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Film Title: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

 Best for ages: 8 and up.

Movie Website: Click Here

Year Released: 2009

Rated: PG (US)

The Review

     Most animated films that hit theaters are primarily aimed toward a younger audience. The Ice Age movies cater to both children and adults despite being full of colorful characters and brilliant animation.

     Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the third film in the Ice Age series and this time around, the herd finds itself in an underground lost world where the last of the dinosaurs seem to have been hiding. Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting their first child. Manny has been preparing for the birth, and often overreacts to every little pain and itch that Ellie has. Feeling lonely, Diego (Denis Leary) decides that it is time to head off on his own, while Sid finds his way into an underground ice cave and finds three eggs. Feeling lonely himself, Sid decides to adopt the eggs and bring them back to the herd. The eggs hatch three baby T-Rexes who quickly become a problem for the rest of the herd. The mother T-Rex comes looking for them and takes the babies as well as Sid. Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie, follow the T-Rex mother back into the underground ice cave and meet Diego in an underground tropical world full of dinosaurs. There,they meet Buck (Simon Pegg), a crazy one-eyed weasel who hunts dinosaurs. He agrees to help the pack find Sid, and the dangerous adventure begins.  Meanwhile, Scrat is still trying to get his acorn, but this time, he has some competition. The beautiful Scratte is also after the acorn.

     Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is my favorite of the three movies. This time around, the filmmakers really aim this film at adults more than to children. This is not a film for children under the age of eight. There are some one-liners that may be inappropriate for some younger ears, but its not bad enough to alienate parents. For instance, there is one line that refers to “coming out” which adults may find funny, but kids may not understand. There is also a reference to a Gorge that was almost named "the Big Smelly Crack".  There are also talks of being a single parent and all the talk that comes with being pregnant and what women go through, but the content is written in a manner that young children may not understand. 

     The three-disc combo pack comes with the Blu-ray disc, DVD, and Digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray disc has a ton of special features, including filmmakers commentary, an Ice Age story board maker and unfinished deleted scenes. There is also the Scrat pack, which includes a bunch of short films that include the lovable squirrel such as Gone Nutty, Scrat’s Missing “Adventure” and “No Time for Nuts.” There are also Scrat Featurettes, including “The Sabre-Toothed Squirrel: Natures Nutty Buddy,” “From Head To Toe” which teaches you to draw Scrat , “Scrat: Breaking Story” and “Scrat News Report: Falling for Scratte.” The disc also includes a ton of featurettes related to the movie,  including “Fox Movie Channel Presents: In Character with John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, and Queen Latifah,” as well as two “Making a Scene” features which includes one from Ice Age 2. Other featurettes include “Evolution Expedition,” “Buck…Easel to Weasel,” “Falling for Scratte,” “Unearthing the Lost World” and the “Walk The Dinosaur” music video.  The DVD disc also includes the filmmaker’s commentary on it.

     The Blu-ray picture quality is inferior to the many of other animated titles I have seen. I have been spoiled by the high quality colors that the Disney discs have. The Ice Age Blu-ray's colors are not as eye-popping, but the disc still has a good quality picture and you can tell the difference between the Blu-ray and the DVD. The disc does have great clean audio presented in 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio which sounds great on Surround Sound systems.

     Overall, for the amount of content you get in Blu-ray combo pack alone the disc is well worth the buy, but the movie itself is great. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is the best of the three films.  It’s a lot of fun for both adults and children over the age of eight. The film carries a PG rating for good reason, but I can recommend it to adults and older children.

BUY THIS MOVIE.