3/5 Looking for the Dinosaur song?
  by M. DIMARIA
If you're looking for that song that goes "open the door, get on the floor, everyone walk the dinosaur", it's "WALK THE DINOSAUR" by WAS NOT WAS.

5/5 Fine Music on Its Own for Listening Pleasure
  by John F. Rooney
While watching "Ice Age 3" I became aware of the very imaginative and at times hilarious sound track. It's full of surprises. It has variations on "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine," one a fun tango version. It also includes the full dynamic vocal rendition by Lou Rawls himself, the last track on the CD. The "Adagio from Spartacus" by Khachaturian and Chad Fischer's "Alone Again (Naturally)" from the Gilbert O'Sullivan songbook pop up.
It has a full rich orchestra (Hollywood Studio Symphony) playing the score on forty-four tracks of music composed and produced by John Powell. Some of score is light hearted, some portentous to go with the action sequences. A large chorus is used for vocal sounds, not words.
Here are my impressions of the CD: a galloping overture, touches of Leonard Bernstein; in other tracks light-hearted melodies, some fairy tale quality, fine classical range of sound, some like the old Disney full-length musical accompaniments, feels like great vast open spaces, playful stretches, circus music, rollicking stuff, balletic section, background for a Western, lush strings, solo piano sequence, Apocalyptic section, and some triumphant melodies.
I think the CD can stand on its own as a pleasant listening experience even for those who haven't seen the hilarious and very well done movie.



5/5 David Newman and John Powell created a richly entertaining and comical world for Ice Age.
  by Horatio Guttersnipe (London, England)
Ice Age has produced has some excellent scores. David Newman's score to the first Ice Age movie was superb, it really was, to hear that he didn't, for whatever reason write the music for the last two films is strange to me since his effort made Ice Age; why, the opening music was instantly likeable and suited the image of the animals matching off to better lands. The release of Newman's score on to c.d is incomplete and that lets his brilliance in scoring Ice Age 1 down, odd that others who clearly haven't listened to it fail to understand how brilliant it was when I know so many who enjoy Newman's score greatly.

Powell however took over the project and created scores just as brilliant and epic. The moment in Ice Age 2, where we see and hear, finally the Mammoth herd march triumphantly through was immensely haunting, their calling out was enhanced by the sounds of trumpets and in Ice Age 3 Powell has developed many of his musical ideas and while it still is a comedic score it still holds the emotional depth the other two films had. Powell conveys sounds which are inspiring and hopeful, my only quibble is that some musical pieces are not long enough, as I believe Powell shines out when given more time to develop a musical piece; his work on Horton Hear's a Who! shows this; as he created a rich and wonderful sound, providing for our ears a comical, charming delight ... he understood how a Seuss world could sound had Seuss been a composer.

Powell and Newman both created a comedic sound for Ice Age, which reminds me of the work by Carl Stalling who wrote the scores for all of the Warner Bros cartoons. Music which can make you laugh out load shows how gifted these men are. They understand and as Ice Age has a no nonsense view of the world and the comedy which the music supports only supports this very wholesome view of life, which is honest and joyful and which leads me to see that kids films are wonderful these days; they only amplify the truths that matter ... well, the good ones do.


5/5 John Powell Returns With Variations On Familiar Melodies
  by Kaya Savas (Bethesda, MD USA)
John Powell returns to score the light animated fare, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs. The first film was scored by David Newman and was completely forgettable. Powell brought his fresh sound and style to the series with Ice Age: The Meltdown in what was one heck of a score. I still listen to that one all the time.

In the second film he established some themes that he touches base with in this score. So, we get lots of variations on these well known melodies that ooze with Powell's style. He has two trademarks that define him above all other composers; one is the way he strings his melodies in a sort of descending notion and the other is of course his percussion. Many of you may remember his amazing "Mini-Sloths Sing-A-Long" from the second film which is a perfect example of his percussive style. He goes a bit easy on the percussion with this score, but it's there (just a bit subtle) and I love it.

I guess one could argue that this score is just more of the same, but so what? Scores are one of the most important aspects of tying franchises together. Yes, there are the occasional "copy and paste" scores, but don't worry because you never get that with John Powell. Another complaint some people may have are the incredibly short track times. Yes, there are 44 tracks with some only 30 seconds long, but Powell fans should come to expect this. His score albums are gapless so they are meant for continuous listening. There are a few long tracks that provide a better solo listening experience, especially "End Credits" which sums up the album nicely.

Overall I'm happy to have another John Powell score in my hands. When stacked up against the second score and all his other animated scores this one does fall short, but that doesn't mean that this isn't an incredibly fun listen. I found the second one to have more emotionally driven music that really defined him as a composer, but this one almost gets there with the last few tracks. So, enjoy this one because we won't get any John Powell till Paul Greengrass' Green Zone.