Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

What better way to beat the Tatooine heat than in an air conditioned theater? And what better movie to see than Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs? I mean this movie just screams cool with it’s boundless Hoth-like ice vistas and waist high snowdrifts. Well all may not be well in this threequal.

I should have known I was in trouble just based on the trailers alone. I think I’ll start there. First, there was G-force, the movie about guinea pig spies with famous actor voices. I remember when a Jerry Bruckheimer movie meant something instead of mindless Disney action crap. Next came Fame. This trailer spent most of it’s time comparing itself to Harry Potter. I know that when I think of Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry, I immediately conjure images of inner city dance offs. Although it would be funny to hear Harry tell Voldemort that he “got served.” After that was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Here we have another attempt to take a very short, well loved picture book and bastardize it into a cash cow. I don’t think the movie has anything to do with the source material other than the title and, at some point it does, in fact, rain meatballs. Then there was the inevitable sequel or “squeakquel” to Alvin and the Chipmunks. Now with Chipettes!! One trailer that did look good was the trailer for the cg remake of the japanese anime, Astroboy. And last, but not least, Aliens in the Attic. Aliens invade tween home and tweens fight back. Really the only reason to see this is the fight sequence between senile grandma and d-bag boyfriend of love interest (Grandma does a spinning uppercut right out of street fighter.) So unless I get desperate or have to take the niece to the movies, I’ll be spending a lot of time not going to movies in the next few months. Seriously when did children’s movies get so bad and uninspired? I think I died a little inside when the audience got excited about Alvin 2. Anyway enough with this let’s get on to what you really wanted to find out about, Ice Age 3.

To sum up, Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs is another animated sequel that is unnecessary and should not have been released in theaters. I feel this film would have been better served as a direct to video sequel as opposed to a theatrical release. Let me explain that a little. The movie isn’t horrible and unwatchable, but it is not up to par with the previous films or other films of its kind.

Let’s start with the good. All the original actors are back for this one and they all do the best with what they are given. The animation is very good. One of the bench marks I look for in cg film is how well the animators can render wet fur. This may seem like a minor thing but picture in your head a real wet dog. Now move in close and look at the fur, the randomness of pattern and clumping, the look of the skin underneath. Anyway Ice Age does deliver some impressive work with the cg. Ice age has always had a more stylized look than some other films but this one definitely has some polish on that style. The fur looks good. The addition of dinosaurs into the mix adds some new textures to the pallet and they look good as well. One shot in particular was pretty impressive, the dino-dogfight scene. Buck and the possums are riding on the back of a Pterodactyl and engage in a pretty impressive dogfight with other flying dinosaurs, swooping through canyons, engines “stalling out,” near misses of cliffs and canyon walls etc. The last thing that was good about this was the new addition Buck the weasel voiced by Simon Pegg. Buck is a their guide in the land of dinosaurs. Since he is the only mammal living among dinosaurs, he has gone a little crazy. His off hand comments and insane ramblings were the only source of humor I found in this film. I did have some problems with him as well but I’ll get into those when I discuss my overall problems with the film.

Which is now.

I had some minor problems and then one major problem with this film. We’ll start small and build.

I’m not sure who the humor in this movie was written for. There are a couple of jokes that are meant for an adult audience but this is a family/children’s film. I’ll try not to spoil too much of the movie but I have to tell you what the jokes were so you know what my concerns are. Here they are with no context or set up: Milking a bull, performing sex change operations with seashells, and butterflies “coming out.” I realize that these probably went over the heads of many of the kids in the audience but that doesn’t mean they were appropriate. My wife made a good point, “It’s like cussing in front of your baby. Yeah they don’t understand it but that doesn’t mean you should do it.” Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a raunch fest as much as any other red blooded american male but there is a time and place for it. I really don’t want to have the image in my head of Sid the sloth grabbing a big ol’ handful of yak penis. If I was watching something by national lampoon’s or judd apatow, sure why not, but here just seemed inappropriate. As a counter point to this low brow humor, the filmmakers threw in a high brow reference. Buck is compared to Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. Even including a scene were he sits atop a mast-like tree as Rudy the great white dinosaur circles in the curling tempest of storm clouds. To be honest, I’m not too sure how many people in the audience caught the Moby Dick reference.

Along the lines of odd humor are the squirrels. I know that he is a stable of this series and must make an appearance but by this point his adventures are getting sad. Let him get the acorn already! His quest is hampered this time by a female squirrel, Skratte. This part I didn’t particularly have a problem with. He seemed like a pretty attractive but bumbling squirrel. He should find some love in his life and their Tom and Jerry antics and “sexual tension” was amusing for the most part. Where it gets weird is when the two squirrels finally hook up, the acorn gets jealous. Yeah you read that right, they are somehow able to make an inanimate object have an emotion. I do have to give them kudos for that except that at the time I was a little unnerved by it. For one, it’s an acorn, and two if Scrat were to ever get the acorn, he would eat it. I love pizza but I wouldn’t want to have sex with it. By the same token, I love my wife but don’t have the slightest inclination to eat her. See how this movie takes a kind of weird turn.

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “huh if he had this much trouble with these ‘minor’ problems, what could out rank them as a ‘major’ problem?” That’s a good question and let me answer it by saying that the movie seemed to have no strong moral, message, or purposeful plot. That major enough for you? Let me get you up to speed. Manny and Elle are expecting their first child. Diego is starting to feel a little old and not really wanting be a part of the new family about to happen. Sid can’t wait to babysit the baby mammoth but being the clumsy fool he is, Manny is reluctant to let him anywhere near the baby once it’s born. Sid decides to start his own family and stumbles upon 3 dinosaur eggs that he decides to raise. The mom comes back and kidnaps Sid to the land of dinosaurs. I think you can probably figure out where the story goes from here. And that’s part of the problem. That’s all there is to the story, rescue Sid. I realize that there are only so many plots in the world and that most of them can be simply stated in a couple of words. What makes a good story, and especially a kid’s story, is the message or theme that ties it all together and enriches it. Dawn of the Dinosaurs has no over arching message or theme. There are a bunch of mini themes but none of them is big enough to carry the movie. The first movie dealt with the idea of what makes up a herd (family). Different animals coming together for their mutual betterment in spite of their differences. The second was all about Manny’s need for companionship and fear of being the last of his kind. The third one just seemed to be thrown together with no purpose. It’s just an adventure they have but no one really learns or grows as a character.  They could have gone a lot of directions.  Manny learns that he could be a good parent.  Sid and Diego find mates of their own so everyone can start families.  The dinosaur land is threatened by global cooling and they have to save the dinosaur environment.  See what I did there? I came up with a few themes in the span of about 5 minutes that would have tied this movie together.

Plus the characters make dumb choices. The main one being Elle, in the final stages of pregnancy, following them into the land of dinosaurs. I don’t have experience with late term pregnant women but I think the last thing they would want in their 9^th month is adventure that includes running away from velociraptors.  I know Queen Latifah is awesome and all and stole the second movie but that doesn’t mean you have to shoe horn her into a movie where her character doesn’t belong.

In summation, your kids will like this movie. The images are pretty. The action fast paced. The physical humor juvenile. Educated and discerning adults, however, may not find the movie as good. You may think that I would give this a 1 or 0 rating but it wasn’t that bad, just muddy and off. If you liked the other ones, you’ll enjoy it, but probably not love it.

I give it:

2/5 - For the already converted ONLY!