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Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
16 years ago
Went to see "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" the other night and I'll make a few spoiler-free comments about it here:
Overall, I'd say this movie is good but not great. It has tons of jokes and great gags along with characters that are very entertaining, but the story isn't as strong as I'd like to see and that's where it comes up short. The quality of the story just isn't up the standard set by Pixar and other movies like "Kung Fu Panda". Still, the movie was very funny and entertaining so I did enjoy it even though I was hoping for something better story-wise.
The visuals of course were great looking. I really liked the quality of the animation and the look of the sets. For example, when the big dinos are walking and their foot goes down as they take a step, you can see the flesh in their feet compress and their toes spread out a little as they put their weight down on that foot. The reverse happens when they lift the foot up. Details like that just make it seem all the more realistic and it really reinforces the size and weight of the big critters.
As always, the character design by Blue Sky Studios is great. I really like the look of the dinos, particularly the baby T-rexes which are very cute and down right cuddly looking. The other new characters, Buck and Scratte, are very well done too. All the new characters are appealing and fun to watch in action. Buck in particular is a real scene stealer and very entertaining.
The use 3D in this movie was excellent. CG imagery is perfect for 3D and this movie really looked great in 3D. With ordinary movies, you're just watching a picture on the wall, but throw in 3D and it's much closer to looking through a window into another world. I just really like the added level of reality it adds. And thankfully, they kept the cheesy 3D effects to a minimum. There were only a couple of well placed 3D gags and they mostly just used the 3D to accentuate things and that's how it should be. I highly recommend seeing this movie in 3D if you can.
I still think the first Ice Age movie had the strongest story of the three, so that still remains my favorite. But they definitely packed a lot more gags and jokes into Ice Age 3 than they did for the first two movies and I laughed quite a lot throughout. That doesn't really make up for a weaker story in my opinion, but it does make for a fun movie none the less. If you liked the previous Ice Age movies, then I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one.
Overall, I'd say this movie is good but not great. It has tons of jokes and great gags along with characters that are very entertaining, but the story isn't as strong as I'd like to see and that's where it comes up short. The quality of the story just isn't up the standard set by Pixar and other movies like "Kung Fu Panda". Still, the movie was very funny and entertaining so I did enjoy it even though I was hoping for something better story-wise.
The visuals of course were great looking. I really liked the quality of the animation and the look of the sets. For example, when the big dinos are walking and their foot goes down as they take a step, you can see the flesh in their feet compress and their toes spread out a little as they put their weight down on that foot. The reverse happens when they lift the foot up. Details like that just make it seem all the more realistic and it really reinforces the size and weight of the big critters.
As always, the character design by Blue Sky Studios is great. I really like the look of the dinos, particularly the baby T-rexes which are very cute and down right cuddly looking. The other new characters, Buck and Scratte, are very well done too. All the new characters are appealing and fun to watch in action. Buck in particular is a real scene stealer and very entertaining.
The use 3D in this movie was excellent. CG imagery is perfect for 3D and this movie really looked great in 3D. With ordinary movies, you're just watching a picture on the wall, but throw in 3D and it's much closer to looking through a window into another world. I just really like the added level of reality it adds. And thankfully, they kept the cheesy 3D effects to a minimum. There were only a couple of well placed 3D gags and they mostly just used the 3D to accentuate things and that's how it should be. I highly recommend seeing this movie in 3D if you can.
I still think the first Ice Age movie had the strongest story of the three, so that still remains my favorite. But they definitely packed a lot more gags and jokes into Ice Age 3 than they did for the first two movies and I laughed quite a lot throughout. That doesn't really make up for a weaker story in my opinion, but it does make for a fun movie none the less. If you liked the previous Ice Age movies, then I don't think you'll be disappointed with this one.
