I will preface this review by saying that I’ve never even watched once either of the two previous Ice Age films. No particular reason though, I wasn’t avoiding them. Rather I just didn’t feel compelled. Fortunately, not seeing the first two Ice Ages is in no way prohibitive in following the action of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, just as not seeing the first couple of Bugs Bunny cartoons stifles the pleasure you get from watching the 50th or 60th. Ice Age is harmless enough, the only true victims being teachers and Palaeozoic scientists and researchers who now have to explain to kids that prehistoric mammals, dinosaurs and humans didn’t all exist together at the end of the last ice age.

The film starts with mammoth couple Manny and Ellie (the voices of Ray Romano and Queen Latifah) expecting their first child, and naturally this has thrown the dynamic of the ad hoc herd out of whack. Sabre-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary) is questioning his virility as a fearsome hunter, while Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) searches for a family of his own to care for. While wandering, Sid finds a chasm leading to an underground, H.G. Wells-like, tropical grove where the dinosaurs have survived. Sid ends up the captive of a mother T-Rex after he tries to claim her eggs as his own. The others then end up having to head into the dinosaurs’ underground hideaway to save Sid.

All-in-all, Ice Age is rather non-offensive, and rather old-fashioned. The filmmakers aren’t trying to re-invent the wheel like Pixar and they aren’t trying to stuff the screenplay with the highest-possible number of jokes per minute like Dreamworks. I know that the kids that filled the theatre opening day were laughing their socks off, which is credit to a film that counts kids as its target audience, but standing on its own, Ice Age doesn’t leave much of an impression. It just kind of happens, and it’s over. I can’t really remember a single stand-out scene or a joke I like, which really says a lot about the extreme neutrality I feel about this film.

Further, Ice Age is presented in Real 3-D, and then it never really takes advantage of the medium. Actually there were a couple of neat-looking sequences, one of which involved an escape from a river of lava, where the 3-D really added to the effect. But otherwise, there’s really nothing in Ice Age that justifies the added expense and hassle of seeing it in 3-D. Even in movies that aren’t constantly throwing things at the proverbial fourth wall to show you the coolness of the 3-D, a good 3-D film creates a greater sense of place with depth perception and creating a feeling that you’re surrounded by the screen. I never got this in Ice Age, and as a result it doesn’t feel any bigger or more engrossing than the average animated film. The kids might complain, but don’t splurge on the glasses.

This same kind of middle-of-the-road approach extends to the voice actors and their performances as well. Romano and Leary both seem to be like working on this film interrupted their Sunday afternoon and they put forth a minimum effort. Then there’s that buck-toothed rat that chases nuts like a heroin addict looking for a fix, which is so overdone that even a first time viewer like myself is bored of it having seen this act before in every trailer. Still, Ice Age is colourful and well-made, and thanks to Simon Pegg as a one-eyed weasel adventurer living amongst the dinosaurs, the film is given a sudden burst of energy somewhere around the mid-section. Again, the kids will love it, but Ice Age is bubble gum, it’s remembered really only so long as you chew. Well made and tasty bubble gum, but easy to spit out nonetheless.