The Land Before Time: Steven Spielberg Told Don Bluth It Was "Too Scary" for Kids

It's safe to say that Don Bluth has become a legend in the animation industry, thanks to his work directing films like An American Tail, Anastasia, and The Land Before Time. That latter franchise has become a bit of a juggernaut since its debut in the late 1980s, with the The Land Before Time movies entertaining generations of kids and kids at heart. During the "History of Animation with Don Bluth" panel hosted by ComicBook.com at Mega-Con, which is going on all weekend in Orlando, Florida, Bluth recounted a behind-the-scenes story about Spielberg's reaction to The Land Before Time, in which the legendary director argued that the film would be "too scary" for younger viewers.

"My theory is that every good story that's a good story has a good villain, a good scare moment. However, when we made The Land Before Time, we took it to London to show Steven Spielberg and George Lucas," Bluth explained. "And Steven said, 'You know what? It's too scary, Don.' He says 'I'm going to have mothers holding their crying children in the lobby. We can't have that.' I said, 'Okay, what are we going to take out?' With the T-Rex they took out some of it that was so, so scary. We tried to make it scary, animators are nuts. We tried to make it scary and amazing that scary things that make people and move people a little bit."

"So they went in and took it out, never put it back in, and they destroyed it," Bluth continued. "And it was incredible. It's too bad because if you're going to go through all the business of drawing the film, first of all, drawing the sketches and finally animating it and finally bringing it to life, and finding when you see them in color, it takes your breath away, something you've been working on. It's like you created something that was really, really beautiful. And so, they're like your children."

How Many The Land Before Time Movies Are There?

Since The Land Before Time's debut in 1988, the franchise has spawned a total of fourteen films, the most recent of which was 2016's The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of the Brave. The story has also led to multiple video games, as well as the 2007-2008 animated series The Land Before Time. Although Bluth, Spielberg, and Lucas were not involved with the subsequent The Land Before Time sequels, they have helped the franchise endure. 

"What we in the animation world are doing is presenting symbols that are reflective of real life," Bluth explained in a 2020 interview with Vulture. "If you show the dark moments, then the triumphant moments have more power. And if animators don't understand that, I don't think they're animating. What they're doing is drawing."

What do you think of Don Bluth's new anecdote about The Land Before Time? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Mega-Con is going on all weekend, February 2nd through February 4th, in Orlando, Florida.