The laughs are still there as the unlikely herd still bounce off each other well.
Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive nut (while, maybe finding true love), Manny and Ellie await the birth of their mini-mammoth, Sid the sloth creates his own makeshift family by hijacking some dinosaur eggs, and Diego the sabre-toothed tiger wonders if he’s growing too ‘soft’ hanging with his pals.
On a mission to rescue the hapless Sid, the gang ventures into a mysterious underground world where they have some close encounters with dinosaurs, battle flora and fauna, run amuck and meet a relentless, one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg), from whom most of the classic repeatable one liners (adult aimed) come from.
Even though dinosaurs were long extinct in the Ice Age of 16,000 years ago, they rear their ugly heads in this adventure. This premise, however, doesn’t detract from what makes the Ice Age franchise such an enjoyable and bankable film – the utter delight that children take in the talking animals.
So throw in the always dependable magnificence of dinosaurs and you have a sure win combination.
What’s different with this film, however, is that it is also available for 3D viewing at selected theatres. 3D has come along in leaps and bounds and is no longer used just for shock value with sticks leaping out the screen at the audience.
What the filmmakers have done is understand that their prime audience is the young, so they have deftly used the 3D technology to give the feeling of depth, thus creating a world that will submerse viewers in rich colours and textures, whilst allowing them to feel part of the action on screen.
If you’re worried about whether or not your child will sit in a dark cinema for an hour and a half with glasses on their face, fear not. I watched this film with my four-year-old son and he just sat there transfixed, taking off his glasses occasionally, but only long enough to tell me that “the picture looks like it’s coming out of the screen”.
