July 7, 2009
The Dinosaurs of Ice Age 3
If you want to enjoy Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, you are going to have to suspend your belief for a bit. There is no use nitpicking over a children’s movie featuring talking extinct species of mammals from different places and time periods (to say nothing of saber-toothed squirrels). The latest installment of the franchise is different, however, in that it introduces the unlikely herd of mammalian heroes to an underground world populated by dinosaurs.
It all starts to go wrong when Sid the ground sloth stumbles across some enormous eggs. Feeling left out by the fact that the mammoths Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby and are about to start a new family, Sid appoints himself the mother of the eggs. (Diego, the saber-toothed cat, is having his own worries about losing his predatory edge.) These soon hatch into baby dinosaurs, but the well-intentioned Sid has no idea how to properly care for them. Needless to say the real mother of the babies is none too happy when they go missing, and being that she is a rather large Tyrannosaurus, that is bad news for the mammals. In gathering up her young ones she picks up Sid, too, and his friends set off to rescue him.
The mammals quickly find that they are out of their depth, but they get some help from a crazed survivalist weasel named Buck. Buck has only one eye due to a past encounter with a large, whitish menace he calls “Rudy.” From that point on the film settles into its search-and-rescue theme, even as Sid somehow becomes accepted by the Tyrannosaurus mother. The visuals are spectacular and the direction is great, but the dinosaurs are sometimes annoyingly over-stylized. While most of the creatures in the film are embellished in one way or another, the dinosaur designs are a bit over the top (such as small, Monolophosaurus-like predators that have quills that shiver when the dinosaurs roar).
There are even some dinosaurs that never existed. When “Rudy” finally appeared on the screen, for example, my wife leaned over and asked, “what kind of dinosaur is that?” “It’s a nothing-o-saurus,” I replied, as the monster was more of a bipedal crocodile than a dinosaur. “Rudy” is a scary villain, especially in 3D, but with so many giant predatory dinosaurs now known I would have liked to have seen an attempt at one like Giganotosaurus.
If you liked the previous two Ice Age films then you will probably like the third one. It is a “safe” movie that is not especially exciting but still is funny enough to be enjoyable (unlike this summer’s other dino film). And if you are offended at dinosaur running around with Pleistocene mammals, just remember it could be worse: humans could be riding them.
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Rudy sounds like a baryonyx, I remember seeing that in the trailer.
Its obvious that they tried to make Rudy a spinosaurus but without the sail on Its back. That makes it more like a baryonix but with an enormous size.
Rudy is not a nothing-o-saurus, he’s supposed to be a Brayonyx. I thought that, for a cartoon, they did a decent job. The Dilong have quill-like protofeathers, so that’s nice.
Oh yeah, how are the Dilong over the top? Those quill-things are intended to be protofeathers. What, you’d rather them show the coelurosaurs scaly???
Sid is the best character. Quite keen on watching ice age 3. It running house full – no tickets
…hopefully this weekend i should watch it.
After seeing Ice Age 3, I’d have to agree that Rudy is a suchomimus or a very large baryonyx spinosaur. I am quite happy he wasn’t a spinosaurus!
The pterosaur dogfight and Buck (Simon Pegg) were fantastic! As long as you can look past the carnivorous ankylosaur and super-thin necked stegosaurs, you will love this film!
Thanks for the feedback guys. I have to disagree about Rudy, though. The skull is too broad and flat (and he’s just too big!) to be a Baryonyx. Maybe the filmmakers intended otherwise, but Rudy’s skull was more crocodile than dinosaur.
I’ve always liked Blue Sky’s “take” on prehistoric animals, so I’m excited to see their dinosaurs. Loved the glyptodonts in Ice Age 2.
Rudy is, indeed, supposed to be a Baryonyx. They just messed up on it. They probably heard that Baryonyx‘s skull was crocodile-like, and only saw the skull in side veiw, so it ended up bad. Maybe Rudy’s huge size was due to confusion with Spinosaurus?
Rudy is kinda SuperCroc in National Geographic. With some fiction combination. My thought.
I don’t think we should really delve so deep over what kind of dinosaur it was. After all, the whole of the Ice Age series is an exaggeration of known animals and dinosaurs.
I’d have to admint Rudy does look like a Baryonyx but as always he’s been modified to look better on screen. Don’t they do that to all actors?
I think he’s a baryonyx but, even though ive seen the film, who is bigger Rudy or the mother tyrannosaurus rex
(but t-rex is bigger than baryonyx, even though i think i remember rudy being bigger!!!!)
Rudy was a parody of Moby Dick, being a great white baryonyx. He’s a little bigger than ‘Mother’, but not much.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Age:_Dawn_of_the_Dinosaurs
Check the website above. It has all the names of dinosaurs.
Rudy: Albino Baryonyx
Mommy and baby dinosaurs:T-Rex
the ones attack Ellie: Guanlong
one helps Buck and Sid: Pteranodon
one follows them: Quetzalcoatlus
It’s so great to read these posts. What a relief! My sons preschool teacher suggested that “Rudy” was a “demon” to my son and myself who are dino fans and now not only do I have a name of the DINOSAUR to give her I have pictures. It is a shame that poor taste and mental illness cannot so easily be cured.
It is too big for baryonyx,I think that this is a spinosaur,maybe becouse this is a cartoon,thei didnt made a sail on his back.
i love Rudy!He IS a spinosarus,but without the spines.RUDY RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rudy is not a baryonyx. He is an albino Suchasaurus (probably misspelled) which is a close relative to the baryonyx. Kind of like a croc dino on steroids. But either way, rudy is the coolest dinosaur ever! He gave Buck an eye patch, maybe he’ll give me one! Yes I quoted!