The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock

Up until now this series has been suffering from the 'odd-numbered sequel good, even-membered sequel bad' syndrome and so I approached this latest entry with caution. I needn't have worried. This is a well-made, entertaining and memorable film which will appeal to people of all ages. The Lone Dinosaur (based on the Lone Ranger) is a particularly good character and the dream sequences add a surreal edge to the film. A must-see.

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky Petrie, and Spike listen to Grandpa Longneck's stories of a heroic longneck known as The Lone Dinosaur who heroicly and selflessly protected those at the mercy of Sharpteeth. The story ends with the Lone Dinosaur leaving as mysteriously as he came and a Longneck shaped rock appearing during in earthquake that they name Saurus Rock, along with a legend stating that should anything happen to it a curse of bad luck will descend upon the Great Valley. Littlefoot becomes fascinated with the Lone Dinosaur legends, even acting them out with his friends, only to find the sudden appearance of a soft spoken Dinosaur named Doc who bares a striking resemblance to the Lone Dinosaur.

The Land Before Time: The Secret of Saurus Rock marks the sixth entry in the direct to video film series and the last to use traditional cell animation before all Universal Home Video exclusives switched to digital ink and paint. The movie continues with the Charles Grosvenor era of Land Before Time sequels going for more high concept premises than the relatively grounded "lesson based" affairs of the Roy Allen Smith entries. This time Grosvenor along with writers Libby Hinson and John Hoy, give us a very odd sequel with western hero subtext.

When we are introduced into the movie by Grandpa Longneck's story (with an amusing sight of the group gathered around a volcanic vent as if it were a camp fire that was mildly amusing) the amount of western references in the story is enough to make your head spin. Not only do we have the rather obvious parallel between Lone Dinosaur and Lone Ranger, but the story even ends with a reference to the Alan Ladd movie Shane. Even Doc who may or may not be the Lone Dinosaur (the movie never makes it clear if he is or not) is voiced by Kris Kristofferson who plays the "man of few words" trope to a "T".

There's sort of an endearing cheesiness to Secret of Saurus Rock with its on the nose western themes (including a song Little Foot sings that's reminiscent of singing cowboy movies) that it's honestly kind of hard not to crack a smile. The rest of the movie is pretty standard land before time stakes involving a macgruffin that needs to be chased, retrieved, or etc and encounters with various hazards and obstacles. The one draw back is a pair of obnoxiously high pitched baby three-horns, Dana and DInah (confusingly identified as Cera's nieces since Cera calls herself "Auntie Cera") who are basically chaos engines designed to get in trouble and spout gibberish.

Land Before Time VI continues the franchise for better or worse. It's a decent enough movie for kids as far as children's direct to video films go.

Not much, I would say. This is a way of showing the downfall of sequels and such. In 1988, "The Land Before Time" came out and it was one of the finest cartoon movies I've ever seen. It was shown in theaters, and that the was the first, last and only time a LBT film was shown in theaters. Then came the seemingly never ending series of sequels ALL which were direct to video and now there's 8 sequels. Up until Part 5, everyone was going pretty good, but nothing like that could last forever. So, we get this, the worst LBT sequel I've seen, seeing as how I haven't seen any after this one. It's just not worth it.

Anyway, as the story goes, Littlefoot and his friends hear about the story of the "Lone Dinosaur" (bad name, huh?) and how if anything happens to Sauraus Rock bad luck will occur over the Great Valley, and a new dinosaur, Doc comes and yada, yada, yada. It's just an occuring remake of the same movies with the same morals, the same action, the same everything! PLEASE, do not make a Land Before Time Part 10!! The only enjoyable thing was Sarah's little cousins. They were so cute!! Don't waste your time on this. A 2/10.

By the way, after Peetree went out of the log to see if it was safe, (and trust me, I rewound the part three times) I KNOW he said, "We can cross big b*tch!". I swear! I know he was trying to say "ditch", but it came out wrong.

Like the original, a well crafted heatwarming tale. This storyline is full of morals and lessons from idols, kindness, altruism, prejudice, responsibility, teamwork, friendship and much more.

The animation is traditional and simplistic with some innccuracies of depictions of species' features and some inaccuacies between Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods. However the dubbing is amazing with characters vocal patterns and use of language being correlative to the species presumed intelligence.

Unlike the original this has several musical numbers which seem dubious in the context of the series. The songs seem to get marginally better throughout the series.

A must watch for kids.

I don't think it is the best LBT sequel, but it is nice to watch, and I do recommend it for kids. It is too short though so you don't feel the emotional attachment you get from watching the first film, the dialogue is mostly uninspiring(this is from a more adult perspective, but I am sure kids will overlook this) and the story is quite simplistic. However the animation is good, with nice colours and decent editing. The music is lovely, and the songs while not memorable are pleasant. The twin baby dinosaurs Dana and Dina are adorable, and the voice acting is solid. All in all, this is a decent sequel, definitely one of the more watchable sequels of the franchise. 6/10 Bethany Cox