“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”

20th Century Fox Films

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Starring Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Simon Pegg and Seann William Scott

Rated PG

2 Stars         

  You’ve got to feel sorry for animated family films forced into theaters in the weeks following a Pixar release. It doesn’t matter how good the new film may be, it always seems somehow less than the Pixar release. This week’s entry, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” is the perfect example; it’s fun and vibrant, and should certainly keep the young ones enthralled, but I spent the entire movie unfairly remembering that it’s not on the same level as “Up.”

“Ice Age III” begins with the characters from the first two films settling down. Manny and Ellie the Mammoth (Ray Romano and Queen Latifah) are about to have a baby. Diego, the Sabertooth Tiger is worried that he’s losing his edge as he gets older, while Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) has adopted three baby T-Rex eggs, which causes quite a problem with the mama T-Rex comes looking for her hatchlings.

Sid gets dragged off to an underground world, so his friends follow him on a rescue mission, bumping into a new character, a weasel (Simon Pegg) who’s a cross between Errol Flynn, Captain Ahab and Johnny Depp. This weasel’s antics, along with those of Scrat, the buck-toothed squirrel provide a lot of energy to the story, but these quickie infusions of slapstick comedy aren’t enough to make the film into a family classic.

“Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” has a bit of a go-nowhere story, where the characters embark on a quest to save their friend, but nothing really happens other than a mild adventure before the mandated happy ending. Once again, it’s perhaps a bit unfair to demand great characters and storylines from a film aimed primarily at youngsters, but if Pixar can do it time and time again, why should other filmmakers be allowed to turn in mediocre films?

So the bottom line is that this latest “Ice Age” is heavy on action, and the addition of 3-D in select theaters provides an additional bump, but the characters and the story never really come to life. It’s almost as if these characters went extinct, not because of an asteroid strike, but because of a mediocre screenplay.