Friday, July 3, 2009

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAUR




Animated cartoon

PRINCIPAL VOICES
Chris Wedge: Scrat, a male sabre-toothed squirrel
Karen Disher Scratte, a female sabre-toothed squirrel
Denis Leary: Diego, a saber-toothed tiger
John Leguizamo: Sid the Sloth
Ray Romano: Manny, a male wooly mammoth
Queen Latifah: Ellie, a female wooly mammoth
Seann Scott and Josh Peck: the possums Crash and Eddie
Simon Pegg: Buck, a one-eyed weasel

REVIEW
In keeping with the series’ tradition the film begins with Scrat once more on the hunt for an acorn. As usual, his antics are hilarious.

From there on we get to see our old friends cope with new adventures, some of them at a breakneck speed. And all of this in 3D which adds a nice element to the movie experience.

A lot of what they do is mildly amusing but there are some “laugh-out-loud” moments too. You can’t expect much more than that from today’s style of comedy (I harken back to the days of the British Carry On series of pain inducing laughs…but I digress).

The “fear factor” has increased with scary creatures suddenly making their appearance and lots of wild rides. But I’m the only one who noticed: the kids in the audience didn’t seem to be all that perturbed, they take all that stuff in stride. In other words it’s child-friendly and for grownups too.

CLASSIFICATION
for for some peril and innuendo.

P.S.
To my mind, the series is getting better with every installment:
• in 2002 I gave Ice Age a 3 finger rating (out of 5)
• in 2006 Ice Age: The Meltdown got 3½ stars (out of 5)
• in 2009 this one got 4 stars (out of 5)
That’s a pretty good report card.

P.S.S.
Keen observers will note the evolution of my rating system over the years:
Initially the range was from a one-finger salute to high-fives then to stars and half-stars and finally just stars (no half-stars) which makes it a tougher call sometimes but hey I’m stuck with my own system; so be it.

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