Do you need to laugh? Then this is your movie! The Ice Age filmmakers have got the chemistry and formula down for these characters. We join them in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, once again in snow, on their way to where? We don’t much care if we get to hang with them. Easily recognizing the tone and rhythm of their conversations, their voices familiar, we find them in the midst of one of their signature arguments, which is just fine with us. Prehistoric old friends that our children and/or grandchildren watch regularly, part of the inevitable babysitting library, this nonsensical ‘herd’ has been welcome in our lives for seven years, since they met and bonded in 2002 for Ice Age.  

My granddaughters, daughter and I went to RAVE to see it in 3D. It is a long hour and a half with little ones, especially as my two-year-old couldn’t fit the glasses, so was restless, probably because she found the film quality poor as a consequence. The laughs, new baby animals and site gags kept them from open revolt. Popcorn and M&M’s buy only so much grace period. 

The movie was silly funny great. In all the movies, the guy with the most lines is Sid, the silly sloth sidekick, brilliantly voiced by John Leguizamo. Denis Leary voices Diego, a fearsome prehistoric lion who had a huge character arc, from villainous to well-adjusted by story’s end. Initially, it was Sid’s idea to help the human baby in the first story, with Diego grudgingly assisting. Manny, a prehistoric wholly mammoth makes the third unlikely musketeer of this pack of loners that come to be their own ‘herd’.  

Ray Romano is the famous voice of the intolerant, grouchy wholly mammoth, Manny, variously wisecracking and yelling—at everyone except Ellie, his main squeeze that he met a few years ago in the second installment, Ice Age: The Meltdown. Queen Latifah brought her famous voice and attitude to her distinctively feminine, but savvy character, Ellie, out-wisecracking Manny, turning his head to thoughts of romance and cementing Manny’s fate. Ellie hadn’t set eyes on another mammoth before she met Manny and the two are an item by the end of the movie. 

Ellie likes to sleep hanging upside down from ‘any ole tree handy’, due to the fact that she was raised by possums. Added to the ‘herd’ were her possum ‘parents’ Crash, voiced by Seann William Scott, and Eddie with Josh Peck, who was probably twelve when he was cast for this voice part. Scott, most famous as Stifler in the American Pie franchise, has an impressive set of roles to his credit such as Bulletproof Monk. His Crash is goofy cool. Their characters are the secondary comic relief after Sid, who got the best comedic lines, again stealing the show. 

That was three years ago, so in the normal course of time, Ellie and Manny are ‘expecting’ as we join their mismatched, utterly loyal ‘herd’ in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. This ‘episode’ has them in an area that Manny, ‘pack leader’ has decided would be a good place to welcome his baby. Ellie must be very close to delivering, for which we have to take their word, as the animated mammoth looks like she did in …Meltdown. Manny has made a playground, complete with baby swing, teeter totter, a hanging, hand made ice crystal chimes mobile and a sculpture of Uncle Sid. No Handy Manny jokes. 

Looking so much like ‘…and a baby makes three’, Sid and Diego begin to feel left out and superfluous. Diego decides to head out on his own and Sid glumly wanders off, only to find himself falling through a break in the ice, into an immense underground ice cavern. While down there he found three big eggs and joyously brought them home to his sunny ledge, where the sun finished the job for what must have been a solitary, hunting Mom. They hatched into darling T-rexes and Sid was oblivious, because now he’s a parent, too. Just in case you wonder if the filmmakers will have everyone paired off or yearning to be a parent by the end of the movie—no, not quite—almost, but no. 

Of course baby T-rex havoc ensued until something worse happened. Mom came looking for her little ones. The real Mom. The huge, real Mom. And Sid had words with her, naturally. And then he’s gone and his ‘herd’ must follow and rescue him. They entered a strange, exotic land as they track him, down deep into the underground cavern systems. This land was filled with actual dinosaurs, which is a stretch, I’ll grant you, but –it’s just animation for laughs.  

Anyhow, this strange world was real scary, and obviously dangerous and their good fortune? They ran into Buck, a jungle guide with a huge dinosaur tooth for a knife, and a story to go with it. Simon Pegg voiced Buck, this wacky weasel who adopted our favorite ‘herd’, and their cause, guiding them through this vast fern-forested underworld where Manny and Ellie never complained of the heat. Okay, it goes on like that but on the whole is funny, hilarious in many places, as only one-liners and sight gags can offer. 

And speaking of sight gags. Scrat is this century’s Wiley E. Coyote, and rather than a Roadrunner, an acorn is the coveted prize. Beginning as vignettes for the 2002 film credits, Scrat’s existence was acknowledged in his own mini-movie and then upgraded for the opening and closing sequences of the 2006 script. Chris Wedge’s voice acting communicates more with sighs, swallowing or catching his breath than can be believed for the hilarious sight gag romps that are Scrat’s reason d’etre.  

However, for this year’s movie, Scrat’s character is woven throughout the length of the script, and he even meets one of his own (what is that, you might ask?) Well, she has her eye on his precious acorn—just because, alright? You got it; they are at each other’s throats with a dozen, scrappy outrageously cartoonish scenes. They even become an item causing the filmmakers to think we could tolerate her swishy lashes and the tango scene. Can’t win ‘em all. 

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a solid third entry for the franchise and is certainly worth the ticket for the 3D version, which is impressively layered, at least on the screen at RAVE, Town Square where I viewed it.  

A side note would be: not all 3D or IMAX screens are alike; certainly not all are at the maximum standards. RAVE and Brenden deliver the max. Sunset Station’s IMAX, for instance, does not. If you haven’t been to a particular theatre, you might ask to see the auditorium before buying tickets, as the price is no indicator.   

ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS was again directed by Carlos Saldanha and co-directed by Michael Thurmeier, from a story by Jason Carter Eaton and a screenplay by Michael Berg & Peter Ackerman and Mike Reiss and Yoni Brenner. The producers are Lori Forte and John C. Donkin.   

The film stars Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, and Chris Wedge.