Although I admit that I bawled my eyes out when Littlefoot's mom dies, I don't find that scene as sad as the scenes where his mother is speaking to him from the heavens, and especially the scene towards the end where his mother appears as the cloud formation and he shouts at her "Don't leave me mother!"
Take my hand, I'll lead you to salvation
Take my love, for love is everlasting
Littlefoot chasing his shadow on the rock formation when he thinks it's his mother is the most heart wrenching scene for me. It's almost not fair from an editing perspective. We've already seen his mother's death, we've seen Littlefoot almost starve himself, regain a sense of purpose with his mother's words of confidence. But then the film has to raise his hopes again of seeing her only to snuff them out in the very next scene, and we as the audience have to endure that spike and crest-fall of emotion too. Add the saddest and most powerful 8 bars of James Horner scoring in the movie and his composing career as Littlefoot chases the shadow, and you've got a scene that breaks my heart every time.
shareI watched this movie for the first time in years last night and sobbed for about 10 minutes after the shadow scene. Had to actually walk away from the movie for a minute. It always made me sad as a kid, but I wasn't expecting it to do that to me as a 31 year old. Now I remember why I would cling to my mother while watching this as a boy. I didn't want to let her out of my sight for fear she would die. lol Then she ended up divorcing my dad and moving several states away anyway, but that's another story for another time.
shareI'm watching Land Before Time with my daughter on Netflix. It's her first time seeing it & my first time in probably 20 years. That shadow scene killed me. And my daughter just goes "oh he thinks his shadow's his mom's shadow" & I'm like "yeah" trying not to cry in front of my 5 year old. I'm really surprised my kid doesn't cry at movies. I was sobbing at everything at her age
shareDefinitely the part where he thinks his shadow is his mother. :-(
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House. My room. Can't walk. My medal. My father. Father, don't!
I think another sad scene worth pointing out is after Littlefoot and Cera get into a fight when Cera calls Littlefoot's mom a stupid longneck. Right after he has to deal with Cera bashing the woman who he loved so much and saved both of their lives, he also has to deal with the others in the group choosing to go with Cera. His bottom lip is just so big and he has those tears in his eyes, you can just see the loneliness on his face. I always cry at that scene too.
shareI recently rewatched this film for the first time in over a decade. I'm 21 now, I watched this film so many times when I was younger I knew it off by heart even after all these years, I knew what was coming... His mother's fight? Fine. The earthshake separating everyone? Fine. But the moment he saw his mother on that rock I started to well up... Then he says "come on mother, get up." And she says "I can't" I just lost it. It's got me welling up a little now. I'm not the type to cry at just anything but wow is that a sad scene. His innocence, the way he doesn't even understand exactly how bad his mother is. Then the final realisation that it's over. THEN they hit us with rooter and the whole "it's not your fault..." speech. Bam, crying again. Luckily I'd composed myself by the shadow scene, though that nearly made me go again.
All in all, I'd say this is one of the greatest (and most overlooked) children's films of all time. I know it helps that I've got the nostalgia factor with if, but I think if it'd been my first viewing I'd still rate it just as highly.
If the scene where Littlefoot is walking around and crying after his mom dies does not make you cry or feel like you are going to cry there is something wrong with you. The music and his sobs alone make me cry even just thinking about it as I type this.
shareLittlefoot's mother dying :(
Fluttershy X Discord
When Littlefoot was cuddling and crying inside his mom's footprint.
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