Movies - The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists

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	Movies - The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists

The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists (1996) is a movie directed by Roy Allen Smith.

Plot summary

A heard of migrating longnecks comes to the Great Valley and brings alarming news about weather changes that transformed the hospitable land they came from to a wet, marshy land. Strange new creatures have begun to appear in this land, that is now known as “the land of mists”, and extrude the dinosaurs who had lived there so far. The Great Valley however is as beautiful as ever and there is no sign that any changes could happen there. Littlefoot quickly befriends with Ali, a shy but playful longneck girl from the migrating herd. Ali, however, has always lived with that herd, never got to know anyone but other longnecks, and is used to sticking with her own kind. So Ali regards Littlefoot’s friends with great distrust, a distrust that is returned especially by Cera.

But Littlefoot’s worries about the relationship between his old friends and his new friend Ali are soon replaced by a more urgent worry. Littlefoot’s grandfather takes ill stuck by a disease that the old one, the leader of the migrating herd, diagnoses to be fatal unless the patient in time eats the healing petals of the golden night flower that only grows in the land of mists. Worried by the tales of the changes in the outer world Littlefoot’s grandfather takes a terrible promise from Littlefoot; to leave the Great Valley with his grandmother and the herd in case anything happens to him.

As nobody is willing to risk a journey to the dangerous land of mists in order to get the night flower Littlefoot decides to go himself and sneaks away clandestinely at night. When he asks his new friend Ali to tell him the way to the night flower she decides not to tell him the way, but lead him right to it. She only asks Littlefoot to go without his old friends Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike whom he had planned to ask for their accompaniment. With mixed feeling Littlefoot agrees.

Very soon Littlefoot’s doubts turn out to be founded. When a rockslide caused by an earthquake buries Littlefoot alive in a cave that is the only passage to the land of mists. Ali finds herself in urgent need of help and returns to the Great Valley as quickly as possible in order to get help from Littlefoot’s friends. When they learn about Littlefoot’s peril Ducky, Petrie and especially Spike overcome their antipathy against Ali while Cera, still too proud to trust Ali and still offended by the fact that Littlefoot didn’t ask them to accompany him on the quest for the night flower decides to stay in the Great Valley, a decision however she does not stick to very long.

Inside the cave meanwhile Littlefoot is absolutely unaware of what is going on behind the debris of the rockslide and doesn’t even know if Ali too was lucky enough to survive it. Desperately he errs through the darkness of the cave seeking for another entrance. He meets Archie, a huge turtle who initially tries to be scary, but fails totally in this attempt to conceal his good nature. Ali tries to help Littlefoot digging through the debris of the rockslide which proves however really difficult even with Ali, Spike, Ducky and Petrie helping from the other side. The situation becomes really dangerous when Littlefoot and Archie encounter two other inhabitants of the cave. Ichty, a mean archeopetryx and Dill an almost blind Deinosuchus stick together although they cannot stand each other because each of them is dependent on the other one. Ichty is too small too weak to be able to hunt down sufficient prey while due to her almost blindness Dill’s enormous size and strength would be no good to her if her tiny companion wouldn’t lead her to the prey. Just when there seems to be no way for Littlefoot and Archie to escape the pair of villains anymore Cera appears and with her hard head makes to break through the debris of the rockslide whereby Ichty and Dill are temporarily put out of action by falling debris.

Yet saving the day and being the heroine doesn’t improve Cera’s opinion about Ali while all of the others are meanwhile on get along well with her. When during a talk after the rescue Archie for the first time learns about the actual reason why Littlefoot and the others were in the cave at all he shows them a shortcut through the caves to the land of mists.

Despite Ali’s warnings of the dangerous mists Cera soon gets separated from the others and lost in the mist. Seeking for her Littlefoot and the others encounter a great variety of creatures most of which do not turn out to be friendly minded. An exception is a little ratlike creature whom Ducky names Tickles and who helps the friends to find Cera.

In order not to get further lost Cera had stayed at the spot where she had been when she had lost sight of her friend but just when the mist thin out this very spot proves dangerous. Unaware because of the mists that she is at the edge of a river bank Cera jumps up upon seeing her friends again whereupon the edge Cera is standing on crumbles into the rapid river that caries Cera along. While they are trying to rescue Cera from drowning in the river Ichty and Dill appear for whom Cera in the river seems to be an easy pray. Only a brave and perilous action of Ali saves Cera and finally makes Cera seeing Ali as a friend.

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