Animated Family Favorites 3-Movie Collection [2 Discs]

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Color
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Song - 1986 (Cynthia Weil, James Horner, Barry Mann)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Cathianne Blore - Bridget
       Bob Hoskins - Boris
       Bridget Fonda - Jenna
       Jim Cummings - Steele
       Amy Green - Tanya Mousekewitz
       Helen Shaver - Littlefoot's Mother
       Pat Hingle - Narrator
       Burke Barnes - Daddy Topps
       Christopher Plummer - Henri,
       Neil Ross - Honest John
       Will Ryan - Digit
       Erica Yohn - Mama Mousekewitz
       Bill Bailey - Butcher

• Director:

  Don Bluth, Simon Wells

• Producer:

  Don Bluth, Judith Freudberg, Gary Goldman, Kathleen Kennedy, David Kirschner, Frank Marshall, John Pomeroy, Steven Spielberg, Stephen Hickner, Judith Barsi, Roy Smith

• Screen Story:

  Judith Freudberg

• Screenwriter:

  Judith Freudberg, Tony Geiss

• Screen Story:

  Tony Geiss

• Screenwriter:

  David Steven Cohen, Elana Lesser, Cliff Ruby, Roger S.H. Schulman, Stu Krieger, Brent Maddock, S.S. Wilson

• Cinematographer:

  Jan Richter-Friis

• Composer (Music Score):

  James Horner

• Songwriter:

  James Horner

• Composer (Music Score):

  Barry Mann

• Songwriter:

  Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil

• Composer (Music Score):

  Cynthia Weil, Steve Winwood

• Songwriter:

  Will Jennings

• Editor:

  Dan Molina, Nick Fletcher, Sim Evan-Jones, John K. Carr

• Production Designer:

  Hans Bacher, Don Bluth

• Associate Producer:

  Rich Arons, Deborah Jelin Newmyer

• Executive Producer:

  Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Bonne Radford, George Lucas, Frank Marshall

• Costume Designer:

  Ellen Lutter

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Steve Maslow, Tom Paul

• Makeup:

  Tracy Warbin

• Special Effects:

  D.A. Lanpher

• First Assistant Director:

  Erica Fox, David Steinberg, Russell Boland

• Supervisor/Manager:

  Colin J. Alexander, Daan Jippes, Douglas Kirk

• Animator:

  Dan Kuenster, Linda Miller, John Pomeroy, Kristof Serrand, Rob Stevenhagen, Dick Zondag, Sahin Ersoz, Rodolphe Guenoden, Mick Harper, Nicolas Marlet, Patrick Mate, William Salazar, Jeffrey J. Varab, David Bowers, Lorna Pomeroy, Ralph Zondag

• Casting:

  Patsy Pollock, Ellen Parks, Bob Litvak, Nancy Mayor

• Animation Director:

  Linda Miller, John Pomeroy, Lorna Pomeroy, Dick Zondag, Ralph Zondag

REVIEWS:

• Don Bluth's The Land Before Time became a surprisingly marketable brand name for a film well short of classic status, inspiring over a half-dozen cut-rate sequels and spin-offs that are best suited as babysitting videos for preschoolers. In this first outing, the only one in which Bluth was involved, the creator of The Secret of N.I.M.H. and An American Tail again proves that the animation techniques he learned at Disney don't need Disney's army of screenwriters to make good entertainment. Because it was released years before Jurassic Park or Disney's CGI film Dinosaur, which borrows plot elements from Land, Bluth's film provides fresh-enough images of this dark and volcanic landscape to seem groundbreaking. By making the characters preciously cute and vocally infantile, Bluth softens this cruelly Darwinian moment in history without having to cheer up his production design, keeping an unambiguous "G" rating in the process. The teasingly short running time -- the movie struggles to crack the hour mark -- should also keep the youngest children from squirming. Although Littlefoot and his buddies aren't particularly memorable, they do register enough to keep the viewers concerned during moments of peril, which are as involving as they need to be. The sophisticated visuals and the huggable young dinos are enough to make The Land Before Time a fond favorite, even if it does scrimp a little in the wit department. No less than George Lucas and Steven Spielberg served as executive producers on the film. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi
• In the early 1980s, Don Bluth led a team of animators away from Disney to pursue the kind of ambitious feature-length fare that the House of Mouse seemed to have forgotten. The defectors' sophomore effort was the impressive An American Tail, a film that maintains the Disney touch for filmmaking but leaves some of the sugar-coating behind. The film tackles the American immigrant experience, and doesn't shy far away from showing either the hardships that caused emigres to leave their homelands or the hardships they faced on upon arrival. Despite this occasional, and welcomed, earnestness however, the lively animation, spirited voicing (Dom DeLuise in particular) and James Horner's score (including the lovely "Somewhere Out There" ) keep this an uplifting, and often touching, experience. Steven Speilberg produced the movie, but his and Bluth's talent for storytelling occasionally falters, and the film never quite achieves the Disney polish. Moreover, while the story follows what is clearly a Jewish experience of flight from Russian pogroms, it never makes specific reference of the Mouskewitz family's ethnic background, a decision that some saw less as an attempt to ensure universal appeal, and more as a cowardly cultural duck. In general, though, Bluth and company display the same willingness to explore serious themes as they did in their first feature, The Secret of NIMH. Though highly enjoyable, the film is definitely darker than most kids' fare. But with serious themes comes the potential for lasting impact, and as such, An American Tail offers much more than just an hour and a half of mind-candy. ~ Matthew Doberman, Rovi