Ice Age: Dawn of More Sequels?

The studio is in the process of making a fourth already!

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third film in the Ice Age series. After the surprising success of the first film in 2002 and a ho-hum sequel in 2006 Fox decided to fast track another sequel which was originally scheduled for a December 08 release but was pushed back till July 1st 2009. Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck return to voice their usual characters. It was also a delight to get Simon Pegg and Bill Hader (whose part was to brief) to take on new characters introduced into the film. Carlos Saldanha has directed (or co-directed) all the Ice Age films and shares duties with Mike Thurmeier this time around. The movie used a very basic plot that works even with the absurd fact that an entire world lives underneath all the ice.

The new style the director chose with many quick zoom shots and slow motion sequences, that were not used much in the earlier films, was a breath of life into the movie itself by creating more action than there really was on screen. Parallels to real life problems experienced at the beginning of the film by our main characters were perfect. It was almost as if you were participating in the film itself. Manny trying to “baby proof” nature was hysterical.

Cheap gags are a common place in every comedy but Ice Age manages to use them and still have more laughs caused by intelligent material. That is not to say a Scrat getting kicked in the nuts is not funny but they did not base the film or characters on gimmicks like that with the small exception of Crash and Eddy. There was an incredible amount of adult humour that most children probably will not pick up on. A few choices may have gone a little over the top and caused some controversy. Personally, I didn't have much of an issue with some of these decisions, but some parents probably ended up having to explain some things to their children that they would have rather not had to.

This is the second film I have seen in 3D and I thought this was much better than the 3D that Pixar used for Up. Nothing utterly breathtaking about it but they used the 3D to their advantage much better, especially with the pterodactyl dogfight scene which was tremendous. This could possibly the best film of the entire series. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs will not win any awards, nor should it, but it is great fun that everyone can enjoy and I would recommend seeing it when you get the chance.

3 out of 5
Colin Enquist