Techtite DVD Reviews

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

(aka "Ice Age 3", or "Ice Age 3D")

To be honest; I was a bit apprehensive about this one. While I admired the first Ice Age movie ---and found the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat downright hilarious--- I found the first sequel merely passable, though wisely, they added much more of Scrat. Now they make a sequel where we don't see as much of Scrat as any of us might hope for, though in the end --pun intended-- this third Ice Age movie is the warmest of the three.

First things first, for the nitpickers out there. Yes, Ice Age is still set in the age of Woolly Mammoths. Yes, the sequel involves dinosaurs. No; nobody cares. If you must know; these are the last of the dinosaurs who found solace from the infamous ice age meteor, via an underground volcanic cave. Though let's be fair here: this a movie with talking animals, so for crying out loud, stop your nitpicking!

That being said, let's get to the story, which presumably picks up not so soon after the last movie. Woolly Mammoth Manny (voiced by Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are still and item...so much so, she's expecting, and about to give birth. The story begins with Manny surprising Ellie with an ice-age style nursery of sorts, complete with ice mobile for the baby. Awww!

While this is a sweet gesture it seemingly alienates Diego (Denis Leary) who is no longer the fastest tiger around, and feels that he's outgrown his usefulness to Manny's little "herd." In time Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) feels a bit alienated as well, until he comes across three seemingly abandoned eggs and decides to make his own "family" out of them. As you'd expect, the eggs were not abandoned. In fact; the eggs hatch and are in truth three baby T-Rexes, who immediately see Sid as their new mommy.

Okay, yeah; from the age gap between the dinosaur age and Wooly Mammoths, and the way three small T-Rexes don't simply eat Sid as the audience laughs; you can see how silly this third story is. Yet for the most part it is silly in a good way. Sure, it's unlikely that dinosaurs survived the infamous meteor that killed all dinosaurs, via a gigantic, "Journey to the Center of the Earth" style cavern. Sure it's unlikely that any of these creatures could survive even 90 minutes against such dinosaurs. Yet in the end there's a heart to this movie that was only attempted in the prior films, and in this third movie is quite effective.

Most successful, of course, is Scrat's new story, thanks to the series' newest character, "Scratte." These two squirrel love-birds steal the show in every scene they're in (and yes in case you were wondering; you have yet to see the funniest moments of Scrat and Scratte, even if you've seen every commercial for the film). Once again Scrat steals the movie with every scene he's in though now that there are two saber-toothed squirrels to contend with; the scenes steal the show even more. Once again many a critic might ask why Scrat doesn't have at the bare minimum his own animated short movies. Yeah...why?

Not to digress but Scratte is such an imaginative new character; the toy companies really fumbled the ball here! Among the five kids I saw this movie with were two little girls who really wanted a Scratte toy, and I'm sure many other daughters, nieces, and granddaughters will want one too. I'm just saying this as a note for Toys R' Us: once Ice Age 3 comes out on DVD this holiday season, you want "Scratte" on your toy shelf. So far the only Scratte toy in town is in the McDonald's Happy Meal, and suffice to say I had to go to McDonald's immediately after the movie for two happy meals and a value meal for myself. I'm just saying. McDonald's is going to reap the Happy Meal bucks with this one, while many a Toys R' Us intern will have to deal with many a sad face as parents lament, "What do you mean there are no Ice Age 3 toys?!?"

To be fair, however; the additional characters hold their own this time around. This is particularly surprising to me, since I am not much of a fan of the character "Sid the Sloth," so when the early trailers made it clear how much of this movie would star Sid, I couldn't help but grown. Yet surprisingly even Sid the Sloth is funny here, which is more than I can say of the character in either of the two prior films. In fact; most of the movie is of Manny's herd of misfits trying to track down Sid after his "adopt-a-dinosaur" fiasco leads to him being kidnapped by the dinosaur's real mom. While I found myself rooting for the dinosaurs to eat Sid at the beginning of the film: I had a change of heart by the end. That's how effective this movie's story is, because, IMHO: Sid is annoying.

Yet in the end it's all a question of how much fun this family movie is for kids. Suffice to say I saw it with five kids and four of the five loved it. As for the fifth kid: well, he's almost 14, so I guess he wasn't going to like a movie about talking animals, anyway. This 41 year old did though, as well as the other kids of the single-digit age group. Sure you might leave the theater and have to go on a Scratte toy hunt, though it will be worth it (and if you disagree, rest easy: there aren't any Scratte toys anyway). This is definitely one of those rare instances when the third sequel is the best movie of the three.

	Final Rating : Large Crater. What some critics might have considered to be a bold move ---a third Ice Age movie--- winds up being the best of the three.
For more on this site's ratings system, click here.

Got a review you'd like to share? Techtite will post 2 of the best "guest" reviews received for any product, online, for all the world to see!

All text, Title graphics, and pix not of reviewed products, are created by Techtite, copyright 1999-2009; all rights reserved. Picture of DVD cover is used only for the purpose of review (and to make shopping for product easier); it by no means represents any affiliation with Techtite and the distributors of this product. For further "legalese" & disclaimers, click here...

Techtite's Movie Reviews!

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Review by Techtite