Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

After the enjoyable buddy action of the first Ice Age film, the sequel took a step backwards with the introduction of Ellie as the love interest for Manny. Out went the quick pace and wit of the first film, to be replaced with corny gags and a large helping of cheese. Now we have the third Ice Age film, in which the main story arc concerns Sid and his attempts at “motherhood”. After Sid goes missing Manny, Ellie and Diego go looking for him aided by another new character, Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg). As the new member of the gang, unsurprisingly, Buck is given plenty of screen time with most of his gags hitting the mark, including a number of innuendoes for the adults to enjoy. Another new character, Scratte, is a rival / love interest for the franchises most lovable character, Scrat. Though her introduction falls somewhat flat, is does provide one inspired sequence where Scrat and Scratte battle for the beloved acorn whilst entrapped in bubbles. The fact that this scene (less than a minute long) is the highlight of the movie shows up how the rest of the film is sorely lacking in new ideas, even with the introduction of the new characters. In fact, their presence on screen means there’s now too many cooks spoiling the broth, with some characters falling by the wayside (a small subplot concerning Diego seems almost an after-thought). Overall, this is an improvement on the second film, but it falls way short of the first instalment, and you can’t help getting the impression that the film-makers are concerned more with how much profit they can get from merchandise tie-ins from a safe film, as opposed to really pushing the envelope to show us something new. On a side-issue to that, I watched the 3-D version, which doesn’t add too much, so if you’re watching the 2-D version you’re not really missing out.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Innocent and enjoyable stuff for the kids, but it’ll be nothing new for the older members of the audience. Any future adventures might best be saved for a direct to DVD release. Rating: 5/10.