You know you’re really not that old just yet when you’re watching a movie and the following conditions are met: a. you didn’t pay for your twice-as-expensive-as-usual movie ticket; b. you’re eating Tortillos and Mr. Chips and caramel popcorn; c. you’re with your parents; and, d. you’re also with two little girls, and yet you’re laughing louder than they are at all the right if-you-have-the-mind-of-a-three-year-old places. Like when that darned Ice Age squirrel just keeps losing that blasted acorn.
Oh boy. Welcome to your real mental age, Miss Kid at Heart at 31.
You can’t blame me, though, because it was my first time to watch a full-length film in 3D—something I probably wouldn’t have bothered to do, had my brother not had the brilliant idea of inviting all of us to a movie date between my niece Keona and her second cousin Jasmine. The idea of 3D hadn’t seemed so interesting anymore—but that changed when I experienced the thrill of seeing captivating details you’d have otherwise missed through those thick, ugly, plastic glasses.
On second thought, I have watched a short film in 4D, though: a shortened version of Journey To The Center of The Earth. And what’s the difference? Well, I didn’t know until my chair started shaking and vapor started spraying on my face. Apparently, 4D is basically 3D combined with physical effects in the theater itself, synched with the action in the film. Now that I’ve thought about it, I think it would have been pretty cool to watch Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 4D. But not matter. It is already fun enough as it is.
The third installment of this successful franchise sees the dynamics of our favorite dysfunctional Ice Age herd shifting like a tectonic plate. The last mammoth, Manny (voice by Ray Romano), and the other last mammoth (who thought she was a possum), Ellie, are now a couple and they are expecting a baby. Manny is on Type A daddy mode, somehow alienating his friends, saber-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary), who fears he is losing his predatory nature and yearning for another adventure, and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo), who suddenly feels a longing to have a family of his own.
Diego stalks off to seek his adventure away from Manny, while Sid does the incredibly stupid thing of adopting three eggs he found in a cave under the ice. Now, we all know mammals don’t lay eggs; reptiles do! Still, there is still a delicious surprise out of seeing three baby Tyrannosaurus rexes emerge from the eggs and call Sid, “Mama!”
There goes the trauma of seeing a vicious Tyrannosaurus rex attack Littlefoot’s mama in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’ The Land Before Time in 1988.
Of course, mammals and T-rexes just don’t mix, no matter how hard you try to make them vegetarian, so Sid finds himself back in the literal land down under—the land of dinosaurs under all the Ice Age ice.
Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie, and, soon, Diego come to Sid’s rescue, encountering a new character who is wackier than all of them combined: a one-eyed, crazy weasel called Buck (Simon Pegg, from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) who has made it his life’s mission to pursue the Suchomimus (a giant, crocodile-like dinosaur) otherwise known as Rudy. Buck agrees to help them, and it’s just one descent into craziness after another, interspersed with scenes of the squirrel Scrat and the female saber-toothed squirrel Scratte alternately falling in love and fighting over the acorn.
Like the two earlier Ice Age installments, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is both funny and touching. It’s no Finding Nemo or Wall-E, but it’s has its loveable characters that you wouldn’t mind seeing again.
There’s a reason it’s the other film that is hogging the theaters with Transformers: the Revenge of the Fallen.
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