Director: Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier
Cast: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg
Rating: PG
Running time: 94 mins
Stars: 3.5
Computer animation has become the norm for animated films. Fifteen years ago the only animated films were hand drawn cartoons and Disney held the monopoly on these. With the technological revolution the quality of animated films has increased as has the amount of films being produced each year. Disney/Pixar (Finding Nemo; Ratatouille; Wall-E) is the forerunner in the industry. They only produce one film per year but it is always of the highest standard and generally wins an Academy Award for best animated feature. Close behind them is DreamWorks (Shrek; Madagascar; Kung Fu Panda), the Steven Spielberg owned company who produce more films each year but they are not quite of the same standard as Pixar. It is always a nice change to see a good quality animated film that is produced by a different film studio. Blue Sky Studios (Horton Hears A Who!; Robots) have done quite well with the Ice Age franchise over the years and they have returned with the latest installment, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs.
Dawn Of The Dinosaurs sees Manny the Mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond), and his mate Ellie, voiced by Queen Latifah (The Secret Life Of Bees; Hairspray), expecting a baby. Meanwhile, Sid the Sloth voiced by John Leguizamo (The Happening) and Diego, the Saber-toothed Tiger voiced by Denis Leary, realise that their 'herd' is going to be different. Diego contemplates leaving while Sid has a desire for a family of his own. After stumbling across some dinosaur eggs, Sid is taken to an underground world where dinosaurs still exist. On the trail to rescue Sid, the rest of the herd meets Buck, an adventurous prehistoric weasel voiced by Simon Pegg (Star Trek; How To Lose Friends And Alienate People).
Dawn Of The Dinosaurs starts out a little slow. It takes the first third of the movie to set up the final two thirds. But once it does it is very engaging and a lot of fun. The animation is spectacular. It is enough to rival a Pixar or DreamWorks animation film even if the story is not as witty or fast paced.
Underneath the humour and slightly off-centre design, the story of Ice Age runs deep. Throughout the films there has been the underlying themes of acceptance and family. The Ice Age characters are all different animals yet they form their own herd. And as we learnt from the previous two films, Manny used to have a mate and child but he would never talk about it because it brought him too much pain. In this film he finally comes full circle.
It would have been good to see more focus on Diego. In the previous film, he seemed to be a tagalong character and although he has a slightly bigger role in this film, there is not much character development. And of course no Ice Age movie would be complete without Scrat, the neurotic rodent who is fervently pursuing his acorn. He makes quite an appearance in this film which adds to the humour.
Ice Age: The Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is a fun movie that kids will enjoy and the cult fans who have followed the movies from the start will not be disappointed either.
