Movie Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
MPAA Rating: PG
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third installment in a successful franchise of films (Ice Age and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown) focused around a wooly mammoth couple named Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), a saber-tooth tiger named Diego (Dennis Leary), possum brothers Eddie and Crash, and of course, Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo). While the mammoths ready themselves for an addition to the family, Sid also wants in on parenthood and finds three abandoned eggs to take care of. The crew is in for quite the surprise when Sid’s eggs hatch into dinosaurs. After an angry Tyrannosaurus Rex mother goes after her missing eggs, grabbing Sid with them, his friends must journey through a mysterious passage to another tropical world underground filled with dinosaurs, volcanoes, a friendly weasel named Buck and out of this world adventure. Of course, no Ice Age film would be complete without funny scenes of the manic squirrel named Scat chasing acorns and this movie is no exception when a lady squirrel named Scratte joins him.
Like the past movies, Dawn of the Dinosaurs will keep many young children laughing and entertained. However, all in all it doesn’t quite stack up to its Ice Age predecessors when it comes to comedic value or a catchy plot line. It is also a little confusing since the story has been following animals commonly found in the Ice Age, which occurred after dinosaurs went extinct. Shouldn’t the age of dinosaurs have dawned and ended long before that? Despite the mediocre plot that could bore the older portion of the audience, there is plenty of action and suspense to keep children happy and make the movie somewhat successful. Due to scenes with large, frightening dinosaurs, the film might be a little scary for young children, especially when viewed in 3-D.
This movie is recommended for children in Kindergarten and up.
Kelly Nelson is an intern for KC Parent Magazine. She will be a junior at the University of Missouri in the fall and is studying Journalism and Spanish there. She has lived in Kansas City her whole life and enjoys being home for the summer.