I finally got to see Ice Age 3 yesterday, and I have to applaud Blue Sky Studios. They may not be Pixar or Disney, but they understand what the others do: it's the characters that make the story. I'd already gotten attached to the main trio in the first movie (Manny the mammoth, Diego the Sabertooth tiger, and Sid the sloth). It took a bit of warming up to the new additions in the second movie (Crash and Eddie, the two possums and their sister, Ellie the female mammoth), but by the end I liked them too. I'll admit that when I heard the premise of the third movie it sounded pretty dumb to me. Dinosaurs? What? But, I enjoyed the first two movies enough that I wanted to see it anyway.

I am so glad I did! We have all the main characters from the first two movies, plus an interesting development. The whole theme of parenthood struck a chord with me since I too want to be a mother one of these days... Also, the addition of dinosaurs wasn't as bad as I feared. In fact, it made things fun when the main characters realized they weren't the largest animals alive. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you liked the first two movies, you'll enjoy this one as well.

Also, support merc16! I saw your name in the credits! The animation and lighting were spectacular!

Now onto suspending reality... I was reading reviews last night, and apparently Ice Age 3 got pretty dour reviews since people can't get past Ice Age mammals existing at the same time as (what should be extinct) dinosaurs. The explanation for why there are dinosaurs is never explained much in the movie, but it shouldn't have to be! I think people tend to forget that the very point of animation is to tell stories that cannot be told (well) in live-action. Have people forgotten that pandas don't learn Kung Fu moves? That houses can't really fly with balloons attached to them? That people cannot be turned into frogs! Lets not forget that mice don't walk around on two legs talking like the rest of us...

In short, it's stupid to discount a movie for not being factual when the very medium it's made in isn't factual. Honestly, the Ice Age movies never set out to be a specific time in our history. Plus, what are the odds that a predator (Diego) would form a herd with mammoths, or that even a sloth would tag along? What people embraced for one reason doesn't seem to hold true for another. Animation is fantastic, fantastic as in fanciful, fantasy, separate from reality. It's for this very reason those like Walt Disney ever dabbled in the medium in the first place.

If I ever see an animated feature that's based entirely on reality and has no fantastic elements at all, I might as well be watching a live-action film...