Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs – When Sid adopts three seemingly abandoned eggs, three baby dinosaur’s hatch out. Soon their real mother, a huge T-Rex, comes for them and takes Sid along too. Desperate to save their friend, Manny, a very pregnant Ellie, Diego, Crash and Eddie find themselves deep below the Earth’s surface in a hidden prehistoric land, full of dinosaurs. Guided by adventurer, Buck, the group set off to find Sid but with so many new dangers and Ellie on the verge of giving birth even if they find him, will they all make it back to the surface alive?

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) – Director: Carlos Saldanha, Mike Thurmeier

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23425833

Rating: U

Running Length: 94 mins

Starring: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo

Genre: Animated, Comedy

REVIEW: ‘ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS’

Having five movies in its franchise (so far), ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ is the third and brings in a whole new prehistoric world of dinosaurs, which has managed to avoid the mass extinction by existing in a world deep below the Earth’s surface, in a very ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ plot. Our core group, Manny and Ellie the mammoth’s, Sid the sloth, Diego the sabre-toothed cat and opossums Crash and Eddie are still together, and Ellie’s heavily pregnant as the movie opens. With the thump thump of little mammoth feet getting ever-nearer, Sid’s own desire for offspring becomes an obsession, resulting in him taking eggs to raise as his own. Of course, nothing is ever that simple for Sid so he and his ‘children’ are soon taken by their real mother, a huge T-Rex back to the underground dinosaur world, thus begins the adventure for his friends to rescue him.

Newcomer, Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg), is a slightly unhinged adventurer who craves the danger of his nemesis, a gigantic dinosaur he has named Rudy, but is more than willing to help Manny and co as he missed the company of creatures he can converse with. Scrat continues his quest for the always-just-out-of-reach acorn but finds his desires turn towards a female squirrel, will this be the end of his frustrating dream to catch his elusive prey once and for all? While there are plenty of gags on offer and the group are always fun to watch, ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ doesn’t really do anything new. The attempts to split them up (Diego deciding to go out on his own and Sid’s attempt at motherhood) are too short-lived to be convincing and besides, breaking up the group audiences have grown to love would be a real misstep. Dinosaurs may seem like an exciting new addition to the Ice Age universe but having only one major threat and the rest being used more as background imagery means that their impact was too minimal to have any lasting effects on the franchise.

‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ may be more of the same but it’s heart warming story about a group of misfits who have become a family with plenty of genuinely funny comedy throughout will never fail to entertain.

CONTENT: IS ‘ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

Sid finds 3 eggs which he believes to have been abandoned, he takes them away to raise as his own children. When Manny discovers what Sid has done, he says a lot of mean things to Sid, hurting his feelings. Sid walks away dejected.

The camera pans slowly to a large hole in the ice, there is suspenseful music and roars can be heard from within. This only lasts a few seconds but could be scary for younger children.

When the babies hatch, Sid tries to get them some milk. He reached under a male ox, whose eyes suddenly get wide. It is then seen chasing Sid who shouts, ‘I thought you were a girl!’

An adult T-Rex suddenly attacks the group, as well as other families with children, to reclaim its children. They all flee in a panic as the dinosaur rages and chases after them. Sid refuses to give up what he sees as his children so is taken away with them. This scene is intense and lasts several minutes so could be too frightening for young kids.

When talking to new friend, Buck, they tell him that they are there to save Sid. He casually assumes Sid has been killed and dismissively says ‘he’s dead’.

When the group see a huge, colourful butterfly, Buck tells them ‘I knew that guy when he was a caterpillar, you know, before he came out’. 

When travelling with Buck, they use the ribcage of a dinosaur to slide from one place to another. Buck tells them not to breathe in toxic fumes, but as they are there for a long time, they can’t hold their breathe any longer. When they take a breath, their voices are high-pitched and they begin to laugh to the point of hysteria. Not realising the danger they’re in, they continue to breathe in the fumes. However, Buck yells at them to stop and points at skeletons below saying, ‘They died laughing!’

The T-Rex provides a bird for her babies to eat. However it suddenly wakes up and is terrified. Sid protects it but throws it off cliff thinking it can fly. We see it fall, it screams and is then eaten by another bird below.

When Buck speaks of a former adventure, there is a flashback. A huge dinosaur stalks him and a giant eye, which fills the entire screen, looks at Buck. It’s huge claws swipe and Buck is thrown back, this is when he loses his eye. He is then on top of a tree unable to see where the dinosaur is, he fearfully looks around but it approaches him from behind and its jaws close around him.

Ellie is alone at night and walks around looking for the others. She hears noises and rustling in nearby bushes, as she gets closer, a pair of menacing red eyes open. However the danger turns out to be not be as imminent as it appears.

A group of nasty dinosaurs see Ellie as she is in labour; they hiss and their spines shake. They aggressively approach her but Manny and Diego hold them back without too much trouble.

A character grabs some berries from tree which it turns out to be shielding Scrat & his girlfriend from view. As they are exposed in an apparent tender moment, they look shocked at being caught out.

Towards the end of the movie, the huge dinosaur who Buck calls Rudi attacks the group. This is quite scary and prolonged but as it isn’t any stronger than other exciting scenes before it so should not be too frightening.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSUARS’ FOR KIDS?

The first time the franchise seemed to be running out of steam, ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ hasn’t anything new to add but it certainly doesn’t scrimp on the comedy! We feel this movie is appropriate for all ages although there are a few exciting scenes that could be a bit scary for little kids so we recommend parental supervision for under 5’s.

• Violence: 1/5 (some attacks by dinosaurs)
• Emotional Distress: 1/5 (Sid becomes despondent about not being able to have children and, when he takes the eggs, he is crushed when Manny dismisses his issues and demands that he returns them)
• Fear Factor: 2/5 (the dinosaurs attacks are likely to be scary for younger kids)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (A couple of instances where Sid gets confused by male anatomy. When Ellie has her baby, he exclaims, ‘Oh, it’s a boy!’ To which Manny replies ‘That’s it’s tail’)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue: 1/5
• Other Notes: Deals with themes of parenthood, friendship, family, belonging, facing danger to help a loved one,

Words by Laura Record

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