From the archive: "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs"

After the colossal let-down of Public Enemies, the multidimensional mediocrity of Dawn of the Dinosaurs is almost reassuring. In this, the latest instalment of the digitally animated prehistoric saga - and the first to be presented in both standard and 3D versions - Manny the mammoth (voice: Ray Romano) is nervously entering into fatherhood, and attempting to babyproof his immediate environment. Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) has taken custody of a trio of dino-eggs, while Diego the tiger (Denis Leary), first seen huffing and puffing after a gazelle in the most obviously conceived-for-3D sequence, is wondering whether he's getting too long in the sabre-tooth. Ever since these three happened across an abandoned child in the very first Ice Age, the franchise has come to feel as though its true goal is less entertaining the very young than easing the anxieties of thirtysomething animators.

The series has a sideline in appreciably silly gags - Sid labels his discoveries Egbert, Shelley and Yoko - and I was happy for a while to see the old gang back together again, even if their entourage has now swollen to include a lot of superfluous comic relief. (Yes, Simon Pegg, this means you.) It's just a shame the filmmakers can think of nothing more to do with them all save to pack them off on yet another plodding and unrewarding quest, as though both visuals and plot had been computed from the same set of algorithms. Again, the funniest scenes involve Scrat, the muskrat going to extraordinary lengths to retrieve an errant nut: in previous instalments, this chase has come to seem like a metaphor for the pursuit of happiness, while resembling the kind of gag Chuck Jones might have dashed off for a Looney Tunes cartoon. Here, though, Scrat starts to seem like a surrogate for the Blue Sky animators, haring after a perfection that is beyond their grasp - and yet which comes easily to rivals Pixar.

This has been a mixed week for the so-called digital revolution, with James Cameron premiering footage of his forthcoming 3D adventure Avatar on the Net to unanimous acclaim, even as The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky, speaking at the Edinburgh Film Festival, dismissed 3D as no more than a gimmick. Taken as a pair, this weekend's releases serve as an illustration of the limitations of digital technology: even when the experience is as immersive, and the image as sharp, as it is here, it counts for nothing if you fudge the old-school, analogue business of storytelling. We're still sitting motionless in our seats watching distinctly average product - only now we're expected to pay £2 for the hire of special glasses to do so.

(July 2009)

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is available on DVD through Fox. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift is currently playing in Scotland and Ireland, and previewing elsewhere; it opens nationwide from Friday.