Ice Age Series Still Running Strong, But For How Long?

ice_age_dawn_of_the_dinosaursThere’s no doubt that “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” is a fun animated film and one that both kids and adults will enjoy, but the question remains as to if it was truly needed.

The first film has a great stand alone ability, as it gives the viewer closure and features the type of comedy that is engaging for both children and older viewers. The same thing goes for the second installment, which adds a few more characters, but is still endearing and charming and is a worthy sequel that builds off the relationship forged in the original.

Again, while the same thing goes for the third piece in the series, as Simon Pegg [Dawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz] is absolutely hilarious as the voice of Buck, the newest furry friend to join the herd, you wonder how long the series can continue to be this solid without “jumping the shark.”

After watching the film, you realize that again, the plot has been put together well and with the voice talents of Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah and John Leguizamo, it’s worth the money and time to see it, especially if you are a fan of the series. The laughs still maintain the type of karmic balance that older viewers will find funny, but there seem to be slightly more geared towards the kiddies this time around. Nevertheless, the movie hasn’t resorted to a Madagascar-esque blend of comedy, giving it more of an edge against the rest of the flicks scheduled to hit reels this summer.

One of the ways “Ice Age” manages to get a majority of its laughs ironically is by channeling several other films, such as “Star Wars,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “E.T.,” a-la the “Shrek” series. These are the types of things that many of the kiddies won’t find humorous, but when it’s all said and done, they make for some of the funniest moments of the film.

Because of that, one can look at the newest installment of the series in two ways. One would be that it’s stretching its appeal and emulating other animated films and ultimately doing things better than they do. The other opinion could be that the series is slowly beginning to lose track of what made it so successful in the first place and this film could be the last one that truly captures the essence of the series, giving it little room to go up from now on, but plenty of room to decline.

These opinions, however, fail to address the fact that “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” works and does so due to a multitude of reasons, including a funny script, great animation, a fun soundtrack and excellent voice acting.

While the series may start to run its course and very soon at that, those looking for huge problems in this installment will have a hard time finding any that take away from their cinema experience.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

1 Comment

  1. I was actually expecting this movie to be really bad (which I thought it was) and I really don’t think it was needed at all. In fact, ending at the first movie would have been great, but it’s becoming almost like Shrek, where the entire story is stretched into almost a drama series about the life stories and issues a couple is going through constantly.

    Although I read the entire article, I didn’t find where the answer to “whether this movie was really needed”, or is it supposed to be indirect and for the reader to decide?

    You also said that the movie is slightly geared towards children, which I think it is, but afterwards, you also said that many of the jokes and humor would mainly be understood by older viewers. Would it still be considered a good movie for kids? Just wondering.

    I would think children wouldn’t find this amusing. Plus, I saw the movie myself and really didn’t like it. I usually laugh at everything, both the first and second Ice Age, I laughed hysterically but this one was actually just what I expected to be – not very funny.

    But yes, the series is slowly losing track of what made it good in the first place, I would make a hypothesis stating that if they came out with Ice Age 4, that it would end up like Little Mermaid 2, where the story doesn’t even focus on the previous main characters anymore.

    A good article, addressing the fact that Ice Age 3 is an entertaining movie for all ages, but unsure whether the film is going up in ratings or just dropping since it might’ve lost track of what made it successful.

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