ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (USA 2009) **
Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Co-director of ICE AGE and director of ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN, Carlos Saldanha returns with the third but unfortunately dullest third of the series of the ICE AGE animated films.

A continuation of THE MELTDOWN, life begins to change for the ICE AGE creatures.  Mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are having baby pains but eventually land with a super cutesy (Ugh!) baby.  Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) steals dinosaur eggs with the mother is hot and angry pursuit.  Scrat (Chris Wedge, the director of the first ICE AGE) and female sabre-tooth Scaratte (Karen Disher) have a romantic fling with a runaway acorn from the start, middle and ending of the film that is unfunny, unimaginative and boring.  Yes, ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS is the true meltdown of the series.  Simon Pegg lands his hand as a new character Buck, a Brit accented weasel who leads the creatures on a journey.

The film contains lots of jokes but they lie just on the threshold of ‘just not funny enough’.  One member of the press during the screening was laughing non-stop from start to finish.  I thought I had lost my sense of humour, but looking around the auditorium, I noticed that I was not the only one.  To be fair, with all the cutesy antics of the animated characters, ICE AGE: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS is more suited to the younger ones.  But then, the first two films were quite entertaining for all ages.