Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – Review

If I had any kids, I would have taken them to a natural history museum over Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, for one simple reason: they would have had more fun. What reeks of an evil scheme to take more of your family’s dollar, there is little new or fresh in what was an average series anyway. But I suppose the kids have worn out the first two film’s DVDs, and in a market where constant attention is needed to survive, here’s another lame, limp, ho-hum sequel. Does your wallet hurt yet? “But my kids like them” says some family man/woman. “It’s good family entertainment.” So is playing a board game, and it’s cheaper.

Adding the typical elements to a third film, like a new kid, a wacky new character, and insert them into a simple story, nothing here that will amuse, and that’s the filmmakers fault, because it’s the only reason for this to exist. Silly Sid finds some eggs and decides to nurse them like a mommy, only to them hatch and presto! Sid has little T-Rexes to mother. Except the real mommy comes calling and sweeps Sid into a new world full of danger and dinosaurs. Luckily, for some reason, Sid has great friends, so the clan goes in search of him. While the 3-D adds a nice dimensionality to the rendered backdrops, creating depth, I don’t think it is imperative to have seen Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 3-D. Most parents who have no will power and who must take the kids to see this, be advised and save a few bucks by catching it in a normal theater. I’m warming up to the 3-D process, but nothing here amazes like other efforts we’ve seen.

In fact, nothing amazes at all here. The animation is nice, typical of Blue Sky, the studio doing these pictures, the jokes are standard issue, barely getting a few chuckles out of the sleepy audience, and the dinosaur elements feels tacky. And I love dinosaurs. What’s next for Ice Age 4? The gang in space? It’s a sequel for sequel’s sake, or also known as instant money maker. Kids don’t have the good common sense to differentiate from one Ice Age from the next, and they most likely have beaten up the other Ice Age DVD beyond playability, so here’s another generic tale for you to see (or just wait for the DVD). It’s so incredibly cookie-cutter this time around, that the jokes are as old as a dinosaur, the film plods along aimlessly, making no real fuss. I happened to look next to me, as a kid once so giddy about her dad taking her to a 3-D movie, that the film put her to sleep. What a waste of money. Just remember that I told you so. Don’t worry, there will be better and more worth while family films soon enough, so let this one melt.

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