It was a typical late July day. The rain was pouring from the skies, my daughter was firmly over the novelty of being on school holidays, and I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Desperately needing to get out of the house for a few hours, I loaded up the web page of our local cinema to see what was on offer.
Hurrah, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the dinosaurs was one of the offerings! We have both the previous Ice age movies on DVD and they have both been a massive hit with both the kids and myself. I noticed it was showing in both 2D and 3D, and as we'd never experienced the latter decided this would be our entertainment for the day, and little miss and myself got ready to go in eager anticipation. As such my review is of the film only, as it's still showing at cinemas and not yet available on DVD.
Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is the third offering in the series of animated adventures from 20th century Fox. This time, the unconventional herd (consisting of 2 mammoths, a sabre tooth tiger, a sloth and 2 possoms for anyone who has missed the first 2 film's) are thrown into uncertainty as Manny and Ellie (the mammoths) await the impending arrival of baby mammoth, leaving the others questioning their future. Diego decides that babysitting Mannys babe isn't what being a sabre tooth tiger is about and heads of to find the danger and excitement he craves, while Sid the
sloth discovers 3 seemingly abandoned egg's and adopts them as his own.
However when they hatch, Sid discovers being a single mum (yes, mum!) isn't all it's cracked up to be. And the biological mother turns up, less than amused that someone borrowed her kids. There's only one thing scarier than a mum protecting her off spring, and that's a dinosaur mum protecting her off spring.
As Sid is whisked off into a lost world of Dinosaurs, it's down to Manny, Ellie, Diego and the possom siblings, Crash and Eddie, to rescue him. But can they overcome their differences and become a team again? Will Mannie ever chill out and stop being a neurotic father to be? And just what has Peaches got to do with anything?
I had incredibly high expectations of this movie. The first films in the series are without doubt the most loved and watched DVD's in this house. They appeal to my 4 year old daughter and my 12 year old son equally, and as for myself, well they are part of the very few kids film's I don't groan at when they are put on, in fact I thoroughly enjoy them too and find them hilarious.
The film began well, with the much loved Scrat and his eternal quest to win the acorn. He has competition this time in the form of Scratte, a female squirrel willing to use her eye lashes to get her own way. This provides Scrat with a love interest and a comedic new angle as he is torn between his love for the acorn and Scratte. His sequences are always so ridiculously silly they have me and the kids laughing out loud, and he didn't disappoint in his third outing either.
Unfortunately though, I can't say the same for the rest of the film. I loved Mannie in the previous two films. Ray Romano does a fantastic job giving him a sarcastic and grumpy voice. In this movie though, the expectant father is ultra protective and anxious. I found this rather annoying instead of funny and somewhat tedious. I just didn't feel Ray's heart was in the part and it came across as lack lustre and mediocre.
Sid is another great comedic character, and his scenes as a new single mum were amusing. Unfortunately he doesn't feature so much in this film with the rest of the cast and I definitely thought his presence was missed. Without him to be annoyed at and bully the rest of the cast had no-one to bounce off.
We are introduced to a new character, Buck, with the voice of Simon Pegg, a crazy adventurer and dinosaur slaying weasel. I didn't like this character at all. His hyper active animation just annoyed me and I didn't warm to him. He just didn't seem to gel with the rest of the herd. My daughter liked him enough, although I'm not sure if that's got anything to do with the cup she got in her Macdonald's happy meal featuring him beforehand.
The herd are took out of their natural environment and into the world of dinosaurs. While the animation of the dinosaurs was fantastic, they themselves had no personalities as such, and their main purpose was to roar, scare and provide the adventure. I think this would really appeal to younger kids, as it did my daughter, who was a little scared but delighted with them to begin with, while I found them a bit boring.
The animation was very good, although I have to be honest and wonder at the benefits of seeing this movie in 3D. I felt I was constantly distracted waiting for some amazing 3D 'in your face' technology and it never really happened. The trailer before the movie seemed to promise so much, and I was left slightly disappointed. My daughter didn't even wear the 3D glasses and watched it slightly out of focus all the way through! It didn't seem to affect her enjoyment of the movie and I won't be going out of my way (or paying extra) for 3D again. I can't help but feel a bit cheated, like instead of another great movie they just wanted a great animation and one without the other doesn't quite work.
While I've voiced my many criticisms, my daughter really enjoyed the movie. I think the problem I have with this film is that after watching and loving the first two, I had very high expectations. I think as a kids movie it hit's the spot. I've certainly sat (or snoozed) through a lot worse and my daughter didn't seem to have any complaints. I know she has enjoyed a film when she has sat still all the way through and not started wandering or wanting the toilet. Her attention seemed to wan about half way through, but thanks to Scat she was quickly engrossed again. However unlike the previous two movies I do feel the humour which appealed to adults was lost and for me it fell rather short of my expectations. I sometimes felt at times, particularly with the storyline surrounding Manny and his anxieties about Ellie and the baby, it tried to hard and was contrived.
I've no doubt this film will eventually make it's way into our DVD collection, however I think I'll be waiting for it to be in the cheap section at Morrisons rather than paying full whack when it's first released. Overall a somewhat disappointing addition to the Ice Age series which in my opinion has lost it's appeal to adults, but will still delight the kids.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
We sat down to watch Ice Age 1 a few weeks ago with our daughter but for some reason she found it scary and refused to watch it, so I doubt we will be watching this for a while
x_dani_x 15.08.2009 17:14
I've loved the past 2 ice age films so ill probably love this too but ill wait until it comes on telly i think. Great review too! x
silverstreak 10.08.2009 08:31
The trouble with successful films is that they can't resist doing them to death with sequel after sequel.
Aug 9th, 2009
exceptional by (2%):
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