Sunday, July 05, 2009 | A+E, Movies, Reviews
Prehistoric series beginning to show its ‘Age’

A ShortTakes review

Blue Sky Studios
“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”

“ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS”
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary
Directed by Carlos Saldanha
Rated PG
Wide release

 

They waste millions on celebrity voices, but the most popular character in the first two "Ice Age" movies was Scrat, a squirrel who never spoke. He’s back for “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” torn between an acorn and a female squirrel in a series of mini-toons sprinkled throughout the feature.

Like a sweeps episode of a TV series, “DoD” centers on procreation. Mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are about to have a baby, and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) adopts three dinosaur eggs.

Diego the saber-tooth tiger (Denis Leary) is feeling squeezed out of the “herd” by all the nesting going on, but everyone comes together when Sid appears to need rescuing. From their own world, refrozen since the meltdown, they follow tracks to what looks like “The Land Before Time.”
 
Their self-appointed guide to this lost world is a one-eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg), who warns them about the biggest dinosaur of all: his nemesis, Rudy, who was responsible for the loss of his other eye. As the new guy, Buck gets the best lines, some mildly suggestive and others making a good case for not reviving vaudeville.

The 3-D (in select theaters) is unexceptional, applied primarily to the main characters. The backgrounds, even when they’re on a few planes, are mostly as flat as the jokes.

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” is to the study of life on Earth what “Year One” is to the Book of Genesis. It may be marginally better than the second part of the trilogy, but it's no match for the first. 2.5 STARS—Steve Warren