The Land Before Time IV: Journey Through the Mists is a 1996 direct-to-video animated adventure musical film directed by Roy Allen Smith. This is the fourth Land Before Time sequel directed by Smith and the last to feature any of the original voice cast. This also marked the first animated film that Award-winning cartoonist Roque Ballesteros worked on.
Littlefoot’s grandfather is dreadfully ill and a golden flower is the only hope to cure him, but it lies within the land of the Mists so Littlefoot and his friends Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike and newcomer, Ali, journey through the mists to find it. Mayhem and danger await around every turn.
Of all the Land Before Time sequels, this one is probably my overall favorite one, this is the one that I feel comes the closest to actually being of worth, like actual effort was put in to make a quality project and it shows.
The animation in this one is probably the highest quality up to this point, just the third act that takes place in the nighttime with the golden flowers alone is worth it, and some of the songs themselves are surprisingly really good too:
The voice work is really solid all around in this one too and they introduce some pretty fun characters that bring a lift to this series so it doesn’t feel like the same movie…although most of these new characters don’t return in future films.
There are couple of nitpicky things here and there, some of the story elements are a little predictable and there is kind of a pointless moment regarding Spike, who never talks, there’s a bit towards the end of the movie where the two villains, Dil (voiced by Tress MacNellie) and Ichy (voiced by Jeff Bennett) corner the dinos and the chase climaxes when Ducky, while retrieving a Night Flower that Littlefoot accidentally drops, is nabbed by Ichy, fought over by him and Petrie, who tries to rescue her, and winds up falling into a river after the fight results in a draw. The fall into the river temporarily knocks her unconscious. Dil unknowingly fishes her out of the water, and when Ichy alerts her that she has, she then attempts to eat her (after claiming Ducky as hers), flinging her into the air with her snout and intending to catch her in her jaws when she comes back down. Spike then speaks for the first time by calling out Ducky’s name, which awakens her in midair and prompts her to grab a tree branch to save herself.
And then, this moment is never mentioned again from this point on in the franchise, albeit a brief little bit at the end of the film, but why even have this moment when it has never been brought up before or after this movie if you had no intention on continuing on with it. It’d be like the equivalent of Gromit from Wallace & Gromit or Shaun The Sheep just randomly talking like a normal person for a brief bit and then never mentioning it again, it just feels pointless.
But besides that, Journey Through The Mists is one of the few Land Before Time sequels that actually does hold up better with time and actually is overall enjoyable, it’s got great animation, good songs, great new characters to like, good voice work, it’s an overall enjoyable movie. If there’s any sequel I’m going to recommend, this one is probably the one to watch.
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