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The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire
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Wikipedia article
'The Land Before Time VII: The Stone of Cold Fire' is a 2000 American direct-to-video animated adventure musical drama and the seventh film in 'The Land Before Time' series, produced and directed by Charles Grosvenor. It stars the voices of Thomas Dekker, Anndi McAfee, Aria Curzon, Jeff Bennett and Rob Paulsen, and introduces Charles Kimbrough, Patti Deutsch, Jim Cummings and British actor Michael York. This was the only 'Land Before Time' film to be written by Len Uhley. This is the first installment to not have John Ingle's narration. Starting with 'The Stone of Cold Fire', Taiwanese-American studio Wang Film Productions takes over the overseas animation work on the entire 'Land Before Time' series until the 200708 television series of the same name and 'The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends', after South Korean studio AKOM provided their animation for the last five direct-to-video sequels: 'The Great Valley Adventure', 'The Time of the Great Giving', 'Journey Through the Mists', 'The Mysterious Island', and 'The Secret of Saurus Rock'.
Plot
At the beginning of the movie, Petrie tells a story that long ago, there were no Threehorns, Longnecks or Sharptooths and just Flyers. But the other dinosaurs tell that the story is not true. Petrie tells that his uncle Pterano told the story to him. Late one night, Littlefoot sees a strange, blue-colored meteor falling from the sky and crashing into Threehorn Peak, an active volcano in the Smoking Mountain range. When Littlefoot describes it the next morning, the adults in the Great Valley do not take it as a serious matter if they even believe it at all, except for two newcomers, the mysterious "Rainbow Faces", who are dinosaurs with rainbow-colored beaks and have underbellies that have no ridges on them and cover their chests and abdomens in front and stretch to the tip of their tails and up their necks to their cheeks and mouths. The Rainbow Faces tell them of possibilities of wonders beyond what they know, and suggest the rock may be a "Stone of Cold Fire", which is capable of possessing magical properties. Cera's father, however stops the Rainbow Faces and forbids them or anybody else to "fill the children's heads with rubbish". Littlefoot tries to tell Cera's father that he knew where the flying rock was and how he can find it. But Cera's father warns Littlefoot about the Mysterious Beyond and how it's off-limits. Littlefoot's grandfather agrees and tells Littlefoot that until the far-walkers leave the Great Valley, it would be better if they don't make any more fuss about the flying rock.
Pterano, the long lost outcast uncle of Littlefoot's friend Petrie, overhears the entire conversation and conspires to find the rock to use its powers to take control of the Valley. Pterano asks Petrie, who idolizes him, for the location of the rock and learns its location. Littlefoot's friend Ducky overhears Pterano's plan, but before she can warn the others, Pterano and his cronies, Rinkus, a 'Rhamphorhynchus', and Sierra, a 'Cearadactylus', capture her and set out to find the Stone. Upon discovering Ducky's abduction, the adults tell the young ones how Pterano led some of their herd during their search for the Valley, but had accidentally brought his followers to a pack of 'Deinonychus'. Pterano was able to fly away, but the event left him emotionally scarred, and he was expelled from the herd as punishment for leading his followers into danger. Because the adults are slow to reach a decision, Littlefoot, Petrie, Cera, and Spike take off by themselves in search of Ducky.
Meanwhile, Ducky escapes the Flyers and falls into a cave while fleeing. After the children find her, Ducky comforts Petrie, who is distraught about his uncle's actions, by stating that she could tell that Pterano is the least wicked of the three Flyers, and that he still has a potential of doing good. Rinkus and Sierra suddenly re-capture Ducky and pursue the children in violation of Pterano's orders, but the children are able to outsmart the two evil Flyers. As the Flyers fly away, Petrie tells them not to go and a thunderstorm comes. They see some lighting and hear thunder. Later as the thunderstorm comes and there is wind, thunder and lightning, the adult dinosaurs meet and Cera's Dad tells Petrie's mother what they will do since they will never catch up to the kids on land. Grandpa Longneck tells Petrie's mother to find another flier to help her and hurry. Afterwards later during the thunderstorm when it rains (the rain is called skywater by the Dinosaurs in the Land Before Time), Sierra displays mutinous feelings towards Pterano, but Rinkus convinces him to hold off betraying Pterano until they find the Stone. Pterano sings a song about how a very important creature he is.
