November 4, 2009
Ice Age Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
Blake Matthews READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs continues the adventures of Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano), Ellie (Queen Latifah), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego a saber-tooth tiger (Dennis Leary). When Dawn Of The Dinosaurs opens, Ellie is pregnant and Manny is a nervous father-to-be, Diego is feeling his age and decides to leave the herd, while Sid is feeling left out stumbles across three eggs hidden in a cavern and decides to raise his own family. The eggs hatch and Sid is the "mama" to three baby T-Rexes, however when mama T-Rex comes back she not only takes her babies back, but Sid as well. So now Ellie, Manny and Diego (who eventually returns) must get Sid back.
What they find is an underground cavern with a hidden world of dinosaurs, they meet Buckminster (Simon Pegg) who is their guide this new world as well as adding comic relief as the original characters seem to have lost some of their charm. Buck helps navigate the good and bad dinosaurs which include raptors, while trying to find Sid and get back to the surface world.
Also in the film is the saber-toothed squirrel Scrat who continues his quest of chasing acorns, which is complicated by Scratte a female version of Scrat.
Ice Age has run its course and there's not really much more to be told that hasn't been covered in the three films. That said, don't be surprised if Ice Age 4 is announced as a theatrical release or direct to DVD film or an animated series is in development.
Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs comes as a two-disc special edition, on disc one is the film as well as a commentary with director Carlos Saldanha and the animators and crew.
Moving over to disc two is a number of short featurettes mostly pertaining to Scrat. There are two Scrat Shorts which were included on the Ice Age and Ice Age 2 DVD's and are very funny especially No Time For Nuts which features a time travelling Scrat. There's a faux documentary about Scrat, as well as a how to draw scrat. Two developmental pieces are present, one about Scratte the other about Buck.
