The third instalment of the animated Ice Age series hit theatres in July teaming up all the beloved characters seen in the first two films and a few new and memorable faces. The new 3D adventure begins with Manny and Ellie the two mammoths expecting their first child while Diego leaves the herd after realising that his predatory skills have been diminishing over time.
Meanwhile Sid who isn’t paid much attention to by the rest of the herd finds three supposedly abandoned eggs and decides to care for the three unusual creatures that hatch from them. As expected the real mother of the three tyrannosauruses emerges to rescue her babies and takes Sid along with her to an underground land where dinosaurs still roam. Along the way they meet Buck, a one-eyed weasel who tells them of Rudy, a great white dinosaur and he’s own personal nemesis.
The film makes very little effort to satisfy the Ice Age fans in terms of story or a sense of continuity from the previous film. The story feels much like a poorly thought out bunch of episodes from a daily cartoon show just jammed into an hour and a half of exhilaration which for the most part is thoroughly entertaining. The film actually turned out to be like just another episode from the Land Before Time series with similarly poor voice acting.
Ray Romano and Queen Latifah who played the two Mammoths were uncharacteristically indifferent in their voice over work and the same went for Denis Leary who voiced Diego. However, Buck who was voiced by British comedian Simon Pegg was easily the best of the lot as was his character bringing fresh humour to a terribly bland story and proving to be the one and only reason why people should watch this film.
The squirrel and his acorn were featured much more in this film and as funny as it was in the beginning, the over emphasis on his plight was a little insulting towards the latter stages and often proved to be an untimely distraction.
The film was sufficiently funny between the daft plotline while the 3D animation was eye popping at certain points and will definitely be a fun experience for the family. However, for the Ice Age purists (if there are any to speak of) this film will prove to be a complete waste of time with just about a handful of events that would have a bearing on the characters in the long run. |
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