ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (2009)

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"Another fun film for the family… in 3-D."

After watching this third installment of the Ice Age franchise, I still think the first film is the best, but I honestly think all three films are fun for the family. Saying that, however, I can tell you that the franchise is running out of steam... even though they ARE planning an Ice Age 4.

Now as most people know, dinosaurs predated the mammals of the Ice Age franchise by millions of years, so the writers had a lot of work to do in order to justify the furry sharing screen time with the scaly. What do the writers do? They dig deep and borrow ideas from Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs. That's right. They come up with an entirely separate world that exists beneath the frozen ground our mammals live on.

As in the previous two installments, Ice Age (2002) and Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), the heroes of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are the same unlikely herd: Manny the woolly mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the bug-eyed sloth (John Leguizamo), and Diego the saber-tooth tiger (Denis Leary). The film also returns characters introduced in the second film, including Manny's wife Ellie (Queen Latifah), who is pregnant and expecting any moment, as well as the in-fighting brother possums Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). The story this time around is that Manny and Ellie are settling down and starting a family, which leaves Diego and Sid on their own. Diego decides to head out and find his own adventure while Sid makes the ill-fated decision to raise whatever will hatch out of three large eggs he finds in an underground cave.

Turns out the eggs produce three baby Tyrannosaurus Rexes, which happily mimic Sid's sloth-like behavior, but don't fit in very well with the peaceful group of mammals with whom Sid lives. And then there's the momma Tyrannosaurus, who comes out of her underground lair to snatch her young and Sid along with them only to return below ground. This now means that Manny, Ellie, Diego, Crash, and Eddie must venture into the previously unseen netherworld to rescue their friend. There they find an entire new world (or old world... depending on how you look at it) of thick forests, massive mountains, and lava waterfalls that is populated by all the dinosaur species that should have been extinct millions of years earlier. The world is also inhabited by Buck (Simon Pegg), a deranged weasel with a leaf-patch over one eye who is determined to come face to face with the world's most dangerous creature, a giant Spinosaurus he has named "Rudy."

Proof that this franchise is losing steam comes in the plot lines of a pregnant mammoth, a saber-tooth tiger who is out of practice, and a sloth looking to be a parent. But fortunately, the writers had other ideas up their sleeves. While the discovery of a "lost world" of dinosaurs seems intended to invigorate the plot and terrorize our friendly and comfortable characters, it's actually the appearance of Simon Pegg's one-eyed Buck that suddenly and quickly breathes life into the film. A better question at this point would be, did we even need the rest of the cast once this guy showed up? He literally steals the show.

Though we, as an audience, still care for our returning characters as much as we did in the first two installments, we become a little bored with the same old, same old. Fortunately, Buck saves the main characters, the day, and the film. As a Captain Ahab, Errol Flynn, and Indiana Jones all rolled into one, Buck is as fun to watch as he is to listen to. Whether telling the story of his encounter with a mythical beast or making a cell phone call with a stray rock he picks up, or saving our furry friends from peril, Buck steals every scene and is missed from the time he vanishes until his reappearance. Fearless, intelligent, and inventive, but a bit delusional due to the fact he's been away from civilized folk for too long . If studio execs are really considering another Ice Age, may I humbly request scrapping that idea and begin working immediately on a sole project for Buck. Maybe "Buck and the Forgotten World" could be a cool title.

Oh my... I almost forgot to mention Scrat the squirrel. This film wouldn't be considered part of the Ice Age franchise without him. As we all remember from the first two films, Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel, has still failed to acquire his beloved acorn. So his quest continues in this film, but his plot thickens as a female squirrel named Scratte (voiced by Karen Disher) is also after his nut. I said "nut", not "nuts" for those who are dirty minded. Though after the way she treats him in the film, I may have to change it to the latter.

Scrat is treated as a comic-relief subplot and a transition device between scenes. This comic relief subplot is supposed to be less interesting than your actual storyline, but it's not... and the filmmakers are either unaware that this is the more compelling story or actually counting on it as some kind of distraction from the main plot that is already on thin ice.

Considering this is an animation, there really isn't any acting involved, but the actors who voice the characters once again did a great job. Ray Romano, Dennis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, and Josh Peck all returned for their characters Manny the Mammoth, Diego the Saber tooth Tiger, Sid the Sloth, Ellie the Mammoth, Crash and Eddie the possums, respectively. But, again, Simon Pegg voiced Buck perfectly. You're going to love that character.

Director Carlos Saldanha (who also helmed the The Meltdown) and co-director Mike Thurmeier (a supervising animator making his feature-film directing debut) clearly relish the freedom to explore and push the boundaries, which results in the most action-oriented film in the series. Though he dragged a bit at the beginning of the film, Saldanha picks up the pace once our furry friends discover the underground world... and Buck.

The movie is best experienced in 3-D where the underground world really comes to life. Wearing the glasses (which are much more tolerable today than 10 years ago) gives the increasingly detailed CGI-created world a sense of depth and presence. Though I'm sure the film is enjoyable in 2-D... I highly recommend the 3-D experience.

The franchise is getting a little redundant and this film will probably make less than the first two installments, but its still another fun film for the family... in 3-D. The film will probably peak at $150 or $160 million so a fourth installment is almost a guarantee... just like it was announced. I just hope they manage to bring back Buck.

MOVIE RATING SCALE:

5.0 stars = A MUST SEE

4.5 stars = Excellent

4.0 stars = Outstanding

*** 3.5 stars = Good ***

3.0 stars = Above Average

2.5 stars = Average

2.0 stars = Disappointing

1.5 stars = Bad

1.0 stars = Terrible

0.5 stars = Horrible

0.0 stars = UNWATCHABLE