Tonight I watched The Land Before Time for the first time in at least 25 years.

I'm about to turn 35 and for the past week or so I've been thinking an awful lot about my childhood. I feel like I've fallen into the trap that a lot of us do at this age; getting stuck in a rut with the mundane tasks that adult life throws at us, feeling our perception of our environment narrowing further to single points of focus...but the big one... THE BIG ONE...is forgetting what it was like to be a kid.​Two years ago (or there abouts) my older brother brought me The Land Before Time as a birthday gift because he remembered how much I used to love it as a child. Until tonight it sat on my shelf, unopened.​A couple of days ago I was reading a Reddit post asking 'what fictional death fucked you up as a kid' and someone mentioned The Land Before Time and Littlefoot's mother dying, and someone replied with a link to that scene, and another scene equally as upsetting ( which I'll get to shortly)​I clicked and watched it. Now, bear in mind I hadn't watched this film in at least 25 years, but as I watched, it was like my whole fucking childhood just came flooding in.​I mean, first of all the scene had me in tears, as it had done many times as a kid, but there was more to it than just that. I had forgotten what the film actually looked like. The animation, the sounds, the imagery...it was kind of overwhelming. It just brought back so many memories of watching the film with my mum, curtains drawn, just snuggled on the sofa.​So, I asked my girlfriend if she would watch the film with me. She agreed, but I warned her that she would have to put up with a few tears.​A few tears was a understatement.​Littlefoot's mother's death was fucking painful. And the later scene where he thinks he has seen her but it was just his shadow just fucking did me in. I watched a review after the film, and the guy said that what separates this movie from others that have showed loss was not only did we see Littlefoot lose his mother, but we saw the aftermath of that; the loneliness, the helplessness, the isolation. I mean, fuck me, this was supposed to be for kids. But no matter how upsetting it was as a kid I feel its even worse now watching it as an adult. We're all closer to death now than we ever were, and our loved ones are closer. I knew I was in for a rough ride watching it again as an adult, but fuck's sake I had no idea it would wreck me like it has done tonight.​But the film has so many uplifting moments. It's about friendship, overcoming fear, going forwards towards a goal no matter how distant or how hard. It's also a funny film! Petrie was hilarious! I had forgotten the scene where he tries to whistle to signal the others but just ends up blowing air in a fit of panic, and when he throws the rock at the sharptooth and bellows in laughter had me laughing like I was a kid all over again.​Tonight was like diving into a time capsule of my own life, just taking a moment to remember what it was like to be a kid again. I loved it. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2zZVJFi