Baby Dinosaurs and Sid the Sloth

This family animated film is pure fun and entertaining. The 3-D effects are by far the best I’ve seen in any movie. Look for the bubble sequence and just wait and see if you don’t try to swipe at those bubble images in front of you. The characters are all back from the other two Ice Age films. Manny Mammoth (Ray Romano) anxiously awaits the birth of his first child with Ellie, (Queen Latifah) his wooly mammoth wife. Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) feels somewhat left out, as all the talk is of the new baby he begins to wish for a family of his own. Sid finds three dinosaur eggs far beneath the ground and becomes obsessed with the idea the he could raise them as his own. When the baby dinosaurs are born, they think Sid is their mother. All is bliss until mama dinosaur shows up.

Somehow, Sid forgot about the possibility that mama dinosaur could still be in the area. Of course she tracks Sid down and takes her babies back to her underground valley home where the dinosaurs and other animals are living. One of them is a wacky one-eyed, patch wearing, weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg) who his fanatical in his quest for the Great White Dinosaur.

We mustn’t forget about Diego, the saber-tooth tiger (Denis Leary), as he reappears in the film with a problem; he sees his skills as a hunter slowing down and considers leaving the herd.
Off–the-wall Buck helps Manny, Ellie and Diego when they go looking for Sid. He introduces himself and offers his expert tracking skills. The possum brothers Eddie and Crash (Josh Peck, Seann William Scott,) are also in on the hunt.

The wooly mammoth couple played by Ray Romano and Queen Latifah are charming and delightful to watch. So is the never-ending battle between the two squirrels over the prized acorn. Scrat, the squirrel, is still trying to obtain that acorn and nothing can stop him, except when he’s distracted by tempting Scratte. Usually these humorous parts are some of the funniest of the film. Scratte, a female squirrel, blocks his efforts and also serves as romantic counterpart. Neither talk nor communicate as they are fixated in their pursuit of the acorn more than each other. A very comical part is when the acorn lands in the tar pits. Soon after, this very sticky acorn suddenly rolls on top of Scrat’s chest and it’s ripped off by Scratte as in the film, “The 40 Year Old Virgin.”

Buck is a fun character as he’s full of life and is constantly on the move. He can twist himself like a rag and squeeze the excess water off of himself like a chami cloth. He’s the dare-devil of the group and also the fearless leader. At one point, he comes across a beautiful, brightly colored butterfly and he proclaims, “I knew that guy when he was a caterpillar before he came out!” This is another example of jokes and gags throughout the film for both parents and kids.

The ending is sweet and all I’m going to tell you is that a newborn arrives and it is an adorable scene.

Sarah Adamson © 2009