ice age dawn of the dinosaurs rogerebert.com...
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09/09/09 5:15 PMIce Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
Page 1 of 3http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090629/REVIEWS/906299995
cast & creditsWith the voices of:Manny Ray RomanoSid John LeguizamoDiego Denis LearyBuck Simon PeggEllie Queen LatifahCrash Seann William ScottEddie Josh PeckGazelle Bill HaderPudgy Beaver Mom Kristen WiigScrat Chris WedgeScrattè Karen Disher
20th Century Fox presents a filmdirected by Carlos Saldanha.Screenplay by Michael Berg, PeterAckerman, Mike Reiss, Yoni
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ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (PG)Ebert: Users: You: Rate this movie right now
Scrat from a dinosaur's tonsils eye-view.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
/ / / June 29, 2009
by Roger Ebert
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is thebest of the three films about our friends inthe inter-species herd of pluckyprehistoric heroes. And it involves someof the best use of 3-D I've seen in ananimated feature. It also introduces amasterstroke that essentially allows theseries to take place anywhere: There isthis land beneath the surface of the earth,you see...
Well, if there can be one land, there canbe any number of lands, including notonly this one, where dinosaurs still roam,but maybe a portal in time leading to thefuture, or one in space, leading toanother planet. We can maybe expectManny and Ellie in Vegas, or Scrat onMars. This particular land looks a greatdeal like a primeval jungle, if such a
09/09/09 5:15 PMIce Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
Page 2 of 3http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090629/REVIEWS/906299995
Ackerman, Mike Reiss, YoniBrenner, from a story by JasonCarter Eaton. Running time: 93minutes. MPAA rating: PG for somemild rude humor and peril.
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Newly-hatched motherlesschildren in "Ice Age: Dawn of theDinosaurs."
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wilderness had lava falls as well aswaterfalls. As it is subterranean, it hassortofa rock roof, although indirectlighting comes from somewhere andsustains lush vegetation.
All of our friends are back, and somenew ones, including a ferocious T-Rexand a sexy rival for Scrat the squirrel,named Scrattè, accent grave over the è.As befits this land before time, ScrattandScrattè are sabre-toothed squirrels. Nowonder the big teeth died out. They're of more use to a carnivore than a vegetarian.But logic like this is of no use in a movie where Sid the Sloth (voice by JohnLeguizamo) adopts three dinosaur eggs and plans to raise the babies.
That's how they all end up underground in the Hollow Earth, the land Edgar RiceBurroughs name Pellucidar, and I guess with a place like that, you can name itanything you want. The mother dinosaur comes looking for her hatchlings, grabsthem and Sid, and disappears under the surface. An all-for-one, one-for-all spirithas grown among our friends, who give chase: Manny and Ellie the woollymammoths (Ray Romano and Queen Latifah), Diego the saber-toothed tiger (DenisLeary), and the possums Eddie and Crash (Josh Peck and Seann William Scott).They meet Buck the Weasel (Simon Pegg), who has an eye patch instead of a pegleg, and is obsessed with his quest for a Great White Dinosaur, unfortunately notnamed Moby Dino.
In the Ice Age films the tiger has learnedto coexist with such edible species assloths and gazelles, but dinosaurs aren'tcovered by the terms of the truce, and thisone is so big it could eat even a woolymammoth in one chomp. That sets us upfor the staple of the series -- chasescenes, involving dizzying falls, catapultsinto the sky, close shaves and possibledigestion. This is pure invention, andunlike the monotonous chase sequencesin some family animation, "Ice Age: Dawnof the Dinosaurs" is tirelessly inventivevisually.
Carlos Saldanha, writer of the 2002 filmand co-director of the (disappointing) "IceAge: The Meltdown" (2006), is the director this time, and many of his sequencesare in the spirit of the brilliant Scratt-and-acorn scene that opened the first "IceAge." That includes one in which Scrat, Scrattè and the acorn are trapped insidefloating bubbles, which is no big deal to the acorn. Still, this is a talented acorn,which sings a tune from the Gilbert O'Sullivan songbook to express how alone anacorn must sometimes feel. An acorn that smart, you don't want to eat it all at once.
I thought the 3-D was done well. I remained unconvinced by the process. You haveto fool with the glasses, the brightness is dimmed, and so on. But I was surprisedhow well "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" implements it. It creates much less of adistracting superfluous dimension, and more skillfully makes the whole image seemto belong together. The movie is also widely being shown in 2-D, and if you want tosave a few bucks, that's the way to go.
Here's a nice bright 2-D scene including the new character Buck:http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/iceagedawnofthedinosaurs/large_clip.html
09/09/09 5:15 PMIce Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
Page 3 of 3http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090629/REVIEWS/906299995
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