Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

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

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.

--Some minor spoilers, skip the part that describes the plot if you don't want to know anything about it--

Personally, I didn't like the second "Ice Age" movie that much. I thought it just wasn't original enough, and couldn't make an impact compared to the great original. So, since movies franchises often have the tendency to get worse with each sequel, I wasn't expecting very much of the third Ice Age movie "Dawn of the Dinosaurs". But, I have to admit, it was quite entertaining and funny, with many jokes and funny situations. The change of location from the white ice world, the main characters inhabited in the first two films, to the lush and green jungle, also did the movie some good, because the optic is just different and more exciting. While the first Ice Age movie still remains unreached by either of the sequels, the third one considerably improves on the second one, with more humor, better action and interesting ideas.       

Manfred and Ellie, the two mammoths, are expecting a baby, and Manfred, who is really happy to become a father tries everything to make his wife more comfortable and happy. Meanwhile, the saber-toothed tiger Diego, has to deal with the fact, that he is not the youngest anymore, and that his instincts and reflexes are getting worse. He decides to leave his herd, because he feels his life is coming to an end. Sid, the sloth, wants to have children of his own, and when he discovers three abandoned eggs in a cave, he decides to take them with him. One morning, he realizes that three dinosaurs have hatched from the eggs, and to make matters worse their mother is already looking for them. She attacks Sid and her three babies and abducts them to her world, a large, lush and green jungle, that is located directly under the thick layer of ice. Manfred, Ellie, the two opossums Crash and Eddie, decide to save Sid and eventually meet up with Diego on the way again. They are then joined by the mad wannabe pirate Buck, a weasel, who lost his eye to a gigantic monster, named Rudy, that lives somewhere deep in the jungle. Sid, meanwhile, tries to convince the dinosaurs' mother, that he can provide more for the children than her, but eventually has to accept that children belong to their real mother. The squirrel Scrat, once again reunited with his precious nut, has to deal with an entirely new problem. A femme fatal squirrel, who uses her charm to take Scrat's nut away from him. Being a lot smarter and trickier than him, she gets to keep the nut for most of the time, but eventually falls in love with Scrat, after he saves her from deadly lava. But what is more important to Scrat, his nut or his new girlfriend?

With so many animated movies flooding the market these days, it becomes quite hard to come up with new ideas. Talking animals certainly isn't one, but if the characters have enough history and emotion, it really doesn't matter. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" really profits from a slightly new approach to the material, which includes some very obvious parodies. The new character of Buck was most definitely inspired by Jack Sparrow from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the final battle could have directly come from one of the "Star Wars" movies. Then we have the dinosaurs, who are, of course, extremely evil and always hunt down the main characters. All in all, the movies appears slightly stretched and has some relatively slow bits, for which the beginning and ending compensate, though. Especially the first 20-25 minutes, are some of the funniest in any Ice Age movie. And the scenes involving Scrat and his new girlfriend are just as funny as they have always been.

Then we have once again, the actors who give the characters their voices. Ray Romano, who has such a unique voice, speaks Manfred, Denis Leary is Diego, John Leguizamo is Sid and Queen Latifah is Ellie. Buck, the pirate, is voiced by British actor Simon Pegg. Animated movies can never be judged according to acting, because the true leading actors here are the animators. But just as we are used to, the previously mentioned actors put their best effort into providing their character's voice.

So, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is entertaining and enjoyable, but certainly not the best animated movie of the year. Still it is a good 90 minute time filler, and those who enjoyed the previous Ice Age films, will definitely also like this one. (3.5/5)

The third installment in the Ice Age movie franchise is funny and entertaining, with some very original ideas, but certain lengths throughout the entire film.

I'm a fan of the Ice Age movies and I think they're quite funny to watch and it's one for kids and adults but is a trilogy always a good idea? After Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, a lot has happened for these lovable characters. Now that Ellie and Manny are together, they are going to have a baby which leaves Manny wanting everything to be perfect for when the addition arrives. Diego is bored and takes a look at his attitude and wonders if he's too laid-back about everything. Ice Age wouldn't be Ice Age without Scrat who is still trying to catch that acorn but has met his match when female sabre-tooth squirrel, Scratte, wants the acorn too. After Sid sees how happy Manny and Ellie are, he wants a family of his own so he steals three dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid being kidnapped to a weird underground world where his friends have to save him.

The animation is simply brilliant and very well done and the characters are funnier too, especially the little clips of Scrat and Scratte fighting over the acorn. The story in the movie was very good for a kids' movie and adults can be assured that they will like it too. The jokes were quite funny and there were some sneaky jokes in there for adults but children wouldn't probably see it. Also the one-liners in the movie are pretty funny too, such as when Manny says to Sid, "Don't worry, you'll meet a nice girl with low standards". The cast who lend their voices for our heroes were great too, especially Simon Pegg as Buck who added a bit more of comedy to the movie.

Overall, I would say that this is better than the second movie but not the first. It's a great watch for kids and adults alike and is sure not to disappoint.

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The Ice Age series gives up any semblance of realism by doing a dinosaur cross-over to keep appeal up for the kiddos. Who doesn't like dinosaurs?

Sienna's Rating: 8 Stars Sebastian's Rating: 8 Stars Paul's Rating: 7 Stars.