This DVD contains four episode of The Land Before Time television cartoon show, which currently airs on Cartoon Network. This cartoon show is based on The Land Before Time series of movies, which seems to continue to come out with a sequel every year and is up to XIV (14 for those not good with Roman numerals) coming out this year. The television series is only about a year old, but the characters have mostly been introduced almost two decades ago with the first Land Before Time movie released in 1988. The show features the dinosaur friends on different adventures that often show teamwork and illustrate the meaning of good friendship. This show is fun for kids around ages 4 to 10, especially if they like dinosaurs. I like how it is mostly about friendly dinosaurs and does not have much about meat eating dinosaurs chasing and hurting its prey dinosaurs. Sure it does show the mostly plant eating main characters often encountering meat eating dinosaurs, but it does not try to make this a scary action packed show about them just trying to escape the dinosaurs. Rather it has more depth to the show and the characters have personalities and even when the episodes are mainly about a predator attack it turns more into a lesson on treating even your enemies with respect, as in the “Escape from the Great Beyond” episode.

The first episode on this DVD is “The Great Egg Adventure.” In this episode the dinosaurs are on a mission to get the eggs of a predator dinosaur out of the Great Valley. In the process they are also luring the mom away from their home making it safer for them. In this episode is does show them in danger from predators, but it also shows them befriending a dinosaur that usually taunts them and working together to get the eggs out of the valley. It also shows teamwork of them working together to get past obstacles.

The second episode is called “Escape From the Mysterious Beyond.” In this episode two of the dinosaurs get stuck on a ledge when they are being chased by a predator. The other friends set out to find a way to save them while the two left behind discover the predator is stuck with them, however, he is pinned under rocks so he cannot get them. In the end the friends show compassion and free the predator, who in turn does not hurt them because they saved him.

The third episode is called “The Lonely Journey.” In this episode the meat eating character (who has given up his dinosaur eating ways and only eats bugs now) of the group of friends feels left out as a Thanksgiving like holiday approaches and the plant eating dinosaurs keep talking about how his kind are harmful. He sets out on a journey to try to teach his kind to be nice to plant eaters. In the end he does not have success, however, he does realize that his plant eater friends recognize him as not like the rest of his kind and think of him as one of them.

The last episode is called “The Hermit of Black Rock.” In this episode two of the flying dinosaurs end up stuck in black rock. One has a broken leg and the other a broken wing. Here they meet an older flying dinosaur, who is blind. Working together they serve as his eyes and he flies them home to the Great Valley. Back in the Great Valley the other friends feel useless as the adult flying dinosaurs search for their friends. To help out they decide to gather food for the searchers.

This DVD has some good bonus features. One is a DVD game called Egg-citing Pattern Game. In this game there are two levels of difficulty. In the game you put the eggs in order of the pattern. There is also a sing along of the “Good to Be Home” song. If you put the DVD into a computer there are also some coloring pages and connect the dots pages to print out and do.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD