L'ère de glace: L'aube des dinosaures

My wife and I attended an early press screening for the third Ice Age installment two weeks ago and had a wonderful time. The film easily tops the second outing of the series, and is right on par with the first - with just the right mixture of new characters and settings vs. the older ones we've all grown to love (especially Scrat. I can watch a whole movie with this guy).

This time around, Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby mammoth, something that leads to unexpected responds from Diego and Sid. When Sid decides to become a parent himself in return, he steals three giant eggs he accidentally bumps into, only to later realize they're dinosaur eggs that belong to a pretty angry mother. When mother-dinosaur kidnaps Sid, it's up to Manny and friends to return him home safely. Adventures ensue as they find out that underneath their icy world lives a land filled with enormous and sometimes menacing dinosaurs, one which our friends would need to cross in order to rescue Sid.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is cute but not insulting, the visuals are stunning and if you forgive the obvious historical loophole (there were no dinosaurs during the Ice Age) you can actually have quite a good time. The dinosaurs add a lot to the plot, and there's actually a very cool, nice sense of adventure throughout the film, one that was somewhat missing (in my opinion) from the previous installment. All this adds to a fun and thrilling experience - alongside the visuals, jokes and general good atmosphere.

To sum things up - Ice Age 3 is an above average animated film, that'll appeal to grown-ups and kids alike. I gave it 9 out of 10.

I haven't had so many laff-out-loud moments in a movie for a long time. There's about an even mix of verbal and visual gags in this 3rd installment of the Ice Age family saga, they're all fresh instead of hackneyed, and they all work. You wouldn't think a film set in the age of mammoths would be able to run a parody of the old "red wire vs. blue wire" time-bomb scenario, but they find an ingenious way to do it.

Now those among you who haven't fallen prey to creationism are well aware that mammoths are very large mammals (and hence quite recent in geological time), while the last of the dinosaurs went extinct 65,000,000 years ago. So how does the plot explain their coexistence? Well, it seems that there's this entire hidden tropical world underneath the eponymous ice, and our heroes literally fall into it. (Don't overthink it.)

Suddenly Manny the mammoth and his pregnant mate Ellie discover that they're not only not the largest creatures on Earth, as they'd thot, but actually pretty petite compared to the Mama T. Rex, who in turn has to look up to Dad. It's a classic tale of nature red in tooth and claw, except for nobody actually getting eaten. (Well, several critters are swallowed whole but subsequently disgorged, slimy with saliva but basically unhurt; family film, y'know.)

The animation is terrific. Judging from the end credits, apparently the Astor beaver trade, long thot to be extinct, has experienced a renaissance in the animated-fur factories of California. Dino babies and mammal kids are ridiculously endearing. The 3-D is likewise terrific, well used where appropriate (especially in conveying a sense of scale for the underworld) but not overdone. The one carp I have is that 3-D simply does not lend itself to dissolves between scenes; I'm guessing the filmmakers figured this out themselves, as most of the time they used cuts.

The characters, familiar now from the 2 previous films, are well acted with distinctive personalities, and the comic-relief possums have an expanded role. New to the cast is Scratte, a long-lashed female squirrel who, in a running subplot (including mini-cartoons to both start and end the flik), vies with the iconic acorn for the undying devotion of Scrat. As a devotee of the tango, I particularly appreciated their version of it. Also new is Buck, a bold, intrepid, 1-eyed buccaneer of a weasel, voiced by Simon Pegg with British accent in full flower.

Really, it's amazing to realize how much stuff they managed to cram into barely an hour and a half. Never a dull moment, never a missed step. Why, then, does it not get my top rating? Not at all because, as a comedy, it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously. After all, Dogma was a comedy, and it maxed out on my rating scale. But Ice Age 3 wasn't quite an entire story, more a collection of loosely related parts. Every one of those parts was well done, tho; indeed, I'd gladly take any of them over the entire 2.5 hours of the noxious Transformers; sadly, this much better film probably won't do nearly as well at the box office. Too bad.

Its all about family in essence. Starting one, keeping one, becoming one, protecting one. A family film about family is always going to ring the right bells (unless Eddie Murphys in it), and this is no exception! It's funny, its sharp, it's clever, and when it wants too will tug on your heart strings. It's everything a great family film should be. It has just as much humour to keep the grown ups happy as it does the kids.

It's not perfect; it starts fairly slowly with scenes we've already scene twenty times in the trailer, but the further you go into this adventure the more fun you will have.

A fantastic new addition to the franchise is "Buck" (Simon Pegg) a looney tune hermit possum who joins the herd around half way through. When he enters the scene, the whole movie shifts up a gear! Some of the stuff he comes out with will have you rolling in the isle! If you have the chance, you must see it in 3D! It's amazing how this new version of such an old and dated technology can suck you even deeper into a film! The chases are more exciting, the locations more real, it works so well! And it doesn't give you a migraine!

Overall - Like a franchise should, Ice Age gets better and better and better! If you liked the first, you'll love the second! If you loved the second, you'll go crazy for the third! 2D - 8/10 3D - 9/10

Ice age 3 was really funny and it stays true to the series. Same old characters, a whole new adventure that everyone at any age can enjoy.

I saw the critics and I thought to my self that it would be good, but I didn't expect much, but I really did enjoy it more than I thought. It may not be the best compared to the other Ice Age films, but it still a great thrill ride that the audience can enjoy.

And if you find a theater near you that has it in digital 3D, go and watch it in 3D, because the action and adventure will excite you even more than it actually does.

Normally people think since it's a third part, then the movie won't be that great, but hear me when I say that keep that thought out of your mind and parents, take your kids with you, they are sure to leave with a smile and a long lasting excitement for more.

100% enjoyable, its a 10!

Just an overall perfect family movie but adults can enjoy it as well and simon pegg as buck was a great addition. My wife and I watched this film just us 2 old farts and we enjoyed the heck out of it. We own the 3d bluray yes we're the few the proud the extinct the 3d LOVERS !! Cant understand why more people didn't give it a go some of the bluray movie we own I cant imagine not being 3d!! Gravity is a 7. Hut as a 3d it's a 10!! Even titanic was better in 3d!! And avatar forget it. A 3d MASTERPIECES!! Anyway enjoy bvb this movie it's a blast!!