to the previous film. This is the only entry in the series where he doesn't get even a single line.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: The dinosaurs are shown to be fearful of the rodent-like mammals, but the main cast begins to bond with one. This is totally justified, as a mammal is rather alien to the dinosaurs.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Dil, or a Deinosuchus that looks just like her, briefly shows up in the Old One's story about the Land of Mists long before her introduction in the cave, trying to bite a Longneck's tail and barely missing.
- Eldritch Location: The Land of Mists is presented as one, unlike the more typical Mordor-like Mysterious Beyond.
- 11th-Hour Ranger: Tickles the mammal shows up in the third act of the film and has barely any screentime, leading the heroes to the Nightflowers and leaving right after the climax.
- Exit, Pursued by a Bear: The last we see of Dil, she's getting chased away by an elasmosaur that appeared from nowhere.
- Fantastic Racism: While this aesop is present in almost every Land Before Time entry, it's especially prominent here because of Ali, a Longneck Littlefoot's age who's never had friends of different species.
- Find the Cure!: When Grandpa Longneck is overcome with illness, this is what Littlefoot and company set out to do.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Cera's jealousy of Ali is squashed once Ali saves her life from Dil, and they become friends.
- Flower from the Mountaintop: Littlefoot has to go to the dangerous "Land of the Mists" to retrieve the nightflower to heal his sick grandfather.
- Guest-Star Party Member: Three: Ali (for the whole movie), Archie (for the second act), and Tickles (for the third).
- Handy Helper: Villains Dil and Ichy, a near-blind crocodile and a bird, respectively. Ichy would act as Dil's eyes.
- Headbutting Pachy: The kids briefly run into a savage dome-head (Pachycephalosaurus), similar to the first movie, but he's more interested in fighting a rival dome-head, which naturally leads to them butting heads.Petrie: Ooh. Me get headache just watching!
- Involuntary Group Split: A cave-in separates Littlefoot from the rest of the group.
- It's Personal: Unlike the previous two films, the entire Valley isn't under threat. However, since Grandpa Longneck is deathly ill, Littlefoot has a much more personal stake in the film's events.
- Lying Finger Cross: After Littlefoot leaves with Ali to the Land of Mists, Littlefoot's grandmother warns Cera and the others not to follow. Cera and the others do this gesture while saying that they won't go; Cera and Spike do it with their hind feet, while Ducky and Petrie play it straight.
- MacGuffin: The Nightflowers in the Land of Mist. Littlefoot must find them and return back to the Great Valley to feed them to Grandpa before he dies. After finding them, keeping the flowers safe for the return journey adds another level of tension to the final encounter with Ichy and Dil.
- Megaton Punch: Or Megaton Tail. When Dil finally gets fed up with Icky, she tail-slaps him over the horizon.
- Pet the Dog: Dil apologizes to Ichy for almost eating him.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Ichy and Dil have nothing to do with Grandpa Longneck's sickness and aren't actively trying to prevent Littlefoot from finding the Nightflower. They're just hungry predators in pursuit of a meal.
- Race Against the Clock: Grandpa Longneck won't survive long with his sickness, so Littlefoot and his friends have to hurry to find the cure. This gives the movie a much stricter time limit than most of the films before or after.
- Reused Character Design: The Egg Stealers that show up for a few seconds have the same designs as Ozzy and Strut from the second movie.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Tickles is an adorable mammal.
- Sequel Hook: The movie ends with the narrator stating that Littlefoot would definitely meet Ali again, but that was "another story". However director Roy Allen Smith left the series after that and Charles Grosvenor took over for the fifth movie. Whatever plans Smith might have had for Ali were never realized, and she wasn't seen or mentioned again until ten years later in the TV series.
- Soap Opera Disease: Grandpa Longneck's sickness is terminal without a Nightflower remedy, but how he got it (especially when no one else did), how it'll kill him, and how long he's got are left unexplained. Justified, though, by the characters being dinosaurs and having no real medical expertise.
- Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying:
- Dil (a crocodile) and Archie (a sea turtle) should be hanging around water, but the former is mainly shown hunting on land while the latter resides in a landlocked cavern for some reason.
- Dil's poor eyesight wouldn’t really be much of a handicap, since crocodiles don’t rely on sight to catch their prey as much as detecting and being guided by vibrations in the water, thanks to the sensory pits on their snouts.
- Archie can retreat into his shell, but only land tortoises are capable of that. The heads and limbs of sea turtles are fixed and thus cannot retract into the shell.
- Suddenly Speaking:
- Dil and Ichy are the first carnivores in the series to be shown speaking English. It could be seen as Translation Convention, since the fifth movie shows that sharpteeth speak their own language and the former never exchange any dialogue with Littlefoot and friends, but Ichy and Archie do share a brief exchange, implying that the villains are indeed speaking the same language as the leaf-eaters.
- Spike yells out Ducky's name. It's noted near the end of the film that Spike can talk... when he wants to, allowing him him to remain silent most of the time but still comment on rare occasions.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Dil prepares to eat an unconscious Ducky by throwing her up in the air, so she can catch her in her jaws. And Ducky then proceeds to stay hanging in the air for long enough not only for Littlefoot and his friends to all call out her name, but also for Spike to struggle with a couple of failed attempts to also say her name before finally succeeding.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ichy and Dil, the Big Bad Duumvirate. Ichy is too small to accomplish much, but points Dil, who is nearly blind, in the direction of food for them both; they make it clear that they are partners, not friends, and only stay together out of necessity. Their Villain Song even centers on how much they hate each other.
- Villain Song: "Who Needs You?" is a duet between Ichy and Dil where the two bicker about how they don't need the other and get in each other's way.
- Vocal Dissonance: Spike finally talks... but he sounds like the Aflac Duck, which, considering his appearance... isn't what you'd expect. From a more charitable point of view, one could consider his voice to sound raw from disuse.
- Wham Line: Not so much what is said, but who says it. During a tense moment where Ducky is about to be eaten by Dil, a certain someone unexpectedly decides to speak up:Spike: "DUCKY!"
- Wise Old Turtle: An Archelon
named Archie aids Littlefoot and his friends on their quest, dispensing valuable wisdom and coming to their rescue on multiple occasions.