The children pursue the Flyers, hoping to reach the Stone before them. They reach inside the cave and they sleep in the cave and the thunderstorm lasted until morning. The children wake up in the morning as the thunderstorm is over. Aided by the Rainbow Faces, who suddenly appear and offer their knowledge of volcanoes, they manage to arrive at Threehorn Peak before the Flyers. However, both groups discover that the Stone is just an ordinary meteorite. Lamenting over this realization, Pterano explains that he had meant to create a paradise with the power of the stone, not realizing that this paradise already exists in the form of the Great Valley. Unwilling to believe the Stone is not magical, Rinkus and Sierra betray Pterano. However, as they attempt to get the Stone to give them power, an earthquake (called an earthshake by the Dinosaurs in the Land Before Time) occures and the volcano begins to erupt with lava, lightning and thunder, and Pterano sees Ducky holding on to a cliff and as lightning from the ash clouds strikes nearby and Ducky falls, Pterano saves Ducky from certain death.
Petrie's mother arrives with a 'Quetzalcoatlus' (who is a huge flyer) to evacuate the children, leaving Rinkus and Sierra to be caught in the meteorite's explosion (which they tried to bash) and they land back at the site where they camped earlier (quite burned, singed, and bruised). Pterano is thanked for saving Ducky's life. Back in the Great Valley, the grown-ups have a meeting and decide about Pterano's fate. For rescuing the children (spoken by Littlefoot's grandfather), Pterano's exile from the Valley will be reduced to until five cold times have passed (five winters/years). Petrie cuts in and tries to plead against the punishment, begging the grown-ups to let Pterano live in the Valley forever. However, Petrie's mother tells Petrie that even though Pterano may be sorry, it does not change what he did (erase his actions) and he must still be held responsible. Pterano, agreeing with the banishment, tells Petrie that everyone (including himself) has to take responsibility for their actions and assures Petrie that he should be fine. Accepting the result, Petrie tearfully bids Pterano farewell with the latter saying he will miss Petrie before Cera's father forces Pterano away (begging him to move on). This prompts him to remark to the latter that there are things he will not miss at all.
That night, Littlefoot finds the Rainbow Faces and asks them if the meteorite really was a Stone of Cold Fire. They admit that while it wasn't, his effort to search for it was what really mattered, and reiterate that there are many unknowns to be discovered "beyond the Mysterious Beyond". Littlefoot is then momentarily distracted, and when he turns around, he finds the Rainbow Faces have disappeared in a pillar of light, implied to be a 'Tractor beam', indicating that the Rainbow Faces are aliens. As the Rainbow Faces leave the planet Earth, they sing one last song to Littlefoot about Beyond the Mysterious Beyond. As Littlefoot's friends find him, an inspired Littlefoot reflects that there are many unknowns and that such unknowns make life wonderful.
Voice cast
* Thomas Dekker as Littlefoot
* Anndi McAfee as Cera
* Aria Curzon as Ducky
* Jeff Bennett as Petrie / Spokes Dinosaur
* Michael York as Pterano
* Rob Paulsen as Rinkus/ Spike
* Jim Cummings as Sierra
* Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck/Narrator
* Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck
* John Ingle as Cera's father
* Tress MacNeille as Ducky's Mom / Petrie's Mom
* Charles Kimbrough as Rainbow Face #1
* Patti Deutsch as Rainbow Face #2
Production
Production of the film had concluded by June 2000. This is the first film in the series to use Digital ink and paint rather than traditional cel animation that was used in the first 6 films.
Songs
Release
* December 5, 2000 (VHS and DVD)
* December 4, 2001 (VHS and DVD)
* December 2, 2003 (VHS and DVD - 4 Movie Dino Pack (Volume 2) and 9 Movie Dino Pack)
* November 29, 2005 (DVD - 2 Mysteries Beyond the Great Valley)
Reception
'Entertainment Weekly' gave the film a "B" and wrote that it "beats the heck out of Barney's infantile dinosaur tales," with its "velociraptor-fast pace and a minimum of treacle". In August 2014, the 'New York Post' ranked each of the 13 'Land Before Time' films released up to that point and placed 'The Stone of Cold Fire' at number 10, writing, "Though not quite as annoying as 'Tinysauruses,' the name 'Rainbow Faces' comes pretty close."
The film received nominations for "Best Animated Video Premier" and "Best Animated Character Performance" for Littlefoot and Pterano at the Video Premiere Awards in 2001, losing to 'Joseph: King of Dreams' and 'Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker', respectively. Aria Curzon received an award for "Outstanding Young Voice-Over" at the 23rd Young Artist Awards in 2002 for her role as Ducky in this film, as well as 'The Land Before Time V', 'The Land Before Time VI', and 'The Land Before Time VIII'.
References
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