To date I have failed to engage with Fox’s Ice Age franchise. Thanks to the output of Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks, my quota of American family-oriented animated fun has been more than sated. Ice Age seemed to be deliberately aimed at a younger audience and its first two instalments failed to garner many positive reviews. However, that didn't stop them from raking in the cash. The first instalment made almost US$400 million worldwide and its 2006 sequel a staggering US$650 million, making a third Ice Age film inevitable.

Unsurprisingly, director Carlos Saldanha has opted for the animated gimic-du-jour and created Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 3D. The debate continues to rage on whether this third dimension really makes a difference - to me it’s irrelevant, on a Shenzhen bootleg the 3D doesn’t work.

But, to the film. When we pick up the action, Scrat the squirrel is still chasing acorns, but faces a crisis when his efforts are challenged by the presence of an alluring seductress, Scratte, only too happy to use her feminine charms to pilfer Scrat’s nuts. Meanwhile mammoth couple Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting a child, which gets sabre-toothed cat Diego (Denis Leary) thinking that perhaps it is time for him to head on out before he gets too long in the tooth. Dim-witted sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) works
out that this will leave him out on a limb and is determined to prove he can raise his own family.

Under the ice he discovers a batch of dinosaur eggs and decides to raise the young reptiles as his own. However, no sooner has he taught the three baby T-Rex’s how to be slothful than their terrifying mother arrives on the scene and swipes all four of them, including Sid, before descending back under the ice. Sid's friends mount a rescue mission and discover a whole new tropical world underground, filled with dinosaurs, giant carnivorous plants and all manner of perilous obstacles. Only a deranged eye-patch-sporting weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg) can guide them safely through this land that time forgot.

A certain desperation is evident in the script as precious little of the action takes place within the Ice Age itself, the writers instead effectively transporting our sub-zero heroes back in time to the tropical netherworld. ‘I thought you were extinct,’ barks Manny when the initial T-Rex appears, which seems to be all the explanation necessary. After a slow and fairly uneventful opening act, which, however, does include one of the film’s best gags when Sid names his newly adopted eggs, the action really picks up as the team goes subterranean. The new hostile environment produces some exciting plot developments and excellent 3D moments, like a dizzying aerial battle atop swooping pterodactyls.

No doubt the kids will lap up Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Scrat’s slapstick exploits will continue to amuse younger audience members and the giant carnivores shouldn’t be too scary. And just enough higher-brow humour will keep the parents moderately entertained. It is perfectly feasible to see this film pulling in more revenue than even its predecessor and it is sure to clean up on DVD and Blu-ray come Christmas time. However, Fox must now concede that this franchise has run its course and has nowhere left to go. If they do hang up the acorn once and for all, they might just end on a high. James Marsh