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As most movie-goers should be aware of, dinosaurs predated the mammals of the Ice Age series by millions of years. Thus, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (the third instalment of the now 7-year-old computer-animated franchise) has a few problems to overcome in order to justify the scaly and the furry sharing the screen. To solve this conundrum, the committee of writers have dug deep into the classic tomes of science fiction (such as the works of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs) to conceive an idea so ludicrous - an entire world existing beneath the icy ground of the Pleistocene Epoch - that it very nearly works. Of course, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a children's cartoon, and expecting it to be paleontologically accurate is rather imprudent. Nevertheless, if this small detail keeps coming to mind during the movie, it may be an indication that Fox has gone to the well one too many times with this franchise. Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a charming film, but it's more of an agreeable television event than a majestic animated feature.
Following the events of Ice Age: The Meltdown, Manny (Romano) and Ellie (Latifah) - the last two woolly mammoths on the planet - are expecting their first child. However the prospective new arrival has put a strain on the gang; sabre-toothed tiger Diego (Leary) fears domesticity will cause him to lose more of his edge as a hunter, while Sid the sloth (Leguizamo) realises the family dynamic could lead to his eventual exclusion. Depressed, Sid wishes for a family of his own, and stumbles upon a trio of dinosaur eggs that contain Tyrannosaurs Rexes which he decides to adopt. But once they hatch, their perturbed mother soon shows up to seize them...and takes Sid as well. So with Sid taken captive by a dinosaur who takes him to a lost world of dinosaurs under the ice, it's up to his motley group of mammal pals to rescue him - with a crazed weasel named Buck (Pegg) giving them a helping hand along the way.
Unfortunately, the story just feels like a thinly-veiled excuse to incorporate dinosaurs (presumably because they're popular with little boys). For the most part, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs plays out like a demo for the video game as it careens from one improbable action situation to the next. Mastering these sorts of challenges may be fun in an interactive video game, but they're dull and out-of-place in a movie. To the credit of the filmmakers, though, the picture doesn't strain itself to find a higher purpose, and the absence of responsibility permits the movie to have a bit of fun. The directorial duo of Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier therefore hand Dawn of the Dinosaurs over to the colourful locales, dangerous predators and the adorable infant dinosaur shenanigans. A sense of freshness is encouraged with the introduction of Buck; a comedic hunter with a leaf eye-patch who's been lurking solo in the lost world underneath the ice for several years. Buck is a splendid, off-the-wall sidekick who's integral to the narrative and pitched to entertain (instead of irritate), with Simon Pegg elevating the material with his endearing rendition of the character.
And of course, crowd favourite Scrat ("voiced" by series head-honcho Chris Wedge) shows up periodically throughout the film to liven things up. The buck-toothed, squirrel-like critter's incessant love for his acorn is continually put to the test; more so when he crosses paths with the femme-fatale of his species, affectionately known as Scrattè (Disher), who's rather a tough nut to crack. Their physical tussles over the acorn (which lead to them falling in love) provide welcome relief from the story proper, and remind us that well-executed slapstick comedy is always enjoyable. The Scrat/Scrattè interactions frankly make the rest of the movie look rather stale.
The previous Ice Age films maintained a consistent cleverness, and had only minimal reliance on television-grade jokes. But there's an overriding laziness haunting Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Hearing Ray Romano bitch about married life is out-of-place in this picture, as if the audio from Romano's former television program was recycled. On top of this, the plotline resembles that of a generic sitcom episode. The humour is half-baked, and hilarious moments are only occasional. The film often resorts to bathroom humour or relating to gender differences to get a laugh (for instance, what happens when you try to "milk" a male cow?). Most of the jokes couldn't be less relevant to what's happening as well. There's a bit of playful bantering between the characters from time to time as well as a selection of amusing vignettes, but once again these are infrequent. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs feels like it was assembled as quickly as possible before the franchise's target audience could outgrow the infantile protagonists.
Blue Sky Studios continue to operate strongly in the shadow of Pixar and DreamWorks, but this smaller enterprise needs to improve their techniques in order to compete in the animation realm. The look of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is disappointing, particularly with Pixar's Up being released in the same year. While the characters themselves are well-detailed, the world in which they operate is bland and generic.
With each new release, Pixar manages to expose deep issues and still create a highly enjoyable romp that appeals to viewers young and old. Meanwhile, Fox continues to milk franchises like Ice Age, and the result is surface-level fluff. Like the previous Ice Age films, Dawn of the Dinosaurs is enjoyable, but too formulaic, and creativity is slowly decreasing (who didn't predict the '80s one-hit wonder Walk the Dinosaur being used for the soundtrack?).
6.4/10
