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'Ice Age' ideas long in the tooth
20th Century Fox
Mammoths Manny and Ellie, along with possums Crash and Eddie, star in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."
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Published: June 30, 2009
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There's more action and cuddly creatures for kids to love in "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" than in the animated franchise's first two installments. For their parents, it's more of the same, a "Yawn of the Dinosaurs" adventure with some new faces and places but the same central characters rehashing the themes of the first two movies.
The worn-out idea the filmmakers have yet another crack at: Families can be found objects, stitched together from all sorts of misfits who bond to form their own loving little clan.
The main thing that distinguishes this movie from its predecessors is the setting as the gang of prehistoric animals journey underground to a lost world of dinosaurs.
Once again, the main players are Manny the woolly mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), his wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo). Sibling possums Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck) also tag along again.
With Manny and Ellie expecting their first child, Diego strikes out on his own, sensing he's lost his predator edge. Sid, feeling left out of Manny's family circle, adopts three huge eggs he stumbles on in a cavern, becoming surrogate mother to baby tyrannosaurs whose real mom comes to reclaim them, dragging the sloth underground.
So Manny, Ellie, the possums and eventually Diego join up to rescue poor Sid.
The dialogue is mostly simple jawboning that doesn't provide many laughs. Unlike such wise, witty Pixar Animation tales as "Up" and "WALL-E," this one's strictly a slapstick tale for the young ones.
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