Movie Review: Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Fox/Blue Sky Movie Stars Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah
Jul 1, 2009
Dawn of the Dinosaurs could have been a lot worse.
This may be damning with faint praise but this is pretty much the review that Twentieth Century Fox/Blue Sky Animation's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs deserves. After the cinematic debacle that was Shrek the Third, it wouldn't have been surprising if the latest Ice Age film was also a cringe-fest. It goes down pleasantly enough, but doesn't leave much of an impression afterwards.
Twentieth Century Fox's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Stars Ray Romano, Simon Pegg, Queen Latifah
So what's this flick about? Make yourself a lunch, and smoke 'em if you got 'em, cause this could take a while.
Wooly mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting their first child, which means Manny gets to run around acting like an idiot, raising false alarms that the baby is due.
Speaking of running, Diego the Smilodon (Denis Leary) is starting to think he's losing his mojo, since he can't catch his lunch like he used to. And speaking of acting like an idiot, Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) decided he wants to become a parent as well. Of course, being Sid, he manages to procure a trio of T-Rex eggs, with the resulting babies imprinting themselves on him. Much meat-eating mayhem ensues.
However, Sid's domestic bliss is shattered when Mommy T-Rex arrives and takes the dino babies plus Sid, below the ice to this Lost World where the dinosaurs have somehow managed to survive (right now, zoologists everywhere are going "WTF?" Yeah, it's the movies, suspension of disbelief, yadda-yadda-yadda).
Star Trek's Simon Pegg Steals Another Movie
Naturally, Manny, Ellie, Diego – plus Crash and Eddie, a pair of annoying possums – must journey down and recover Sid. They run into a new caricature - sorry, character: a deranged weasel named Buck (Star Trek's Simon Pegg, stealing yet another movie) who acts as their guide. Add a godzilla-type monster named Rudy, various predatory dinosaurs, lessons about friendship and family, plus a femme fatale love interest for the nut-obsessed Scrat, and you have a movie.
There's no question that fatigue has set in with the Ice Age franchise. Romano, Leary and Latifah are pretty much running through their lines without much commitment to their roles. Leguizamo tries harder, but Sid teeters between tolerable and annoying: you're not quite begging for the Mommy T-Rex to scarf him down and end our misery, but there are a couple close calls. So it's not surprising that Pegg's character essentially walks away with the flick. It didn't hurt that the scriptwriters gave him all the best lines.
Animation-wise, Blue Sky has really kicked it up a few notches: the characters move much more naturally, and the hair on Manny and Ellie is more realistic. On the downside, Diego still looks a little plastic-y, but his muscles are more defined. Overall, kudos to the computer whizzes for stepping up their craft, but it's a shame the scriptwriters weren't as much on the ball.
As for audience reaction, the little 'uns were laughing at about half of the jokes, the parents not so much. This may end up being a film that kids drag their parents to, as opposed to something like Up, where you're not sure who's having more fun.
The Final Analysis
Animated classic Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs ain't. The kiddies will be amused, the parents slightly less so, but don't expect this film to linger in their memory.
It's cinema as chewing gum: sweet on the tongue but swiftly discarded and forgotten. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs gets a 5/10.
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