Ice Age 3 : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs

Review by Anthony Morris

When the first Ice Age film came out, it had a secret weapon on its side: cheapness. 

At a time when even basic CGI cost a lot of money, Ice Age was about as rough and ready as you could get in cinema-ready animation (having just about everything covered in ice helped).

But times have changed...

Which means that this third instalment (titled Ice Age 3 : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs) has to feature a little more than a surface world where the ice has melted just enough to let trees and other greenery poke through.

Which, it does.

When the still-moronic sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) adopts a trio of eggs he found in a cavern, it sets off a chain of events that ends up with our cast in a still-warm underground world where dinosaurs live amongst a whole lot of well-animated jungle. 

There is a bit of character based story here too.

Manny The Mammoth (Ray Romamo) and his partner Ellie (Queen Latifa) are expecting, and Sabre Tooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary) figures he has become a third wheel.

But mostly this is a trek across the underground jungle to rescue Sid before he becomes some dinosaur's lunch. 

Their guide, a crazed one eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg), provides a few laughs - but as is often the case by the third in a series the main characters are pretty much exhausted drama wise and the various subplots about the importance of family and fitting in are fairly tired and uninspired. 

Of course, all you really care about is whether the nut-crazed rat-thing Scrat is back.

The answer : yes he is. And his antics as he tries to once again get that nut while battling a new nemesis / love interest are the clear highpoint of the film. 

While the rest of the film feels it has to deliver sappy moralising about the importance of love and family, Scrat's sideplot (which runs throughout the film) skilfully undercuts it all and is far funnier besides. 

Give that rodent his own spin-off.

3.5 out of 5

Ice Age 3 : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
Australian release: 1st July, 2009
Official Site: Ice Age 3 : Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
Cast: John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Ray Romano, Chris Wedge
Director: Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier