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Info:
  • Movie: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
  • Rating: PG
  • Running Time: 1 hrs. 27 min.
  • Starring (Voices): Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, and Bill Hader
  • Written By: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman
  • Directed By: Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier
  • Distributor: 20th Century Fox
  • Series:

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS Review

Prehistoric Nonhysterics for Ice Age 3

By Rob Vaux     July 02, 2009


Mania's Review of ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS(2009).
© Fox/Robert Trate

 

Rarely have the words "competent," "workmanlike" and "passable" been so appropriate as with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. It exists solely to make money, an unnecessary embellishment of a moderately cute children's movie which has little going for it beyond brand name recognition. To be fair, it neither vexes nor offends, content simply to present a straightforward narrative as cleanly and amusingly as possible. Undemanding children should enjoy another go 'round with Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) and his friends, while adults will likely prefer it to a number of less appealing cinematic options. Thus, it should prove to be a solid hit, despite possessing no qualities that haven't been vetted, homogenized and test-screened to within an inch of their lives.
 
Standard procedure with films like this is to regurgitate most of the tropes which worked in previous entries--with a few variations to keep them from feeling too musty--while adding a handful of wacky new characters to justify another line of toys. The former appears in copious amounts, notably with Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel who acts as the franchise mascot. Dawn of the Dinosaurs provides him with a fetching lady squirrel to confront, vying for the same old acorn even as they engage in a tempestuous romance. The concept retains only the faintest whiff of its original hilarity (seriously, there have got to be other nuts out there) and Scrat's new paramour struggles to register as anything beyond a grab-bag of vaguely sexist clichés.
 
As for the wacky new characters, they serve mainly to move the plot in an interesting direction as Manny, his pregnant girlfriend Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (voiced by Denis Leary) and those two possums from the second film (who must have names of some sort) head off to rescue Sid the sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) from the clutches of a mommy Tyrannosaurus. Desperate for love and validation, Sid inadvertently hatched the T. Rex's eggs and soon found himself dragged back to a hidden underground kingdom where dinosaurs still rule. When his friends launch a rescue effort, they receive unexpected aid in the form of Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg), a survivalist weasel who's learned how to thrive among the rampaging thunder lizards.
 
Buck exemplifies Dawn of the Dinosaurs' cloying ethos: modestly amusing, but clearly intended to be a lot funnier than he is. Pegg lends him some personality by giving him a Steve Irwin accent, while the script (written by a veritable platoon of humorists) provides him with an interesting background involving a Godzillian carnivore named Rudy. It works on a basic level--Pegg is charming, as always, and the character has some fun things to do--but it lacks inspiration and the routine execution strongly suggests a filmmaking attitude that stopped at "good enough."
 
So too does the remainder of Dawn of the Dinosaurs play all of the expected cards in its hand.
 
Manny gets to exemplify some squishy messages about sticking by your friends, Sid gets to be a good hearted doofus while tripping over his own toes, and Diego gets to keep suspiciously mum about what exactly he eats (Hollywood has yet to figure out how to put Leary to good use). It remains amiable and harmless, aided by nice graphic design and a brand of humor which maintains reliably comforting. Yet nothing here resonates beyond the level required to pay for the Burger King glass; Manny's impending fatherhood emulates every bad sit-com cliché on the topic, and the rest of the film provides little more than pretty backgrounds and a few decently choreographed action scenes. It should suffice for the wee ones, and parents looking for family-friendly entertainment will find nothing objectionable on display. But in a year that has produced the likes of Up and Coraline, Dawn of the Dinosaurs counters with nothing but energetic mediocrity and a studio all too willing to settle for it.
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1 
westend 7/2/2009 9:48:50 AM

 So now were are teaching our kids that dinosaurs existed after the ice age?  

hanso 7/2/2009 11:04:52 AM

Yes the possums do have names.  Crash & Eddie. 

pekstrand 7/2/2009 4:39:36 PM

I always love it when adults review children's films and try and apply the same standards as they do to films aimed at adults. For parents, like myself, the only thing we car about is did our kids enjoy it. My kids, 5 & 8 years old, had a ball, laughing and enjoying throughout. I'm sorry the reviewer found it so pedestrian, perhaps he should watch kids faces and see what the intended audiences reaction is.

almostunbiased 7/2/2009 9:21:40 PM

I disagree.  Pixar makes movies for all ages and I appreciate that.

ludovicotek 7/3/2009 4:28:22 AM

 Dennis Leary is absolutely great in The Ref. If you haven't seen it yet, do so.

originaldave77 7/3/2009 6:23:59 AM

I just have to scratch my head that they managed to squeeze out a whole trilogy in 1/3 the time Toy Story did, using material that is only fit for one movie. Same goes for Shrek.  

RaithManan 7/3/2009 8:07:50 AM

Generally, Ice Age had been released around March, but with being mixed in with the summer batch, it was almost forgotten with much of the focus going to Transformers, Public Enemies and Harry Potter.

Yeah its doing well for now, but for some reason I'm not quite feeling Ice Age this time around, despite having the itch for another round of Skrat's antics.  It just hasn't grabbed a hold of me yet. 

RaithManan 7/3/2009 8:11:07 AM

And yeah I agree also, Leary was a riot in The Ref.  Its one of the most underrated comedy-drama films done and still Leary's best film.

zaldar 7/4/2009 7:00:31 AM

Pek.   A good movie is a good movie.  Up was amied at kids and is a MUCH better movie that the kids still enjoyed, as was coraline.  I car much more than if my kids had fun.  Did they get anything out of it...did they learn anything just to name a few.

wrrlykam 7/4/2009 4:00:17 PM

Nothing we haven't seen before but as a family movie it delivered the stuff. Watching others in the cinema the parents went 'aahhhh' at the right points and most seemed to doing the I'm enjoying this and finding it funny sort of laughing.

At least no one left the cinema in floods of tears like they did with My Sister's Keeper. I'm so glad I went to see Ice Age 3D rather than my wife's choice of My Sister's Keeper.

The 3D seem incidental to the movie rather than the lets put as many yoyos at screen, jumping fish and drooling dino slobber as some 3D movies seem to follow.

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