The Land Before Time: Far Away Home

The Land Before Time: Far Away Home is a 2009 American-Japanese animated fantasy adventure film and the fourteenth film in The Land Before Time series. It was directed by Charles Grosvenor and Hayao Miyazaki and written by Cliff Ruby and Elana Lesser. It was produced by Universal Animation Studios, Amblin Entertainment, and Studio Ghibli, and released by Universal Pictures & 20th Century Fox.

The film premiered in Japan on April 3, 2009 and was released on April 15, 2009 in the United States. The film received universal acclaim from critics and audiences for its story, animation, characters, emotional scenes, John Powell's score, and the performances of Jason Marsden and Jack Black and is frequently is one of the best animated films ever made. The film surpassed the 1988 film at the box office, grossing a total of $502 million in the US and Canada and $734 million in other territories, for a total of $1.236 billion, making it the highest-grossing domestic film and fourth-highest grossing film of 2009. At the 82nd Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's Up.

Voice cast

 * Raymond Ochoa as Littlefoot, a young male Apatosaurus.
 * Anndi McAfee as Cera, a young female orange Triceratops
 * Aria Curzon as Ducky, a young green Parasaurolophus
 * Jeff Bennett as Petrie, a young brown Pteranodon
 * Rob Paulsen as Spike, a young green Stegosaurus/Guido, a young teal Microraptor
 * Max Burkholder as Chomper, a young friendly purple Tyrannosaurus Rex
 * Meghan Strange as Ruby, a young female pink Oviraptor
 * Nika Futterman as Ali, a purple female Apatosaurus 
 * who is Littlefoot's friend/Tricia, a young pink female Triceratops
 * Jason Marsden as Sky, a blue male Wingtail
 * Megan Fox as Star, a purple female Wingtail
 * Jack Black as Eybron, a male white Wingtail
 * Tom Kenny as Glide, a male gray Wingtail
 * Jim Cummings as Grandpa Longneck, a male gray Apatosaurus who is Littlefoot's grandpa.
 * Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck, a female gray Apatosaurus who is Littlefoot's grandma.
 * John Ingle as Daddy Topps, a dark gray male Triceratops who is Tria's husband and Cera's and Tricia's father.
 * Tress MacNeille as Ducky's Mom, a green-ish brown female Saurolophus. / Petrie's Mom, a light-blue female Pteranodon
 * Camryn Manheim as Tria, a dark pink female Triceratops who is Topsy's wife and Cera's and Tricia's mother.
 * Cam Clarke as Bron, a brown male Apatosaurus who is Littlefoot's father.

Soundtrack
The film was composed by John Powell, who replaced Michael Tavera from the previous Land Before Time sequels. The album was released on April 4, 2009 by Universal Music Group.

Trivia

 * It's the first Land Before Time sequel to receive a theatrical release in theaters since the 1988 original.
 * This is the first Land Before Time film to not feature sharpteeth as an antagonist.
 * This is the first Land Before Time film to be co-produced by 20th Century Fox.
 * This is the first Studio Ghibli film to not feature humans.
 * This is the first Land Before Time movie to have the Amblin Entertainment logo at the beginning.
 * This is the longest Land Before Time movie to date with a running time of 1 hour and 45 mintues.

Video games
A tie-in video game, named The Story of Sky was developed by Heavy Iron Studios and Level-5 and published by Namco for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable in June 24, 2009 in the US and PAL regions while it was released in Japan in July 7, 2009. The iconic game studio Rare would develop another version of the game made for the Nintendo DS called Sky’s Story, which was published by THQ (Konami in Japan). The Nintendo DS version was planned to be included in the Rare Replay compilation for the Xbox One, but was scrapped due to licensing and technical issues.

Critical response
The film received massive positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes holds the film a 98% approval rating based on 205 reviews. Metacritic assigned the film a score of 99 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Audience Response
Audiences are very positive about this film. It holds a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The film earned a A+ from CinemaScore.

Box Office
The Land Before Time: Far Away Home grossed $100 million from opening nights and grossed $502 million domestically and $734 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.236 billion against a budget of $140 million making it a massive blockbuster success.

Release
The Land Before Time: Far Away Home premiered on April 3, 2009 in Japan and was released in regular and IMAX theatres in North America on April 15, 2009 and in the UK on April 18.

Home Media
The Land Before Time: Far Away Home was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD in North America on September 4, 2009, and in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2009. First-week sales of the DVD reached 17 million copies, making it the best-selling DVD of 2009 in units sold, It also became the third in sales revenue behind Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The Blu-ray version had the best first-week sales of 2009, with 9.2 million units sold. The tie-in video game sold over 2 million copies in the first 2 months, which lead to it being re-released in January 14, 2010 under Xbox‘s Platinum Hits label, PlayStation’s Greatest Hits, and Nintendo’s Player’s Choice.