From The Balcony
Ice Age 3- Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D
Directed by Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier
Review by Mark Edgemon
I chose to view this movie in the 3D offering to get the full effect
and for the reason that I don’t recall ever having had the 3D
experience prior to this movie and so I paid the extra $2.50 for the
glasses and the additional $500.00 for the popcorn and soft drink and
settled in for the full works. My wife is a big fan of computer
generated, cute lovable animals which I’m sure started back
with Rankin and Bass’s Rudolph, having all of the characters
as Christmas ornaments and the 30 minute program being a must see with
it’s first showing in December every year.
I went to see this movie for her and I braced myself for 90 minutes of
the cute and cuddly rampage getting ready to be pealed off my cornea,
thanks to the 3D glasses.
I reviewed this movie from three view points; from those who love
computer animation films (through the eyes of my wife), from the view
of a voice artist and producer and from those who do not care for such
films.
And now from the view of computer animation and animal lovers, this
film was superb across the spectrum, from story and plot development to
artistic and vocal performances, this film had it all and never let up
even past the end of the movie and into the credits.
The story begins with Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) two
of the last Wooly Mammoths on earth preparing for the debut of their
newborn child. Manny has built a winter wonderland playground in
preparation of the big event, while Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego
(Denis Leary) felt left out of the mix and each departed the herd to
pursue their own destinies.
Early into the movie, Sid discovers three large eggs in a frozen cavern
beneath the ice covered surface and decided “he”
would be their mother, adopting the eggs and caring for them until they
would hatch and he would finally see what he was the mother of. They
were in fact, infant dinosaurs who were being looked for by their huge,
angry mother, who eventually finds them and carries them off to an
underground jungle, filled with what was believed to be extinct
dinosaurs and other ferocious wildlife.
When Manny finds out that Sid is missing, he and Ellie reunites with
Diego and sets out to find him and bring him back to their herd,
hopefully alive. As they traveled into caverns beneath the icy surface,
they discovered a lush, tropical jungle and a travel guide named Buck
(Simon Pegg) an insane, but wily weasel, who helped them through the
unknown territory in search of their friend.
As the journey moves closer to conclusion, the plot divides into 4 sub
plots, alternating between them with Diego protecting Ellie from
minions of little dinosaurs while she is giving birth, Manny fighting
obstructions to get to her, Sid floating on a rock toward a lava fall
and Buck flying in to rescue him perched on a flying pterosaur.
As the herd comes together once again, they say goodbye to their guide
and return to the surface, with the realization that they belong
together and that they were a family, despite their differences.
Sometimes, your family is the one you make for yourself.
Two creatures that are part of a running gag in the film, Scrat (Chris
Wedge) and his female counterpart Scratte (Karen Disher) continue their
exploits throughout the film in their pursuit of acorns and eventually
each other. They are a riot!
And now as a voice artist, I believe the performances were solid by the
lead actors, but the focus of the movie was stolen by the voices of Sid
and Scrat. Usually, animated film producers will cast their lead roles
to strong bankable names and the minor roles given to strong voice
artists to fill any holes or support possible weaker performances by
the leads. Ray Romano did a good job in all three-movie installments,
nothing that stood out, just a good solid performance. Queen Latifah
had a weaker performance, but she has not performed a lot of voice
acting roles, so that is understandable. But overall, a professional
job!
And for those who do not like cute animal, computer animation films, I
would have this one word of advice…Run!
Run hard, run silent, run fast, run deep, but for God
sake…run from this movie, while you still have your sanity!!!
© 2009 Mark Edgemon
Mark Edgemon is a writer in his spare mind and runs a studio production company during the day.
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