Blame progress. Not so long ago, say 60 000 years, we were happy to dip a finger in mud and smear stick figures onto a cave wall. Now there’s a bit more effort involved: like over 100 people in cubicles hunched over computers for close on three years at a cost of R720-million.

Admittedly the results are a bit better too: ‘Ice Age 3’ brings to life the dawn of the dinosaurs a little more vibrantly than Thad’s rock paintings. That’s largely thanks to the vivid 3D effects that, without relying on point-at-the-audience showing off, quite literally expand the canvas of a by-now-familiar tale. Manny is still Ray Romano disguised as a woolly mammoth. Sid the Sloth still lisps. And Scrat is still after that pesky nut.

But despite the bigger is better visual approach, the comic motormouths in the cast — Dennis Leary (Diego the sabre-toothed tiger) and Queen Latifah (Ellie the mammoth) — could do with a little more defrosting. Even Stifler, who ran away with ‘The Meltdown’ as hyperactive possum Crash, seems to have overdosed on Ritalin.

The resulting laughter void is filled by slightly-less-than-sane one-eyed weasel Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg), a wannabe adventurer in the demented swashbuckling tradition of Captain Jack Sparrow — and part-time dino slayer. He’s the type of guy who whistles as he leads you to certain death, but our unlikely adventurers have little choice when Sid’s ill-conceived attempt at parenting results in ticking off a T-Rex.

Of course, while the herd travel through a perilous tropical landscape to truly kickstart this tale — after a slow start involving parenthood and dinosaur eggs — Scrat once again tries to outdo Wile E Coyote’s persistence. Yet now he’s battling more than his own ineptitude. A female squirrel/rat named Scratte (rhymes with sauté) is also after the planet’s only acorn and their intense love-hate relationship (think Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson — without the lesbianism) injects new vigour into the already oft-repeated visual gags.

Certainly the series is on the verge of feeling warmed over but this new story's runaway spectacle helps cover up any cracks in the ice.