‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Movie Review

Cast: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Simon Pegg, John Leguizamo
Direction: Carlos Saldanha
Genre: Animation/ Comedy
Ratings/4 stars

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs lives upto its expectations and is as entertaining as its previous instalments, the superb 3-D animation serving as the perfect icing on the cake.

Addition of interesting new characters, a story that is light hearted and sweetly funny, just the right amount of drama, exceptional 3-D animation makes Ice Age 3 a perfect adventure film for a family to watch together. Contrary to many who believe the film has a target audience of below 10 year olds, it’s actually a film that will make all age groups smile.

Coming to the story, Mammoths Manny (Ray Romano, impressive as ever) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are now all set to start a family of their own. The two are expecting their first child and even build a playground for their child! This is the time when Diego a saber-toothed tiger who is Manny's best friend realizes its time for him to move on from the group as he’d now be a loner anyway. Sid (John Leguizamo), the sloth too feels left out and thus decides to have a family of his own. Just wandering around, he discovers three huge eggs and without thinking twice decides to raise whatever comes out of it as his children, given the title it doesn’t surprise you to see baby Dinosaurs getting out of the hatched eggs! Sid now proud of being a single parent takes care of the Dino-babies but his parent-hood only lasts for a day as the kids’ Dino-mother soon comes hunting for her children. Sid is in no mood to give up on the babies he had just found and so is the mother who gave birth to them. Sid thus gets dragged into a Jurassic Park like Dinosaur dominated region and needs to get out of it in order to stay alive. Manny, Ellie and Diego now set on a mission to save their friend Sid from the clutches of deadly Dinosaurs but not without the help of dashing one-eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg) who helps them get through to Sid.

This adventure animated film keeps you smiling but not the kind where you will fall off the chair. It’s a simple story told sweetly with the help of light humour. The introduction of new character ‘Buck’ makes the film really interesting. The message sent across of taking your family along no matter where you go also touches your heart.

This one’s a perfect weekend family watch...Do not miss it.