LesCanadiens
Deity
One guy seems to think so.
http://www.action-online.org/lbtrev.html
Discuss.
The Land Before Time is blatant Bolshevik propaganda that is being pawned off on our nations children. This is not the first time that Don Bluth has attempted to corrupt the minds of our nations youth by allowing his extremist politics to pour in to his movies, which are geared to children.
The piece we will examine is another in a long line of propaganda that Bluth has presented to the nations young. This film does not deal with the overthrow of American fat cats as Bluths earlier film, An American Tail does, but instead focuses on the promotion of the Russian Revolution and the Triumph of the Soviets.
The Young Lenin
The movie begins by introducing us to an inefficient world that is dying around the protagonists. The protagonists, in this case, are vegetarian dinosaurs that represent the toiling labor and peasant classes in Russia. Their enemy is the meat-eating dinosaurs that prey upon them, who represent the capitalists.
Littlefoot, a small vegetarian longneck dinosaur, is born at the beginning of the film in to a poor environment. He learns the social norms that surround him, and learns that his people are in trouble, being exploited by the meat-eating dinosaurs. During the course of this section of the movie, a meat eating dinosaur kills a family member of Littlefoots, and he is left alone.
Littlefoot throughout the film represents Bolshevik leader V. I. Lenin. Lenin, in history, was born in to a poorer social class and his brother was killed by his government during an uprising. Like Littlefoot, this act against Lenins family would not be forgotten, and would spur him on. While Littlefoot was young, his mother had taught him about A Great Valley where all the vegetarian dinosaurs live together in a commune environment. This, of course, represents the ideals his revolutionary brother gave to Lenin.
Littlefoot is crushed after his family is lost, just as Lenin was. However, Littlefoot listens to the advice of a mysterious old dinosaur that happens to be wandering by him. This old dinosaur tells Littlefoot about The Great Valley and lumbers away. This old dinosaur almost looks as if he had a beard, and is obviously a representation of Karl Marx spewing forth his ideas of communism and class to the young Lenin.
Sarah, a triceratops, is introduced in earnest during this part of the film. Ignorant, individualistic, militaristic, and racist (three horns dont speak to longnecks!), Sarah is the representation of the old social customs of the Russia that was dying around Lenin, but taking the form of the Mensheviks. Littlefoot attempts to recruit Sarah to come to the Great Valley with him, but Sarah declines, asserting that she can do things herself. She runs in to a carnivorous dinosaur and attempts to defeat it, but fails, fleeing in terror. This demonstrates how values of capitalism are ineffective. While Sarah still supported many of capitalistic values, she still fell prey to the bigger capitalists.
The Russian Revolution
While Sarah strikes off by herself, Littlefoot finds and recruits Ducky an amphibious dinosaur that represents the Russian Navy and the propaganda that brought them over both. It is well known that the navy was the first to fall in to Bolshevik hands before the 1917 Revolution. Littlefoot and Ducky quickly run in to Pitri, a flying dinosaur that does not know how to fly. Pitri is ignorant, and represents the Russian industrial workers who do not know how to spread their wings and take control. Throughout the movie, Littlefoot encourages Pitri to fly. This falls in line with Lenins theory on a Vanguard Party being necessary to mold the masses in to a revolutionary body, as well as the Bolshevik emphesis on industrialization of Russia.
Finally, Littlefoot, Pitri, and Ducky recruit a large dinosaur that never speaks called Spike. Spike is born in a wheat like substance, and immediately consumes it. He stupidly follows the others. This represents the Russian peasant during the Russian Revolution. The fact that Spike cannot speak is a metaphor for the peasants being illiterate. The fact that Spike is very large represents the fact that the majority of Russians were peasants. Conversely, the fact that Pitri is very small represents the fact that there were not many Russian factory workers at the time.
The Provisional Russian Government
Sarah returns to the group as well, and begins to spew forth lies about her victory over the large unwieldy old capitalist system. Everyone except for Littlefoot is fooled in to believing in her bravery. This represents the initial Russian Revolution where a democratic capitalist body, the All-Russian Provisional Government, was put in charge. Sarah, still representing the Mensheviks, exclaims that she had victory, when the system and world are exactly the same as it always was. This is especially obvious by observing the next scene. Littlefoot, Spike, Ducky, and Pitri all work together to get food from a tree. Successful, they have plenty to eat. Sarah works by herself and gets a little bit of food. This is Don Bluths way of telling us that Lenins system of organization is better than individualism and capitalism! The group is only slightly impressed by Sarahs display, but immediately come to her side when she warns them that they are all in danger of predators. This danger she warns them about represents the capitalists, who are still the mutual ideologic enemies of the population.
Night falls and everyone, including Sarah, sneaks off to Littlefoot who welcomes them with open arms. This represents the Soviets inclusion within the Provisional Government, at the demand of the people.
Bluth portrays this unity as being short lived. As in history, the Russians are in trouble. In The Land Before Time, the carnivores find the group and attack, dispersing them. Littlefoot gathers all the other dinosaurs hes traveling with and pushes them foreword. He is going in the right direction, but things are getting tough. Sarah, who is still representing the Mensheviks, demands that the others stop following Littlefoot and follow her instead, though she is going the wrong way. The press, the industrial workers, and the peasants agree (Sarahs way is much easier) and follow Sarah away. This section of the movie represents the rise of Kerensky.
The Triumph of the Bolsheviks
The movie follows Sarah, who leads the others in to a much worse place than Littlefoot had led them in to. Worse yet, the group is left to die by Sarah, who becomes an exploiter. Ducky and Spike, the soldiers and peasantry respectfully, are restricted to a pillar and not allowed to move anywhere a symbol for their freedom being curtailed. Pitri, who is no longer interested in flying, falls in to tar and comes close to drowning. Sarah moves on ahead by herself, but again runs in to bigger capitalists who try to squash her. Symbolically, the provisional government is curtailing freedom, their economy is stuck, and bigger capitalist countries like Germany are continuing to exploit her.
Littlefoot comes rushing in. Ducky, Spike, and Pitri are freed by him and they race foreword. The carnivores get a single look at the group and flee, leaving Sarah alone. In this scene, we see Lenin freeing all the aspects of Russia and making the exploiters flee before their wake.
Finally, Littlefoot comes up with a plan. All the little dinosaurs are coordinated by him and they defeat the last carnivore. During the struggle, Pitri learns how to fly, and they all follow Littlefoot ahead to the Great Valley. Symbolically, the Russian Civil War happens here. The capitalists are still a menace and Lenin achieves victory over them and the Great Valley, communism, is achieved.
Part of the following trouble and Russian Civil War is revealed in the sequal, which is suspicously called, "The Time of the Great Sharing."
http://www.action-online.org/lbtrev.html
Discuss.
