The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock

The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock is a 1998 direct-to-video animated adventure musical film and the sixth film in The Land Before Time series about five dinosaurs who live in the Great Valley. It is the first film in which Thomas Dekker is both the singing and speaking voice of Littlefoot. This was the second The Land Before Time direct-to-video film to be produced and directed by Charles Grosvenor, and the South Korean studio AKOM's last overseas animation work on the franchise, as well as the final film to use traditional cel animation.

Plot
One night, Littlefoot's grandfather tells the children a legend about "The Lone Dinosaur", a legendary Longneck who protected the Great Valley from the most ferocious Sharptooth to ever live. During the fight, the Sharptooth was killed and the Lone Dinosaur suffered a scar across his right eye. Soon after the battle, a huge monolith resembling a sauropod with life-sized Sharptooth teeth arranged around his neck came out of the ground during an earthshake. The dinosaurs called it "Saurus Rock". The legend also states that if anyone damages the monolith, bad luck would descend upon the Valley.

The next day, while the children are playing, Littlefoot accidentally falls off a cliff and is saved by a mysterious Diplodocus named Doc. Littlefoot is intrigued by Doc, who is scarred across one eye and displays prior knowledge of the Great Valley's topography. This causes him to assume Doc is the Lone Dinosaur. He tells his friends this, narrating an apparently extemporaneous legend to support his assumption. Inspired, Cera's infant nieces, twins Dinah and Dana, go to Saurus Rock unnoticed. The next day, a worried Cera informs Littlefoot that Dinah and Dana are missing, and the group deduces where they are headed.

When Littlefoot and his friends finally reach Saurus Rock, they see Dinah and Dana on the top. As they climb up to rescue them, Dinah and Dana fall off the top and land on Cera, and a bolt of lightning strikes the life-sized stone tooth she is standing on, igniting a fire that immediately engulfs Saurus Rock and spreads rapidly throughout the Great Valley. The children try to put out the fire before it spreads, but the accident leads to Littlefoot and Cera arguing and fighting which leads to a schism that divides Littlefoot from the others when he says that they should go their own way. As they walk home, an Allosaurus chases them. The children cross a gorge via a suspended log, but when the Sharptooth tries to follows them, the log breaks under its weight and it falls to its apparent death. When they get home, they are confronted by Cera's father, who scolds Cera for her disobedience and not properly caring for the twins. He tells her that he is very angry and disappointed and tells her to immediately march herself right home. He continues with his talk on her that she still must be watched herself. That night, Littlefoot has a nightmare in which he is sent to Hell for eternity.

Over the next few days, incidents of bad luck plague the Valley. After a tornado hits the Valley, the adults blame Doc, as the misfortunes apparently occurred after his arrival, while Littlefoot blames himself and his friends, recalling the breaking of Saurus Rock. Eager to exonerate Doc, Littlefoot attempts to take one of the Sharptooth's teeth to replace the broken stone. In the process, he discovers the Sharptooth is still alive. After temporarily escaping it, Littlefoot is attacked by a Tyrannosaurus, with Grandpa intervening, having been led there by Littlefoot's friends. Soon the Allosaurus returns and works together with the Tyrannosaurus to take down Grandpa Longneck. However, Doc comes to the rescue. The sharpteeth charge through and run into the rock spire and fall down. Doc and Grandpa work together (now that the sharpteeth are down) to pull down a category of rocks and crush the carnivores to death. When the carnivores are now defeated (after the two longnecks have encased them into a pile of rocks), one of the teeth from the Allosaurus falls out and lands on the ground. Then the children use the broken out tooth (from the Allosaurus) to repair Saurus Rock.

Doc departs, remarking that Littlefoot already has a hero on whom to depend on, referring to Grandpa. Littlefoot asks Grandpa if the bad luck will finally be over. They both agree that while there is no such thing as bad luck, there is also no harm in making sure. Littlefoot and Cera later build a legend of their own based on this new paradigm, portraying Grandpa Longneck as a hero and savior called "The Great Dinosaur".

Voice Cast

 * Kenneth Mars as Grandpa Longneck and the narrator.
 * Thomas Dekker as Littlefoot
 * Anndi McAfee as Cera
 * Aria Curzon as Ducky
 * Jeff Bennett as Petrie/Spike
 * Kris Kristofferson as Doc
 * Miriam Flynn as Grandma Longneck
 * John Ingle as Cera's father
 * Nancy Cartwright as Dana
 * Sandy Fox as Dinah
 * Danny Mann as Allosaurus

Songs
The songs are written by Michele Brourman and Amanda McBroom.
 * The Legend of the Lone Dinosaur - Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie, Spike, Dinah and Dana (Thomas Dekker, Anndi McAfee, Aria Curzon and Jeff Bennett)
 * Bad Luck - Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Petrie and Spike (Thomas Dekker, Anndi McAfee, Aria Curzon and Jeff Bennett)
 * On Your Own - Littlefoot (Thomas Dekker)

Soundtrack
"If We Hold on Together" (instrumental)

Home video release history

 * December 1, 1998 (VHS and laserdisc - Universal Family Features)
 * December 4, 2001 (VHS)
 * April 1, 2003 (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
In August 2014, the New York Post ranked each of the 13 Land Before Time films released up to that point and placed The Secret of Saurus Rock at number 11, calling it "boring and uninspired."

Cultural references

 * Beethoven's 3rd shows some scenes from this film.
 * "The Lone Dinosaur" is based on The Lone Ranger.