Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Saldanha & Thurmeier | USA | 2009
94 min
By non-Pixar standards, the third prehistoric Ice Age adventure is an above average fare. Rated by its own standards, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a major improvement over its predecessor Ice Age: The Meltdown, the placid sequel to the wonderful original Ice Age. This improvement though does not occur in storytelling or character-development, but mostly by the introduction of a wonderful, eccentric new character who carries the movie through.
Ellie (Queen Latifah) and Manny (Ray Romano) are expecting a baby, and this complicates matters for the herd. When Sid (John Leguizamo) steals three T-Rex eggs to also try his hand at parenting, the mother T-Rex carries Sid away, along with her young ones, to the land before time, below all the snow & ice, inhabited by dinosaurs, a Lava-fall and a lush-green landscape that somehow survives without direct sunlight. As the herd goes down to rescue Sid, they come across and are eventually led by Buckminster, or Buck as he’s afffectionately known, a zany one-eyed weasel who’s part Capt Jack Sparrow, part Indiana Jones and a complete loony. Chases, close-escapes, helium-induced laughter and exercises in bonding ensue.
Scrat too is not alone. His eternal quest for that elusive acorn is disrupted by Scrattè, a femme-fatale, sabre-tooth squirrel. Scrat has to take on both Lady Luck and Scrattè, who appear to be on the same side against him. Unfortunately, Scrat, the best character from the first film, has by now overstayed his welcome, and his idiosyncrasies seem tiring and annoying. Even the elusive acorn seems more interesting in comparison. A hilarious sequence where we see Scrat & Scrattè frolicking as a couple from the POV of the Acorn is the movies most inventive scene – the Acorn yearns for the attention of its once avid admirer/fan/stalker.
The original Ice Age felt like a wonderful animated feature when it was first released, and the first major CGI animated movie that was neither a Pixar or Dreamworks offering. In time, it became an unnecessary and putrid cash-cow franchise, confirmed by its unnecessary sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown. However, seven years on from the original, Blue Sky productions seems to have caught up with Dreamworks in realising what makes for an interesting, fun (if not good) animated movie – ONE fun character and numerous comedic sketches wrung together for the bulk of the running time. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a fun movie, and would probably sustain itself even with multiple viewings. The sequences that contribute to the fun are so many and so independently diverse, that they could be seen out of order without affecting the viewing pleasure. Logic was no doubt left in the freezer and the coincidences in the story become too convenient. Why helium stays at the bottom of a chasm instead of floating to the top; how the T-Rex eggs manage to get to the ice-world; why the Dinosaurs (and perhaps also Scrat & Scrattè) don’t talk like all the other animals. These are valid questions, yet none of this matters much – the movie entertains and laughter comes as easy as in a good sitcom. It doesn’t intend to be anything more.
Many of the laugh out loud moments are courtesy of Buck, voiced by Simon Pegg. Like Puss-in-Boots from the Shrek movies, this is a character that justifies its existence just by how watchable he is. Put him in any situation and he’ll find a way to keep himself busy. His swashbuckling and eccentricities, doused with Pegg’s British accent make him extremely watchable. At one point during the search, he holds up his hunting dagger and announces: “Let me tell you about the time I turned a Tyrannosaurus Rex into Tyrannosaurus Rachel”!
This series really does not need any more installments, but if another one is indeed made, as it likely is, then do away with Scrat, and let’s have more of Buck.
This movie is released in the UAE in conventional 2D screens only. Elsewhere, you may be lucky to catch this in 3D, which just may add to the experience.