Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Review [2]
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 07.06.2009
The herd is back, but is it for better or for worse?
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha & Mike Thurmeier Written by: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman & Yoni Brenner
Starring: Manny - Ray Romano Sid - John Leguizamo Diego - Denis Leary Ellie - Queen Latifah Crash - Seann William Scott Eddie - Josh Peck Scrat - Chris Wedge Buck - Simon Pegg Scratte - Karen Disher Gazelle - Bill Hader
Running Time: 94 minutes
Rated PG for some mild rude humor and peril.
While Pixar and DreamWorks are traditionally hailed as the kings of the computer-animated hill, 20th Century Fox aren’t exactly slouches in the genre either. Working in conjunction with Blue Sky Studios, the studio has brought us a few legitimate CGI hits, including 2005’s Robots and last year’s Horton Hears a Who, both of which were major financial successes for the distributor and production company. No CGI film, however, has brought them as much success as the Ice Age franchise. The first of the films, released in 2002 and starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary, had what was at the time the third-biggest animated opening weekend ever and would go on to gross over $383 million worldwide, making the studio a major player in the animation market following such financial failures as Titan A.E. and Anastasia. A sequel followed in 2006, as Ice Age: The Meltdown opened to somewhat weaker critical praise but showed there was far more life to the franchise than could be imagined with $651 million worldwide in ticket sales. With numbers like that there was no doubt a third was on the way. Sure enough, Fox and Blue Sky have reunited the three stars as well as Queen Latifah, Sean William Scott and Posh Peck from the second film for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
The film follows the further adventures of Manny the mammoth (Romano), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Leary) and Sid the sloth (Leguizamo)—or, more specifically, creates a new adventure for them. As the movie opens, Manny is trying to settle down with his mate Ellie (Latifah), who is pregnant with their first child. The concept of impending fatherhood has the neurotic Manny staunchly opposed to anything that might be considered dangerous, which is wearing on those around him. Meanwhile, Diego is coming to realize that age is slowing him down and that it might be time for him to head off into the sunset and leave the motley herd. Most affected is Sid, who is feeling left out by Manny and Ellie’s burgeoning family and Diego’s need to find his own way. This leads him to discovering a set of dinosaur eggs in an underground cave of ice, seemingly abandoned, which he happily accepts as his children-to-be. When the true mother shows up however, Sid finds himself transported to an underground world where the Ice Age hasn’t hit and dinosaurs are prevalent. Manny, Diego, Ellie and the opossum brothers Crash (Scott) and Eddie (Peck) venture down into the strange world to save them. With the help of an off-kilter, swashbuckling weasel guide named Buck (Pegg), they try to find their friend and rescue him while avoiding the many threats that lay within.
While Fox and Blue Sky had a major financial success with Ice Age: The Meltdown, the studios had painted themselves into a corner regarding the future installments. After all, the plot of the second film involved the Ice Age ending; how can one continue a film series called Ice Age after that? In order to find a way, Fox returned to Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman, who worked on the screenplay for the original film, and incorporated Yoni Brenner who co-wrote the short film Surviving Sid from the Horton Hears a Who DVD release. The three writers combine to create a story that takes the characters completely out of the snow-covered environment and into a Journey to the Center of the World-type location underneath the ice. As plot devices go it may be contrived and not particularly original, but it does work. The story drags a bit early on, as it takes too much time in setting up the plot to get the heroes below ground by following the new complications that Manny, Diego and Sid have separately. Once they make their way into the tropical underworld things pick up quite nicely though, as the three storylines cut down to two, both of which work very well. The two plots consist of Sid trying to compete with Mommy T-Rex in caring for the three baby dinosaurs and the rest of the group travelling through the wilderness after him, each of which have their own stars in Sid and Buck. Once underground Manny, Diego and Ellie fade a bit into the background to give the new character a chance to shine, and shine he does in injecting a new life into the group’s dynamic. The story plays out as a sort of Jurassic Park meets Peter Pan, and while the humor is not often laugh-out-loud funny, it works better than it did in the two previous films.
Of course, most of that humor comes not from the main story, but from the side-story involving Scrat the saber-toothed squirrel and his ongoing efforts to gather nuts. This time around Scrat has to deal with a rival for his food in the alluring, smarter and (unfortunately for Scrat) glide-capable Scratte. The two characters, as in the previous films, intersect with the plot but never become closely involved with it, and the non-verbal interactions between the two are the highlight of the film. This time around Scrat has to choose between his love for acorns and his love for this new and attractive creature in his life, and the story plays out rather differently than might be expected, although the destination is the same. The subplots involving Scrat have invariably been the best parts of the series and it’s the same here, as there’s plenty enjoy in the interactions and physical humor that comprise these dialogue-less vignettes.
The voice actors who have been a part of the series since its inception—Romano, Leary and Leguizamo—are very comfortably settled into their roles here. In two of those cases, that is not necessarily a good thing as Romano and Leary turn in rather lackluster performances. Leary simply doesn’t have too much to do here, and Romano’s Manny has always been one of the least interesting of the characters. Leguizamo however takes that comfortability and builds upon it nicely as the spotlight shines upon him. Sid was often one of the more annoying characters in the series, but here he comes into his own and really excels thanks to Leguizamo’s efforts. Queen Latifah fares a little better than Romano or Leary as Ellie and never seems weary or bored. The duo of Sean William Scott and Josh Peck provide some mild humor as the opossum duo, but the real laughs come from the introduction of Buck. Simon Pegg brings a new life to the series, giving Buck an exuberant, danger-loving sense of adventure that the film would have been seriously lacking without. His performance brings to mind the great swashbuckling characters of cinema, from Errol Flynn’s (or more appropriately, Walt Disney’s) Robin Hood to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow. The absolute best moments are when Buck has the chance to shine, and he truly lifts this movie from potential failure to moderate success.
Directing the film is Carlos Saldanha, the man behind the lens of both of the previous Ice Age films. He’s joined by Mike Thurmeier, who served as one of the head animators on Horton Hears a Who, Robots and both previous Ice Age films. Saldanha guides this film with a steady, if occasionally overly-safe, hand. The addition of Thurmeier adds a new level of expertise to the animation, which looks, in a word, stunning. The level of detail is excellent without seeming like some other CGI films that trumpet their technical visuals without making them seem like they have any spirit to them. Here, the visual are both visually dazzling and natural-looking, which makes for an enjoyable visual experience. If the story was just a bit strong and some of the performances a bit more spirited, this would be a great animated film instead of simply a good one.
The 411: Unfortunately for the filmmakers of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the standard for CGI-animated films has been set amazingly high. With Coraline, Up just this year leading the pack, the third entry in the prehistoric series is destined to be left at the middle of the pack. This is far from meaning that it's a bad film however, just a flawed one. The animation is excellent and there are elements of the story that work well, supplemented by excellent voice work by Simon Pegg and John Leguizamo, and they help make the film as enjoyable as it can be. In the end, Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a great film for kids and a good one for adults and easily the best film in the series to date.
