The Ice Age movie series started back in 2002 with the first movie by Blue Sky Studios. It featured Manny the Mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo), and Diego the Sabertooth Tiger (Denis Leary) trying to survive and evade the coming ice age. As Sid is often fond of saying, they are the world's weirdest herd. Also included were the continuing misadventures of Scrat, a sabertoothed squirrel, and his attempts to find all the acorns.

In 2006, the series continued with Ice Age: The Meltdown. The herd continues to get weirder as they encounter Ellie (Queen Latifah), another mammoth, and her two "brothers" - opossums Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Ellie was adopted by the opossums and just came to believe she was one, as she had never encountered another mammoth before meeting Manny. Sid meanwhile is kidnapped by a tribe of mini-sloths who believe him to be a god, which doesn't turn out well. And we discover that Diego is afraid of water. Scrat makes another appearance in The Meltdown, chasing down his acorn, fighting off giant piranha, and generally having a miserable time.

And in the summer of 2009, we saw the third sequel called Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Now Ellie and Manny are a couple expecting a baby mammoth any day now and Diego and Sid are wondering where they fit into the equation. Scrat is back as well, but he finds a new challenger who wants his acorn — Scratte. Who wins that battle? The acorn of course!

In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Sid discovers three eggs he finds in a cave. He calls them Eggbert, Shelly, and Yoko and draws a face on each. Though told to put them back by Manny, Sid keeps them and they hatch the next morning into baby Tyrannosauruses who think Sid is their mother. Unfortunately, the babies' real mother goes looking for her eggs and herds her new hatchlings and Sid down into a huge underground world filled with prehistoric beasties.

Manny, the pregnant Ellie, Diego, Crash, and Eddie all head into the caves to find and rescue Sid. Once in the dinosaur paradise, they're helped by Buck (Simon Pegg), a one-eyed weasel living a life of adventure in this hidden prehistoric world. Buck is a bit off his rocker, but knows his way around many of the dangers facing Sid's would-be-rescuers and proves very resourceful despite his obvious lunatic nature.

Honestly, when we saw Dawn of the Dinosaurs in the theater I was sure that I liked this movie better than The Meltdown. There's a magical spark when you see these characters fighting to stay a family amidst all odds. And after seeing the film again on DVD, I still think this was better than the second sequel. The perils faced by the "herd" led each character to face their own fears and triumph to save their friends. I can hardly think of a better message than that for the young audiences the movie was meant for.

Article Author: Fitz

Brian Fitzpatrick (aka "Fitz") is a software engineer and writer living in Colorado Springs, Colorado, with his wife, two daughters, two dogs, and two cats -- trying desperately to survive the chaos!

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