Movie review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

by Alex Bentley

The Ice Age trilogy is an anomaly in the world of computer animation in that it steadfastly refuses to make its animation look good. Despite using real (extinct) animals as its characters, all of them are broad caricatures of their respective species. The results could be described generously as “not pretty,” or not so generously as “fugly.”

You can imagine, then, what a potentially-scarring experience it would be to see them in 3-D, a technique that is fast becoming the norm for all animated films. Thankfully, following the lead of the preceding 3-D films of this generation, the method in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is used more to immerse the audience in the landscape than anything else. Strangely, though, this attempt is hit-and-miss, as it often appears that a 3-D foreground has been grafted onto a 2-D background. This gives the impression of the old scrolling animation used in shows like The Flintstones, something the filmmakers probably weren’t aiming for.

Or maybe they were, since The Flintstones is the easy (and obvious) reference for a film with dinosaurs in it (and sure enough, one character slides down a brontosaurus’ back while yelling “Yabba dabba doo!”). And including that group of animals makes about as much sense in this film as it did on the show, since the Ice Age series had already established that dinosaurs had been long extinct in their world.

But in a sure sign that the writers (who, curiously, are not identified on IMDb) were running out of ideas, dinosaurs are brought back to life in the third film, although the title seems to suggest that they’re coming into existence for the first time. Regardless, the main trio – Manny the wooly mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo), and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) – stumble onto a hidden world of dinosaurs. And do they find this world far from their homeland? No, the lush, green landscape with abundant food is located … under the ice. Naturally.

None of the particulars of the plot are all that important. Sid instigates the discovery of the dinosaur world when he finds three dinosaur eggs. Ellie the mammoth (Queen Latifah) returns after being introduced in the second film, and this time she’s pregnant. Diego has an early subplot of leaving their unique tribe for unknown reasons, but it’s quickly abandoned. The only new character of note is Buck the weasel (Simon Pegg), a swashbuckling creature who has survived on just his will and guts amongst the dinosaurs, and who leads the main group through their perilous journey.

All of this is just an excuse to get to the next big action set piece, and it’s here that the film semi-succeeds, whooshing the audience over, under, and through everything in sight. But those thrills are short-lived, and the rest of the film tries to survive on a succession of jokes that were clever in the first film, but have grown tiresome the third time around. The filmmakers also throw in a few questionable adult-themed jokes, such as Sid trying to milk a male yak or Buck saying he knew a butterfly before he “came out.” Penis and gay jokes may fly over kids’ heads, but they’re still inappropriate to include in a film where children are the main audience.

Even the normally-reliable antics of Scrat the squirrel have worn out their welcome. He’s given a love interest/competitor for acorns, and their back-and-forth is funny in the opening sequence. But every time they reappear, it feels like the filmmakers are trying to distract the audience from the lame goings-on of the main plot, which reflects negatively on their scenes, too.

The Ice Age series has been a cash cow for 20th Century Fox and animation outfit Blue Sky Studios, but the recycled and uninspired nature of Dawn of the Dinosaurs proves that they need to let this series die out.