Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox

Written By: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, Yon Brenner and Mike Reiss

Story by Jason Carter Eaton

Admittedly, I have never completely tracked with the “Ice Age” movies.  For my eyes, the first “Ice Age” film, released in 2002, was a largely uninteresting affair which rehashed old bits found in earlier, fresher, animated films.  I warmed some to the 2006 sequel, which touched on some topical social awareness issues for the adults, and introduced a sweet-natured love story between Ray Romano’s mammoth Manny and love interest Ellie, voiced by Queen Latifah.  The 2009 edition of “Ice Age” places me somewhere in the middle; a film that has a few laughs, a rather pedestrian script and story, some eye-popping visuals, but ultimately is equally as forgettable as it is memorable, depending on your tastes…and age.

Premised as a kind of “What if…” scenario, “Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs” has Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) discover three abandoned eggs in an underground ice cave.  He takes the eggs to look after them and care for them, against the objections of Manny and Ellie and others from the main cast of characters.  When the eggs hatch as three baby Tyrannosaurus dinosaurs, Sid immediately calls them his children and tries to raise them as his own.  Additionally, Ellie is pregnant with she and Manny’s first baby mammoth.  Even the extremely popular saber-toothed squirrel, Scrat (Chris Wedge), finds a potential for love when he encounters Scratte, a female squirrel, able to take his eye off off the trusty acorn he obsessively possesses and covets more than anything else in the world.

Other subplots exist with lesser characters but the addition of the dinosaurs set the film’s adventure in motion.  As an animated adventure film, this third “Ice Age” lags a bit.  “Ice Age” establishes some tense moments, where the mother Tyrannosaurus repeatedly attempts to reclaim her babies and the crew fall prey to an attack of bird-like dinosaurs.  Along the way, there are other battles and adversaries who will move the younger viewers to the edge of their seats, but will not break any new ground or provide anything new to the more seasoned viewer.  Putting aside the ho-hum and seen-it-before action sequences for a moment, the film does a nice job when it focuses on the family dynamic storylines of Sid, Manny and Ellie, and even with Scrat.  Why it took the makers of “Ice Age” a third film to integrate Scrat more into the plot framework, as opposed to just serving as a comic relief prop as with the previous two films, I don’t know.  What I do know is that it works well here and should be considered for the inevitable fourth film.

The animation has never looked better in these films and that helps one overlook the boring stretches.  Overall, “Ice Age 3″ is fine; far from great and far from terrible.  For the children, it should deliver the goods and for the adults, “Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs” will either provide you some free time for 90+ minutes, or be an entertaining enough watch for everyone on the next family movie night.  Either way, you could do far, far worse.

Should I See It?

YES

If you are a fan of the previous “Ice Age” films, this is absolutely a no-brainer, and you will enjoy this, most likely, from beginning to end.

If you are looking for one of those animated features that pack levels of laughs for both kids and adults alike, this fits the bill.

Your kids are gonna love it.  They are.  So indulge them.

NO

You are unable to look past the scientific inaccuracies the entire film is premised on.

If you are tired of the talking animal, big-name celebrity voice animated film…well, then again, aren’t they all?

You want something more original and challenging than basically a third version of the same story.