The Land Before Time - Production

Production

An early working title for the film was The Land Before Time Began. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas originally wanted the film to have no dialogue, like The Rite of Spring sequence in Fantasia, but the idea was abandoned in favor of using voice actors in order to make it appealing to children. The film was originally planned for release in fall of 1987, but the production and the release date were delayed by a year due to the relocation of Sullivan Bluth Studios to Dublin, Ireland.

The production was preceded by extensive research, wherein researchers visited natural history museums in New York and Los Angeles and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The artists had to create a credible landscape and animals. Animators made more than 600 background images for the film.

Littlefoot was originally going to be called "Thunderfoot", until it was found out that a Triceratops in a children's book already had that name. It was Lucas's idea to make Cera a female Triceratops, when she was in mid-animation as a male named Bambo. Spielberg's son, Max, suggested the voice of Digit, from An American Tail, which resulted in Will Ryan performing the voice of Petrie. The character of Spike was inspired by Don Bluth's pet Chow Chow, Cubby. Judith Barsi, the voice of Ducky, was killed by her father, József, in a murder–suicide four months prior to the film's release.