The Culture Beat

Not everyone can be Pixar but you’re in good shape if you have a profitable animated franchise like 20th Century Fox’s Ice Age films. Following the trail blazed by Pixar, Blue Sky, the production company behind the series, is, like the hardy pioneers who followed the original scouts, less ambitious and resourceful but still able to stake their claim to a respectable entertainment property.

The original crew of Manny the Mammoth and his, er, bride, Ellie, (Ray Romano and Queen Latifah), Saber Toothed Tiger Diego (Dennis Leary) and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) make their way through the still frozen land but changes have strained their little community. Diego feels that his domesticity has taken the edge off his hunting skills and clumsy Sid doesn’t seem to fit into the plans of Manny’s growing household. When Sid tumbles into a lost world of Jurassic Park cast members, the gang has to go looking for him and thus the subtitle’s unfolding. A new character emerges when a wild and wooly weasel, Buck, (voiced well by Simon Pegg) swings into action to help guide the hapless rescuers in their search for Sid.

I found the comedy level down a few clicks as the gags were less sharp than the first two films and I perceived greater dependence on distracting anachronisms than before (one character remarks about someone being “in therapy.”) But the film is saved by the best character of the bunch, Scrat, the manic saber-toothed squirrel, who finds that his endless search for his beloved acorn interrupted by a voluptuous female–it’s the first time Scrat’s had a rival for his affections and the conflict stays hilarious as his adventures weave in and out of the main storyline.

By shrewdly bringing in the ancient lizards to challenge our mammalian friends, the successful series should do well at the box office and please the millions of dinosaur-loving kids, a bit more than their parents, who will remain deeply grateful for past, present and future Pixar films to keep the family entertainment standards at their highest.