Excellent visuals, funny gags and characters overshadow it's lackluster story and it's lack of heart & antagonist

Rating: 6/10 (2 December 2012)

After the success of Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, another sequel is inevitable, but only this time, it became the start of a franchise that has completely gone downhill due to it's lackluster reviews despite it's success at the box office much like the previous film. One of our three friends named Sid gets captured by a T-Rex after he finds three of it's babies and it's up to Manny, Ellie, her possum brothers, Diego, and a new character named Buck to save him as they encounter some of the dangers that lie withing the dinosaur world.
Just a brief note, I like the first Ice Age. It was a classic and a great start for Blue Sky Studios. I also liked the first sequel as well. It wasn't as excellent as the original, but it was well executed due to one of the character's back-story. This one isn't as terrible as some say it is, but when it comes to a complex story, this one seemed to be lacking not only in it's heart, but it's antagonist and I completely understand why it got seriously panned by the critics.
To be fair, it does have a nice premise about our heroes meeting the dinosaurs for the very first time, but even that doesn't save the story itself from being too thin by using a lot of subplots (trying to save Sid from a mother T-Rex or volcano, encounter three dangerous courses with Buck, you name it) and the dialog, much like the second film, lacks the wit and irrelevance of the first Ice Age. The second half does get dragged a bit especially towards the end and the script isn't that good.
Flaws aside, I think I like the characters and their nice moments throughout the film especially Scrat who steals every scene along with a beautifully attractive new saber tooth squirrel named Scratte and the romance between is both funny and cute. The best character who steals the show the most goes to Buck voiced by Simon Pegg with his funny gags. In fact, the voice acting isn't that bad after all thanks to Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and others. The music from John Powell isn't the strongest, but it's pretty decent, there are some gags that got a chuckle out of me and the pacing moves along very nicely. The strongest aspect goes to the visuals especially the look of the dinosaur world which is in my opinion the best aspect of the animation.
Overall, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs isn't a terrible entry to the franchise, but with a better story and a better script, it would've so much better. I understand that lots of people also hated it as much as the previous one, but I think that this is a decent third entry.