Part three of the icy adventure series sees the filmmakers allowing themselves a few more tricks by tunnelling under the ice to a hidden land of dinosaurs. Not terribly original, but the target audience are probably too young to remember any other examples of lost valleys – always introduced in wide shots with copious amounts of Brachiosaurus necks and bunches of depressed herbivores gathered around ponds.
If the concept is as musty as a stuffed mammoth, however, at least the technology used to bring it to life is state of the art. Less emphasis on characters means more time for action and movement. The 3D effect is brilliantly utilised (it would lose so much to see this in regular 2D, unfortunately). Characters tumble off cliffs, zoom through the sky on the backs of pterodactyls or leap around collapsing rock plates as nasty clawed creatures approach. There’s a sense of speed and motion at times more exhilarating than anything else seen in many other blockbusters this year.
But while part three beats its predecessors in a visual sense, it’s a bit of a stretch to see what, if anything, the established characters bring to this instalment. Diego, in particular, seems to have nothing to do. But the appeal here mainly lies in catering to the optic nerve and, for this reason alone, Ice Age 3 should be fun entertainment for kids.
