Buy it... if you are an established admirer of John Powell's consistently effective but not remarkably unique slapstick comedy scores for the animated children's film genre.

Avoid it... if you're searching for more of the infectious enthusiasm of Powell's music for Ice Age: The Meltdown and have little interest in a beefed up version of that score with a handful of better realized action cues.

Powell

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: (John Powell) While most animated franchises deserve a death in the straight to video realm of obnoxious commercial treachery, the Ice Age films have endured throughout the 2000's and, with the third entry in 2009, transcended to a higher level of critical acclaim. With Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, 20th Century Fox toys with pseudo-3D technologies, though more important than this trick is a script that emphasizes action and character development in an effective mix that is meant to satisfy both adults and children equally. The story of Scrat and his elusive acorn, once considered the only interesting aspect of the entire concept, continues with an added twist, and the trio of unlikely friends at the heart of the original narrative has moved on to the perils of family life and even higher existential discoveries. The most pertinent of these finds includes, of course, the civilization of dinosaurs that has apparently survived in a world beneath the surface, and the interaction between creatures leads to not only further self-discovery but to a higher frequency of straight action scenes. While Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, by the nature of this plot, retains its corny elements, the infusion of heightened action not only affects the flow of the film, but its music as well. Along with a returning crew comes John Powell, whose career in slapstick music for animated films has been solidifying for over a decade. With the involvement of Powell in the third film comes a sense of musical continuity that did not exist between David Newman's original Ice Age and Powell's first entry in 2006. As to be expected, the composer doesn't change the equation significantly for his second venture in the franchise, once again balancing straight orchestral comedy action routines with humorous references to pop tunes of the past and hints of contemporary movie music standards. If you found the music for Ice Age: The Meltdown to be tediously predictable in 2006, then you're not the intended audience for the related follow-up score. The major difference between the two scores is that whereas Ice Age: The Meltdown strongly emphasized the cuteness of its thematic constructs and orchestrations within its prancing, genre-defying rhythms, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs achieves a muted dose of the same character while beefing up the environment for the existence of the world of dinosaurs with action material that is more robust than anything heard in the previous entry.

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For many casual listeners, the difference between Powell's two scores for the Ice Age franchise will be too negligible to really notice. For such people, the duration of the constantly shifting tone in the work will be its most defining, memorable characteristic. For die-hard enthusiasts of the first score, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs may be a mixed bag. Powell does reach back and reference his previous thematic material, though the most striking difference between the two is the lack of fully realized performances of the infectious title theme from Ice Age: The Meltdown. This idea, which owed much to the charging enthusiasm of Chicken Run (especially in its second phrase), is largely replaced in the newer score by the variation of the theme that represented the main trio of characters. Given the familial elements of the third film's plot, this shift to the less jovial theme is understandable, but it hinders the level of spirit heard in the early cues on album. The constructs are all there, but not with the same swinging, finger-snapping personality as before. Most interesting in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are the fresh identities for Scrat (and his companion) and the dinosaurs. For the former, a variation on the badly dated Lou Rawls song "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" is a sleazy representation. Even the acorn gets its own adaptation of a theme from an era past. The adaptation of "Adagio from Spartacus" makes another brief appearance in between these Scrat-related representations. The realm of the dinosaurs receives awe-inspiring choral crescendos that, in true Powell fashion, never last as long as anyone would wish when hearing them on album. Some faux-brutal pounding of a new theme for these creatures is perhaps best finally developed in the latter half of the lengthy "End Credits." While this material is impressive in its scope (the depth of the chorus seems more resounding this time and the bloated French horn section never hurts), its presence (and domination of the second half of the work) sacrifices the pleasant, smile-inducing personality of the previous score. In fact, until the dinosaur material blasts through in the mid-section of the album, the score plays like a pedestrian regurgitation. The overall impression Powell leaves is one of workmanlike craftsmanship. You can't fault him for providing this effective music, but for those who don't pay close attention to the slight variations in these types of works, all of it will continue to sound the same. Approach its extremely lengthy album (a hindrance here, perhaps) only if you maintain a healthy collection of Powell's streamlined music for the genre. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

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For John Powell reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.05 (in 38 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.05 (in 42,939 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.