Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Editorial

As a rule, sequels have a tendency to suck. That is, going back to the well can leech out the original's merits, diluting and draining them on the way to pouring out a film franchise.

Cue applause, then, for the Ice Age series, which has pulled off the rare, refreshing trick of delivering a third outing of zest and worth. Using well the numerically relevant and future-looking technology of digital 3-D, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is a fun, fast and vibrant adventure for anyone not frightened by giant ancient creatures who could bite your head off. Parents, note well: even cuddly dinosaurs have big, big teeth in Ice Age 3.

Blue Sky Studios continues to operate strongly in the shadow of Pixar and DreamWorks, and it will take a few more features for the smaller enterprise to truly break the stranglehold on movie animation enjoyed by these household names.

However, Dawn of the Dinosaurs could be the joyous turning point which sees audiences acknowledge how under-rated the successful Ice Age films have been, and that Blue Sky is a peer, not pretender, to its better-known contemporaries.

The second Ice Age romp also was a surprisingly strong and upstanding sequel but the latest antics of mammoth Manny (voice of Ray Romano), sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) and saber-tooth Diego (Denis Leary) goes one better, changing the format enough to uncover different ways to bring the funny and rollicking.

Instead of running from global cooling or warming, our wild bunch of ancient animals enter a "Jurassic Park" to save Sid, whose attempt at an instant family backfires. Blue Sky's bold colours and shapes take off in this pre-fossil wonderland, popping and zipping from the screen in enveloping 3-D (not quite as explosive as Monsters vs Aliens, though).

How the dinosaurs are written in demonstrates the cute smarts of the Ice Age franchise, which has always sidestepped pop culture reliance for jolly banter and lead characters who can handle being upstaged by new recruits.

Crowd-favourite Scrat gets more screen time and shares it with a fiesty lady friend, leading to acorn fights of amusing activity. Meanwhile, Manny and his mates (including possums Crash and Eddie, the weak links here) team up with a crazy, heroic weasel called Buck (Simon Pegg), who does exactly what Jar Jar Binks embarrassingly failed to do in Star Wars: Episode 1.

Lit up by Pegg's hilarious motormouth and being at the centre of some teriffic action sequences which will make young and old dizzy with adrenaline - several set pieces are like riding a cool cartoon rollercoaster - Buck is a splendid sidekick. Integral to the plot and pitched to entertain, not irritate, this side-splitting weasel encapsulates Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' merry talent for turning old ingredients into a tasty new dish. Yum.

Hilton Thomas