By Linda Winsh-Bolard
It opens with Scrat (remember Scrat the squirrel?) watching the most beautiful event of his life: his beloved dancing. This time around maybe his beloved is wearing read fur coat instead of a shell. After all, things have changed since the meltdown. Then, maybe they have not.
Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), the mammoths, are expecting a baby. The waiting makes Manny nervy; he wants everything to be perfect for his offspring, and all the comfort and security for Ellie. His anxiousness seems to transfer to others. The animals are weary, Diego (Denis Leary), the saber toothed tiger, feels alone and lonely and blames his life within a herd for softening him.
Sid, the Sloth (John Leguizamo) wishes for kids of his own, and just as he is giving up on life in the familial herd, among his friends, he finds three large eggs. Lonely eggs, in an ice cave. Unable to leave them there, Sid sets off a chain of events that has nothing to do with safe and secure birth or life of the next generation of mammoths.
Not even Diego can complain about lack of excitement. It turns out that from a strange world down bellow came up a very alive "fossil": a dinosaur with distinctly non-vegetarian predisposition. Guess, who is looking for her kids? Or eggs, or chicks, as it might be.
Buck, the Weasel (Simon Pegg), will join the characters, as a fast talking, smart fighter always ready for a challenge or long tale about his own heroics. The possums, Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), will be part of the party, largely unchanged from previous ramifications.
The movie, short as it, some 90 minutes, gets boring for an adult long before it ends. It is unevenly spread, somewhat disjointed, yet the story is transparent. There is plenty of insider’s jokes; from the reference to Chipmunks to some gay jokes; it's supposed to keep parents awake. All the riskier fun is veiled enough for the kiddies to watch the film. There is some funny dialog, and some situational comedy (Ellie follows Manny’s advice to change the announcement of birth from “The baby is coming!” to a code word. Albeit , when in pain, she cannot remember which fruit it was. Consequently the guys, Manny included, listen and comment: she is ordering a fruit cocktail.) but it is thin.
It’s not about plausibility and predictability, both are what you’d expect, never changing course; it’s about being really shallow and familiar with nothing to say. It’s like bits and odds were borrowed from all kinds of films and thrown in together with 3D.
Which is superb, technically there is nothing wrong with this animation, there is plenty to admire. Indeed, it seemed to me that the creators got drunk on their technical possibilities and abilities and created, under this influence, a beautiful visual dance of images; that kind that will remind you of old romantic films. Then they woke up realizing that they also needed a story and put in a sort of grid to hang their pretty images on. Not very strong grid, rather tattery, creaky old one, believing that the audience will also get drunk on the visuals and forget the story telling.
Even so, kids and some parent at the screening I attended seemed to enjoy it. Kids have short memory and parents are forgiving when given a bit of peace.
