Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

-by Ann Marie

All the characters are back again from the first two "Ice Age" movies.

This time Manny (Ray Ramano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid's (John Leguizamo) lives are all changing as Manny and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are becoming parents. Manny becomes the over protective and anxious father, builds a playground for expected baby. Diego on the other hand sees his life slowing down and realizes he needs adventure and tells Manny that he will be leaving the pack. As far as Sid, he wants to a family of his own and stumbles upon three dinosaur eggs. The storyline begins as Sid is hunted down by the dinosaurs' mother and brought back to and underground world where Manny, Diego and Ellie must rescue him. On the other end of this movie, the storyline follows Scrat (Chris Wedge) who is still after his acorn. However, things take a turn when he meets a female sabre-toothed squirrel, Scratte (Karen Disher). These two story lines help transform the characters' way of thinking and bring a lot of laughs to the audience.

The cast for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" consists of many familiar voices such as: Ray Ramano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah and Chris Wedge. Joining the cast this time is Karen Disher and Simon Pegg as Buck, the one-eyed weasel. Karen Disher and Chris Wedge's characters don't say much on screen, but they did a great job on screen. Added to this list of characters is Simon Pegg, he has done many funny films such as "Star Trek," "Dawn of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz." His witty personality helped bring Buck alive on screen.

Like the first two "Ice Age" movies, the animation was done by Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Productions. The animation didn't change from the first two movies. While watching the movie, the viewer will also notice Buck as a representation of both Crocodile Dundee and Frank Buck an adventurer from the 30s and 40s.

Those this film was very enjoyable, there seemed to be some factual errors many viewers could point out such as when Sid finds the eggs in an ice cave. It isn't plausible for the eggs to survive due to the extreme cold temperatures, but the eggs would also need a constant heat supply. Another error is in Buck's story about how he fought off Rudy. Buck states there was lightening and rain, when there is a constant sunlight in the Dinosaur Valley throughout the whole movie. Those these errors might be noticeable, it doesn't take away from the story line or the humor of the movie.

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" was co-directed by Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier. For Thurmeier this is the first big movie he has directed, he has also directed the short animation "No Time for Nuts." Though Thurmeier hasn't directed many movies, he has played many major roles in the Animation Department, visual effects and writing. Thurmeier has helped with such movies as "Ice Age," "Robots" "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "Horton Hears a Who!" As for Saldanha, he has directed all three "Ice Age" movies, but has also worked as an actor, producer, with the visual effects and in the Animation Department. Saldanha has worked on many movies such as: "Surviving Sid," "Robots," "No Time for Nuts" and is currently working on "Rio" which is in pre-production.

This movie would be recommended for anyone who has seen the first two "Ice Age" or loves animated movies.