Up will forever be the best animated film of 2009, because it’s a masterpiece, however I believe Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs may count with just as good animation, I mean seriously, the overall animation is superb in this one, one of the better 3D films I’ve ever seen.

Every character from the previous films is back, however in this one they’re in a world where Dinosaurs roam, and where Scrat finds Scrattè, his female counterpart, and where Sid, the beloved sloth from the other two films that is voiced by John Leguizamo, decides to adopt three baby t-rex eggs. However the mother T-rex grabs the eggs – and Sid – and returns to her dinasourish world.

So, logically, the rest of the gang goes after them to rescue Sid, so we have the mammoths, Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah), the sabre-tooth Diego (Denis Leary) and the possums Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). And then, we meet the new member, Buck, a weasel who’s obsessed with finding the Great White Dinosaur, and guess what, he’s voiced by the genius Simon Pegg, so yeah, save to say Buck is now my favorite character of the franchise, beating Scrat by a narrow margin since Scrat wasn’t as cool this time around for some reason.

The dinosaur is fuckin’ huge, like even super huge compared to the Manny, so you know what’s coming now, a series of chases, and falls, and close calls and great reactions, that’s what. And even though you know what’s coming, the people behind this film do it with an extra creativity so it doesn’t seem recycled, that added to the aforementioned masterful animation make for some kickass-looking scenes.

Visually it’s impeccable, yes, but the story doesn’t have that much to it, however do give this one a shot, if only just because of the visuals, hell, it even looks cool in 3D, which is a format that as you know I usually diss on, but this one looks cool in it, still cooler in 2D though, and cheaper, but yeah, this one’s a fine addition to the franchise.

Grade: B-

^that awesome eye-patched guy is Buck. So damn nifty, isn’t he?