[THE FOLLOWING IS A REPRINT OF REDBLOG'S REVIEW OF ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS DURING ITS THEATRICAL RELEASE LAST SUMMER. ICE AGE: DOTD IS NOW ON DVD AND AVAILABLE FOR RENTAL IN THE REDBOXES.]
I admit I never
gave much thought to the Ice Age movies—I dimly recall seeing the first
one, skipped the second one, and was trying to come up with any reason
at all not to see the latest, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
But since it was in a tight race for first place at the box office
and since my two illustrious co-writers here at redblog were off
enjoying (or not) the grown-up treats of Public Enemies, and in order
to steer my four-year-old nephew off his constant pleadings to see
Transformers 2, I ended up seeing Ice Age: Dinos on a 3D screen. And then
watching Ice Age 2: The Meltdown the next day.
And you know what? I certainly didn’t hate either of them. I’m not much of a
Ray Romano fan (no, everyone certainly does not love Raymond), and
Fox’s Ice Age franchise has always just reeked a bit too much of
carefully calculated, test-screened and focus-grouped slick product.
But as millions of parents have learned, if you’re going to have to
watch a non-Pixar animated movie 100 times a year on DVD, these Ice Age
flicks aren’t the worst that could happen.
Oh, I’m sure the Ice Age mix of Looney Tunes-style slapstick and treacly,
heartwarming message wears thin after about the 50th kid-mandated viewing, but I found Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs a decent
time-passer, filled with enough nonstop, kinda nonsensical, wacky humor
and good-old-fashioned adventure to stave off adult-onset boredom. No, it’s probably not better than Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, but only
by a few shades less, and only in that way that all franchises start to wear
threadbare and thin by their third go-round.
I’m not sure the plot matters much, nor did it seem to matter to
the filmmakers (co-directors Carlos Saldanha from IA2 and Mike Thurmeier from the Scrat short No Time For Nuts), but here goes: Mammoths Manny (Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting a Woolly
bundle of baby Snuffleupagus (leading Manny to construct a playground
while displaying some pretty impressive tool and art skills for a
prehistoric pachyderm).
A
feeling-left-out Sid goes off and
stumbles onto a trio of dino eggs. Sid plays “mom,” the eggs hatch, the
baby Rexes are adorably chaotic, Mama Rex comes back to fetch them (in
a scene that, when it comes to conveying the awesome size and heft of a
stomping T-Rex, is almost as visually impressive as anything in the
Jurassic Park films or King Kong), and ends up hauling hapless Sid back
to her Lost World, a Conan-Doyle-esque tropical underground land time
forgot. So our friendly herd-family heads down under to rescue Sid.
What? It could happen.
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(See What I Did There? "Possesses"? Heh...)