Friday, July 10, 2009

Not for Educational Purposes: Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The Cenozoic meets the Mesozoic in Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third
installment of the Ice Age franchise. The prehistoric heroic trio, consisting of mammoths Manny (voiced by Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), and saber-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary), embarks on a journey to save their sloth friend Sid (John Leguizamo) after an angry mama T-Rex captures him. Sid earns the theropod's wrath when he takes her eggs and attempts to raise them as his own. This and other disruptive behavior, we learn, is prompted by the impending birth of Ellie and Manny's new baby mammoth. Soon, a rescue mission unfolds in the land of dinosaurs, and we meet series newcomer Buck (Simon Pegg), a one-eyed scavenger weasel, who incites most of the film's humor ("Time to get buckwild!") and becomes an indispensable ally in navigating the perilous tropical getaway. Dawn of the Dinosaurs lacks the magic of the first Ice Age, but its story is more compelling than the inane but well-intentioned global warming-themed second installment, The Meltdown. One hopes, however, that parents won't use this film, in which dinosaurs live among Ice Age mammals, for educational purposes.

Courtesy of Independent Weekly.