Up until now this series has been suffering from the 'odd-numbered sequel good, even-membered sequel bad' syndrome and so I approached this latest entry with caution. I needn't have worried. This is a well-made, entertaining and memorable film which will appeal to people of all ages. The Lone Dinosaur (based on the Lone Ranger) is a particularly good character and the dream sequences add a surreal edge to the film. A must-see.

The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock, the sixth installment in the Land Before Time series. Again another decent enough sequel that gets a very unfair rating, this movie was a little step below the fifth sequel, but still I did enjoy watching this sequel because it focused more on family. Also just the responsibility some kids have to face when they have a new member in the family and how hard it can be to watch out for their younger relatives. A lot of kids could relate to this story. We also have a good moral that it's OK to ask the adults for help if a child does feel responsible for something they did and wants to fix it. The Secret of Saurus Rock certainly is a good story and once again just gives us lighthearted clean fun for the family and kids.

Littlefoot's grandfather tells the children a story about "The Lone Dinosaur", a legendary longneck who once protected the Great Valley from the most ferocious sharptooth ever to live. However, the sharptooth left "The Lone Dinosaur" with a scar slashed across his right eye. Soon after the battle, a huge monolith that resembled a proud sauropod, having life-sized tyrannosaur teeth arranged around his neck, came out of the ground during an earthquake. The dinosaurs called it "Saurus Rock". The legend also states that if anyone damages the monolith, bad luck would descend upon the valley. A few days later when the kids are playing, Littlefoot accidentally falls off a cliff. Just before he hits the ground, a strange longneck dinosaur rescues him. This longneck introduces himself only as "Doc" and gives no knowledge of his history. Littlefoot is intrigued by this newcomer, who is scarred across one eye and displays prior knowledge of the Great Valley. For the preceding reasons, Littlefoot assumes that Doc is the Lone Dinosaur. Inspired, Cera's infant niece and nephew, the twins Dinah and Dana, go to Saurus Rock without anyone noticing. Later when the friends are playing, they notice that Dinah and Dana are missing. When they 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, causing the life-sized stone tooth on which she is standing to break off. Over the next few days, ill fortunes ranging from injuries to a tornado plague the valley. The adults blame Doc, in whose wake the misfortunes have apparently come, while Littlefoot blames himself and his friends, recalling the breaking of Saurus Rock. But Littlefoot is convinced that he can fix everything by going back to break off a dinosaur's sharp tooth to save the valley.

The Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock is a good movie, I really liked the tribute to the lone ranger. Granted I know some kids won't get the little tribute to him, but it's still fun for them to see a dinosaur kind of cowboy, as silly as that sounds, it was good for the film. I also loved how Littlefoot just had this big heart and wanted to fix everything for his family and the other's in the Valley. The Secret of Saurus Rock is very fun to watch, I think it's a little notch below from what I've seen so far in the series, but not enough to say that this was a dreadful movie, I liked it and do recommend it for the kids and family.

5/10

Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky Petrie, and Spike listen to Grandpa Longneck's stories of a heroic longneck known as The Lone Dinosaur who heroicly and selflessly protected those at the mercy of Sharpteeth. The story ends with the Lone Dinosaur leaving as mysteriously as he came and a Longneck shaped rock appearing during in earthquake that they name Saurus Rock, along with a legend stating that should anything happen to it a curse of bad luck will descend upon the Great Valley. Littlefoot becomes fascinated with the Lone Dinosaur legends, even acting them out with his friends, only to find the sudden appearance of a soft spoken Dinosaur named Doc who bares a striking resemblance to the Lone Dinosaur.

The Land Before Time: The Secret of Saurus Rock marks the sixth entry in the direct to video film series and the last to use traditional cell animation before all Universal Home Video exclusives switched to digital ink and paint. The movie continues with the Charles Grosvenor era of Land Before Time sequels going for more high concept premises than the relatively grounded "lesson based" affairs of the Roy Allen Smith entries. This time Grosvenor along with writers Libby Hinson and John Hoy, give us a very odd sequel with western hero subtext.

When we are introduced into the movie by Grandpa Longneck's story (with an amusing sight of the group gathered around a volcanic vent as if it were a camp fire that was mildly amusing) the amount of western references in the story is enough to make your head spin. Not only do we have the rather obvious parallel between Lone Dinosaur and Lone Ranger, but the story even ends with a reference to the Alan Ladd movie Shane. Even Doc who may or may not be the Lone Dinosaur (the movie never makes it clear if he is or not) is voiced by Kris Kristofferson who plays the "man of few words" trope to a "T".

There's sort of an endearing cheesiness to Secret of Saurus Rock with its on the nose western themes (including a song Little Foot sings that's reminiscent of singing cowboy movies) that it's honestly kind of hard not to crack a smile. The rest of the movie is pretty standard land before time stakes involving a macgruffin that needs to be chased, retrieved, or etc and encounters with various hazards and obstacles. The one draw back is a pair of obnoxiously high pitched baby three-horns, Dana and DInah (confusingly identified as Cera's nieces since Cera calls herself "Auntie Cera") who are basically chaos engines designed to get in trouble and spout gibberish.

Land Before Time VI continues the franchise for better or worse. It's a decent enough movie for kids as far as children's direct to video films go.