Posted: Sun., Jun. 21, 2009, 4:32pm PT New U.S. Release Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Animated)
By JOE LEYDON
A 20th Century Fox release of a Blue Sky Studios production. Produced by Lori Forte, John C. Dunking. Executive producer, Chris Wedge. Directed by Carlos Saldanha. Co-director, Michael Thurmeier. Screenplay, Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss, Yoni Brenner, from a story by Jason Carter Eaton. (Deluxe color, 3-D); editor, Harry Hitner; music, John Powell.
Voices: Manny - Ray Romano Sid - John Leguizamo Diego - Denis Leary Buck - Simon Pegg Ellie - Queen Latifah Crash - Seann William Scott Eddie - Josh Peck Gazelle - Bill Hader Pudgy Beaver Mom - Kristen Wiig Scrat - Chris Wedge
With appreciably greater emphasis on action than its predecessors, and clever use of 3-D trickery to enhance storytelling as well as offer spectacle, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" could prove the third time really is the charm by expanding an already sizable audience for a popular toon franchise. Fox may have taken a risk by positioning this latest series entry in the middle of summer season -- both "Ice Age" (2002) and "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006) were March releases -- but the gamble should pay off with beaucoup cold cash. Even more bountiful green will be harvested in ancillary outlets.
Once again, the plot is propelled by the extended family led by Manny (voiced by Ray Romano), the lovably neurotic woolly mammoth, who looms large in an Ice Age environment that, in this latest adventure, appears to have recovered nicely from the "Meltdown" of the previous pic.
This time out, Manny is so busy attending to Ellie (Queen Latifah), his very pregnant mate, that he lacks sufficient time and energy to deal with the personal crises of two other returning "herd" members: Diego (Denis Leary), the saber-toothed tiger who now fears he's losing his edge after being domesticated; and Sid (John Leguizamo), the rambunctiously goofy sloth who yearns for respect and, if he's really lucky, his own family ties.
Eager to find someone, anyone, who'll look up to him, Sid adopts three baby dinosaurs hatched from eggs he's found. Trouble is, those eggs were the spawn of an enormous Mommy Dino who emerges from her stomping grounds -- an underground realm where supposedly extinct creatures are alive and well -- to retrieve her offspring. She also takes Sid back down with her, causing Manny, Ellie, Diego and Ellie's two precocious possum "brothers" -- Eddie (Josh Peck) and Crash (Seann William Scott) -- to follow.
Once the familiar characters are below ground, traipsing across a prehistoric landscape that appears equal parts "The Lost World," "King Kong" and "The Land Before Time," director Carlos Saldanha (returning from "The Meltdown") adds another colorful figure to the franchise's steadily expanding cast of characters: Buck, a swashbuckling weasel voiced with aptly madcap brio by Simon Pegg.
Long locked in an ongoing life-or-death struggle with a humongous albino dinosaur, Buck is more than just a tad mad. But that makes him all the more fun to watch during a series of exciting search-and-rescue sequences that are every bit as exciting as anything in any live-action pic on view in megaplexes this summer. Indeed, a high-flying encounter with rampaging pterodactyls might make the makers of "Star Trek" and "Wolverine" turn green with envy.
Even during those stretches where the pace isn't breakneck and the escapes aren't hairsbreadth, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" impresses with vibrant CGI imagery and animation by the wizards at Blue Sky Studios. The addition of 3-D adds even more depth and detail to the mix, along with allowing the aud to enjoy the amusing illusion of snouts, paw, claws and beaks extending off the screen.
As was the case in the two earlier "Ice Age" toons, the vocal casting is excellent across the board. Romano and Leary are again standouts with their individual styles of sarcasm, but other returnees -- including executive producer Chris Wedge as Scrat, the hyperactive rat/squirrel who this time finds something even more attractive than that elusive acorn -- also are up to their usual high level.
Unlike many other contempo toons, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is short on jokey pop-culture references aimed at grown-ups more than than small fry. But there is at least one funny allusion to "The Flintstones," and playful use of the old Lou Rawls standard, "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," as everything from tango to comic counterpoint.
