Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
★★★½ — Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
By 2009, the Ice Age franchise had already established itself as one of Blue Sky Studios' most reliable properties, with the first two films pulling in considerable audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Ice Age (2002) introduced the world to Manny, Sid and Diego, and Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) sent the same crew on a rather wetter adventure, both under the direction of Carlos Saldanha. For this third instalment, Saldanha returned to the director's chair, and the production expanded its ambitions considerably, essentially grafting a lost world adventure onto the familiar prehistoric comedy formula. The result runs 94 minutes and carries the tagline "What killed the dinosaurs?", which gives you a reasonable sense of the film's cheerful willingness to mix geological eras for the sake of a good time. 20th Century Fox and its animation arm distributed, with Blue Sky handling production.
The core ensemble reassembles without much fuss. Ray Romano voices Manny the woolly mammoth, a role he had made comfortably his own across the previous films, while John Leguizamo returns as the hapless, loveable Sid and Denis Leary reprises the gruff saber-toothed tiger Diego. Queen Latifah is back as Ellie, Manny's partner, and the domestic angle of her pregnancy gives the film an emotional throughline that stops it feeling like pure spectacle. The most talked-about addition to the cast is Simon Pegg, voicing a new character called Buck, a one-eyed, rather unhinged weasel who becomes the group's guide through an underground world populated by dinosaurs. Pegg brings an anarchic energy to the role that was clearly intended to give the film a fresh dimension, and it proved popular enough that the character returned in later entries. The franchise continued with further films also featuring Ray Romano, including Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), though Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the point at which the series leaned most heavily into pure adventure.
Critically, the film landed somewhere in the polished but unremarkable territory that family animation tends to occupy when it is doing its job competently without doing anything particularly daring. It is worth noting that 2009 was a busy year for animated features, and Blue Sky were working against studios with rather deeper pockets, but Dawn of the Dinosaurs performed well commercially and kept the franchise very much alive. Whether it represents the series at its best is something audiences have tended to disagree about, and it is the sort of film that means quite different things depending on how old you are when you first see it.
This was the first Ice Age movie I watched with my son, and honestly, it might be the best gateway into the series, especially if your kid is obsessed with dinosaurs (which mine absolutely is). It’s bigger, bolder, and more adventurous than the previous entries, with a fun trip underground into a Lost World-style dinosaur paradise (or nightmare, depending on who’s running). The addition of Buck (the one-eyed weasel with a Napoleon complex) is pure gold. And finally, Scrat gets some company (and maybe romance? Chaos? Evolution? Who knows!). It’s not Oscar-worthy, but it’s got heart, humor, and a lot of great new energy. Definitely one of the stronger entries in the series, and a movie that made my kid say, “Can we watch it again?” within five minutes of it ending.
I should add that Buck is the kind of character who genuinely makes you sit up during an animated film, the sort of mad, committed creation that gives a franchise a shot in the arm at exactly the right moment. For me, the combination of a proper adventure setting, a villain the kids can actually be scared of, and a new voice performance with real comic timing is what separates this one from some of the safer entries in the series. There are animated films I have covered here, like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), that carry a heavier dramatic weight, but sometimes what you want is something that earns a "can we watch it again?" before the credits have finished rolling. That is no small thing.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 2009 | Watched: 2025-07-21
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) on YouTube
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Disney Plus · Amazon Prime Video with Ads · ITVX Premium
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Carlos Saldanha: Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
More with Ray Romano: Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) · Ice Age (2002) · Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) · Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
