Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2009

©2009 Twentieth Century Fox

“Put some dinosaurs in it,” some Fox studio exec undoubtedly decreed for the second Ice Age sequel. Until now, these mildly diverting movies had done one thing right: they’ve remained within their stated historical era and animated only animals that existed back then. But, well, apparently historical accuracy now takes a back seat to putting dinosaur-loving kids’ butts in seats. Our Ice Age “family”—a pair of mammoths (voices by Ray Romano and Queen Latifah), a saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) and a sloth (John Leguizamo)—happen upon a conveniently dinosaur-populated Lost World beneath the ice. How lame is that? The script actually has one character say, “Yabba-dabba doo!” As with the two previous films, the acorn-coveting saber-toothed squirrel (“Scrat”) pops up when things get too dull. This time, he’s been given a love interest. Scrat gets the only laughs, and even he’s not really as funny as he used to be. Still, if it’s a family-friendly babysitting movie you’re looking for, I’ve seen worse. It’s featured in this space because it’s marginally less bad than the other two films opening this week.