Posts: 5415 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
I saw this at the sneak preview yesterday afternoon.
Unlike the Shrek sequels, which seem to have no heart or imagination in them, the Ice Age sequels actually have a brain. I thought this one was a very nice addition to the Ice Age films. It poses some logical scenarios (Diego losing his edge because he's palling around with Manny, Sid, and the rest of the gang).
I really liked the dinosaur world, mainly cause none of the dinos talked. Their faces said everything. Very good CG work there.
For me, the best part of the film was the new character that's introduced: Buck. Simon Pegg does great voicework here. The perfect amount of funny, cute, and absurd.
The stuff with Scrat is getting slightly old (though the acorn's song was kind of brilliant), and the whole mammoth pregnancy was a little blah, but on the whole, a throughly enjoyable film.
Grade: B+
Also, I encourage those who are planning on seeing it to see it in 3D. There are some pretty neat things in the film that are enhanced in 3D.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: MissyGal,
Posts: 3790 | Location: Earth | Registered: April 11, 2005
Film Reviews Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs -- Film Review By Michael Rechtshaffen, June 24, 2009 04:50 ET
Bottom Line: Prehistory repeats itself in this dispiritingly slothful third installment.
Pretty much any sign of creative life gets left out in the cold in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," the monotonous, strictly by-the-numbers third edition of the wildly lucrative digitally animated franchise.
Stringing together a series of bits in the absence of inspired storytelling, the picture, though technically assured, offers audiences very little that's fresh or different aside from 3D glasses.
Given the success of the first two films (released during the spring breaks of 2002 and 2006), there's no doubt "IA3" will draw families looking to fill the gap between "Up" and the July 24 arrival of Disney's "G-Force," but taking into consideration that more crowded marketplace, this one should expect scaled-down returns.
Where "Up" took to the skies both literally and figuratively, "Ice Age" goes in the other direction, set primarily in a subterranean world situated beneath the icy tundra.
Ray Romano returns as the sardonic voice of Manny the woolly mammoth, and he's trying paternal instinct on for size since his wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah), is very much in the family way.
That situation doesn't sit well with Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo again provides the lateral lisp), who, fearing there won't be any room for him in the new dynamic, decides to create his own family, making off with several enormous eggs he discovers in an underground cavern.
But when they hatch into a trio of rambunctious baby dinos, it isn't long before their birth mom -- a mighty displeased T-Rex -- goes on the rampage, turning Manny's world order upside down.
Despite the Jurassic perk, returning director Carlos Saldanha, co-director Michael Thurmeier and a herd of writers -- including founding scribes Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman along with longtime "Simpsons" writer Mike Reiss and newcomer Yoni Brenner -- manage to bring precious little in the way of charm or inventiveness to the generic plotting.
It's content to rely on the inherent affability of its core voice cast, also including returnees Denis Leary as saber-toothed Diego and Seann William Scott and Josh Peck as nutty possums Crash and Eddie.
There's also the incoming Buck, a swashbuckling one-eyed weasel (Simon Pegg channeling Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow by way of Captain Ahab), but like the hapless, acorn-chasing Scrat (Chris Wedge), who this time has been provided with a female foil (Karen Disher), there's a lot of dashing around without accomplishing much of anything.
Blue Sky Studios' digital animation is again technologically state-of-the-art, and the 3D, while unspectacular, is sharply vivid. But in relation to some of its recent competition, the rest of "Ice Age" feels frozen in another place in time.
Posts: 5415 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
Cast & Credits With the voices of: Manny Ray Romano Sid John Leguizamo Diego Denis Leary Buck Simon Pegg Ellie Queen Latifah Crash Seann William Scott Eddie Josh Peck Gazelle Bill Hader Pudgy Beaver Mom Kristen Wiig Scrat Chris Wedge Scrattè Karen Disher
20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Carlos Saldanha. Screenplay by Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss, Yoni Brenner, from a story by Jason Carter Eaton. Running time: 93 minutes. MPAA rating: PG for some mild rude humor and peril.
by Roger Ebert
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is the best of the three films about our friends in the inter-species herd of plucky prehistoric heroes. And it involves some of the best use of 3-D I've seen in an animated feature. It also introduces a masterstroke that essentially allows the series to take place anywhere: There is this land beneath the surface of the earth, you see...
