Director: Carlos Saldanha Starring: voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Simon Pegg Running Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes Theatrical Release: July 1, 2009 Shop for Ice Age Merchandise

Plot Summary

In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, much-loved characters from the worldwide blockbusters Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown are back, on an incredible adventure… for the ages. Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive nut (while, maybe, finding true love); Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) await the birth of their mini-mammoth, Sid (John Leguizamo) the sloth gets into trouble when he creates his own makeshift family by hijacking some dinosaur eggs; and Diego (Denis Leary) the saber-toothed tiger wonders if he’s growing too “soft” hanging with his pals. On a mission to rescue the hapless Sid, the gang ventures into a mysterious underground world, where they have some close encounters with dinosaurs, battle flora and fauna run amuck – and meet a relentless, one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

With the success of two films preceding it, Fox Animation Studio brings moviegoers Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, also known as Ice Age 3. The first film bowed in 2002, offering a unique if not relatively simple animation style to tell the story of a group of unlikely animal friends who band together during the Ice Age of Earth’s history. The 2006 sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown continued the story of these characters, developing them a bit further and introducing a few new characters into the mix. Now, another three years later, Dawn Of The Dinosaurs further tells the story of this animal “herd” as they accidentally discover a world of prehistoric animals that they had long thought to be extinct.

While some sequels tend to copy themselves in an attempt to recapture the success of the first film (or the sequel before it), Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs feels very much like a continuation of the series and not so much a retread. In fact, these films rarely repeat lines or moments from each other, giving it a natural flow from one film to the next. If anything is repetitive, it’s the welcomed presence of the prehistoric squirrel, Scrat, and his desperate attempts to snag an acorn. It’s very much the whole Trix rabbit not being able to get a bowl of Trix kind of gag, but with Scrat it works. And to keep things fresh, Scrat meets a new nemesis, Scratte, a female prehistoric squirrel. The interactions are hilarious and we finally get to see Scrat obsess over something else for a change. In fact, as love becomes an interest of Scrat’s, family becomes a major theme in this installation of the series. Manny’s longing for a family was a theme for the first two films and the anticipation of a pending newborn between he and Ellie becomes much of what Ice Age 3 focuses on, while Sid expresses his desires to be a parent.

While the animation in 2002′s Ice Age was anything but impressive, watching the films in succession (which, admittedly, is what I did before seeing this third film), highlights the growth and maturation of the animation quality with each Ice Age movie. It’s obvious that Fox Animation Studio has grown in its budget and quality over the past seven years. Even last year’s Horton Hears A Who film from Fox Animation displayed incredible quality. Dawn Of The Dinosaurs ups the ante for this particular series. I couldn’t help notice how great these characters looked now.

The Meltdown introduced three new characters into the series: Ellie the female mammoth, and the possum brothers Crash and Eddie. All three return in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, and all of the gripes I felt about their characters were remedied this time around. Crash and Eddie felt less irritating and overly cheesy, and were used more sparingly — seemingly more so when the moment felt right. Also, Queen Latifah’s delivery of her lines felt more natural in this “threequel,” while last time it felt more forced or rigid. One major new (talking) character is featured in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, the one-eyed weasel Buck, who happens to be gradually losing his mind. Voiced by British comedy actor Simon Pegg, Buck is one of the most fun additions to the series, and he offers some of the funniest moments in Ice Age 3.

The content in Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs earns its PG rating quite easily. For one, the presence of the dinosaurs make for some pretty intense moments in this movie. A few times, they menacingly pop up out of nowhere with creepy eyes and such. We see Diego chasing down a deer to kill for food (but he gets tired before he reaches it), and we see a fair amount of dinosaurs threatening the main characters all throughout the film. While the sea monsters were pretty intense in The Meltdown, this movie is a few times more intense than that. Also in the previous sequel, there was some mild language used for cheap laughs (like the “a” word and “d*mn”) but none of that is used here, which is a nice change. However, several moments of innuendo or mild sexual humor are made. They’re inappropriate and unnecessary, but probably subtle enough that kids won’t pick up on it (check out the content details after this review, but references to a caterpillar “coming out” into a butterfly, Sid accidentally trying to milk a male ox thinking it was a female, etc, are the kind of tasteless jokes that it opts for). The whole movie doesn’t run on gags like this which is good, but the humor does ride the line at times.

Overall, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is a pleasant surprise as a sequel. While Shrek The Third was a letdown from Shrek 2, Dawn Of The Dinosaurs improves on its predecessor. It retains just enough of the heart that each of the movies contains to still feel part of the series, but it changes things up enough not to feel like each movie is a retread. If you’re looking for a lighter alternative to the heavier thematic material like that from Up, or are just looking for a fun adventure film, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs delivers. If they decide to end the series here, it’s a fine finish, but if they do decide to continue on, here’s to hoping they can only build on the series instead of run it into the ground (like Shrek seems to be threatening to do as Shrek Forever After is slated for release next year).