Back to the Ice Age

Dinosaurs return to China this summer with the release of 20th Century Fox's animated movie Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. In the third sequel, the storytelling part is cleverly offered with 3-D technology and with a heavier emphasis on action than the previous two movies, Ice Age in 2002 and Ice Age: Meltdown in 2006.

The plot revolves around the extended family led by Manny the mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano, who is nervously waiting to be a father with Ellie. Sid, voiced by John Leguizamo, has inherited three dinosaur eggs which Diego the tiger, voiced by Denis Leary, worries will get broken.

The director Carlos Saldanha, who returns from the 2006 franchise, adds a new figure to this movie, Buck, a swaggering weasel, who provides most of the film's laughs and is voiced by Simon Pegg. It's the first of the Ice Age franchise to be shot in 3-D. The one part where it works well is in the opening when Sid rolls down the snow-covered mountain trying to save the eggs. Also there are cute baby dinosaurs and breathless chasing sequences.