Well, if there can be one land, there can be any number of lands, including not only this one, where dinosaurs still roam, but maybe a portal in time leading to the future, or one in space, leading to another planet. We can maybe expect Manny and Ellie in Vegas, or Scrat on Mars. This particular land looks a great deal like a primeval jungle, if such a wilderness had lava falls as well as waterfalls. As it is subterranean, it has sortofa rock roof, although indirect lighting comes from somewhere and sustains lush vegetation.
All of our friends are back, and some new ones, including a ferocious T-Rex and a sexy rival for Scrat the squirrel, named Scrattè, accent grave over the è. As befits this land before time, Scrattand Scrattè are sabre-toothed squirrels. No wonder the big teeth died out. They're of more use to a carnivore than a vegetarian. But logic like this is of no use in a movie where Sid the Sloth (voice by John Leguizamo) adopts three dinosaur eggs and plans to raise the babies.
That's how they all end up underground in the Hollow Earth, the land Edgar Rice Burroughs name Pellucidar, and I guess with a place like that, you can name it anything you want. The mother dinosaur comes looking for her hatchlings, grabs them and Sid, and disappears under the surface. An all-for-one, one-for-all spirit has grown among our friends, who give chase: Manny and Ellie the woolly mammoths (Ray Romano and Queen Latifah), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary), and the possums Eddie and Crash (Josh Peck and Seann William Scott). They meet Buck the Weasel (Simon Pegg), who has an eye patch instead of a peg leg, and is obsessed with his quest for a Great White Dinosaur, unfortunately not named Moby Dino.
In the Ice Age films the tiger has learned to coexist with such edible species as sloths and gazelles, but dinosaurs aren't covered by the terms of the truce, and this one is so big it could eat even a wooly mammoth in one chomp. That sets us up for the staple of the series -- chase scenes, involving dizzying falls, catapults into the sky, close shaves and possible digestion. This is pure invention, and unlike the monotonous chase sequences in some family animation, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is tirelessly inventive visually.
Carlos Saldanha, writer of the 2002 film and co-director of the (disappointing) "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006), is the director this time, and many of his sequences are in the spirit of the brilliant Scratt-and-acorn scene that opened the first "Ice Age." That includes one in which Scrat, Scrattè and the acorn are trapped inside floating bubbles, which is no big deal to the acorn. Still, this is a talented acorn, which sings a tune from the Gilbert O'Sullivan songbook to express how alone an acorn must sometimes feel. An acorn that smart, you don't want to eat it all at once.
I thought the 3-D was done well. I remained unconvinced by the process. You have to fool with the glasses, the brightness is dimmed, and so on. But I was surprised how well "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" implements it. It creates much less of a distracting superfluous dimension, and more skillfully makes the whole image seem to belong together. The movie is also widely being shown in 2-D, and if you want to save a few bucks, that's the way to go.
Posts: 5415 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
Yes I am PREJUDICED but I'd almost welcome a trip to Tehran over a trip to the cineplex for an excruciating 90 minutes of Ray Romano's voice--now that's TORTURE! LOL
Well, Ray Romano was sleep-walking through it, and so was Queen Latifah, who I usually like. It was algae-level, but entertaining enough, here and there.
Posts: 13896 | Location: canada | Registered: December 22, 2005
I watched Ice Age today and it was entertaining enough for light humor. If you needed a fix for humor and the less serious affair Ice Age is for you.
I watched it in 3-D and it did not disappoint with the effects.
However, there should be some type of caution statement before the film starts because when the dinosaurs appear, it's scary as heck. So scary that a toddler started crying really hard in the theatre.
Otherwise, the message of family and friendship really pulls through in this film.
Posts: 5415 | Location: "Stay Classy San Diego!" | Registered: June 15, 2006
