you’ll never find….

After watching the first Ice Age film, I thought it was okay. Not the best, but it was kinda okay.

Kinda.

Then the second. It was really aweful.

Really.

  But then again, I guess every series needs a chance to redeem itself.

  I guess. Maybe.

   If you’re wondering, teh filmmakers didn’t really take the chance with Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third installment. Though this story about Family, friendship, and squirrel romance was much better than the previous.

   Imagine, if you can, Manny the the mammoth and Ellie from the second expecting a child; add to that Diego and Sid both going through a midlife crisis: the tiger because he wants to return to the wild, and the sloth because he wants a family of his own; and on top of that, Scrat the squirrel has met the love of his life. And they are trying to kill each other.

  That’s the setting for this film when Sid, on a search for meaning in life, since his larger friends are enamoured with the thought of future parenthood, comes across three large eggs, apparently with no guardian. He decides to adopt them. The trouble begins when the eggs hatch, revealing three… dinosaurs. Wait, on an evolutionary timeline, they were looong gone by that time. But thankfully, if doesn’t have to make sense. After his kids destroying Manny’s babyproof environment, Sid, and every other creature in that period, are surprised to see the real mama…a massive T-rex. She carries her kids away in her mouth, and Sid goes with them.  Following are Ellie, the two possums, Manny and Diego, with hopes of recovering their lost herd-member. They discover another world (not in the Narnia sense) beyond teh Ice Age, where the dinos are still thriving. And they also find a weasel named Buck, who becomes the serie’s best character.

   This summer holds out meagre movie choices. (But then again, that’s probably a good thing, since it prevents to much time wasting.)  And thus far, the only oen really worth going to see has been Up. The new Ice Agefilm was highly entertaining, but it didn’t really shine. It pulled off being very funny and had a lot of swashbuckling animated action. But, as opposed to Pixar’s masterpiece, it was, well, really, really childish.

   In it’s favour, apart from being funny, it had a positive view of family (even though Scrat and his female counterpart’s little love affiar ended ina dissappointing way). Manny is shown as being protective of Ellie, and even moreso of their soon-to-arrive child. Their storyline might be described as endearing, if it weren’t so annoyingly sentimental.

   On the other hand, as far as clean humour goes, this film goes less along the lines of a Pixar and more on those of other mainstream animated films. A couple of subtle cracks abotu male anatomy were the most offensive; accompanied by about the normal amount of more mild glitches.

   So, on those lines, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurswas entertaining, but it was too mainstream and childish to make it high on my list ( Buck the was it’s most redeeming feature). Next to the second one, it was like a walk in the park; but next to Pixar’s ten titles, Up especially, it loses it’s shine. Ultimately, I found it disappointing: not as much in and of itself, but just going to see a film at all; it not all that fun in the long run.