Coraline, Monsters vs. Aliens and Up have all delivered brilliant 3D effects this year—each offering its own visual strengths—yet for especially impressive facial close-ups rendered in 3D, one film steps up front and center of the others: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Manny the Mammoth’s wheat-field fur, Scrat’s eye-popping google-eyes and all those ginormous-jawed dinosaurs whose mouths open so wide, you can count even the farthest molars—which gleam onscreen like a fat row of IKEA showroom chairs. Visually, this is the best Ice Age yet.

We recently caught up with Brazilian-born Carlos Saldanha, 44, who has directed or co-directed all three Ice Age films, as well as Robots and the Oscar-nominated short Gone Nutty.

After making two successful films in a franchise, is making the third Ice Age movie easier, or does the pressure to follow up just keep growing?

The pressure keeps increasing. It’s more of an internal pressure. The first time, we went out blind—we had nothing else to compare it with. We thought about it, but didn’t overthink it. On the second one, we had something to compare it with, but it was great.

Going into the third one, there’s the added pressure of: What are we going to do? I know that always in movie franchises, you’ve got the stigma of the third one. They need to be better, bigger...you have to push as far as you can. But you can never think about (how do I top the last one?).

So when did you first get into creating cartoons, and how did that evolve?

Growing up, I was always into drawing and (reading) comics and watching cartoons. Back then, I loved Tom and Jerry and Chuck Jones and the classic Warner Bros. stuff...and also Speed Racer. I have such a nostalgia for the old times....Now, I like SpongeBob, but when I watch a lot of the new Saturday morning cartoons, I get a headache. I switch to old cartoons.

But as a boy, I always drew. I’d be in the corner with a pencil and paper. I knew I wanted to be an artist...and had to make a choice. Computer animation wasn’t so big in the ’80s and I wasn’t aware of it. I thought: I’d be this starving painter. My perception of it was as a hobby—I never had awareness of art as a career. But I was drawn into computers and went into computer science.

And how old were you when you left Brazil?

I was 21 or 22. I went directly to New York to study.

And what happened next?

After I graduated with a computer science degree, I felt there was something missing from my life. I missed art—it was too strong for me to let it go....Then I saw (John Lasseter’s) Tin Toy on a demo reel and thought: Whoa, they did that with a computer? I was very proficient with computers. I got my master’s (in computer art) at the School of Visual Arts, and that’s where I met (Ice Age codirector) Chris Wedge, who was teaching at the school. He said: Come to Blue Sky (Studios), and we said we wanted to make a movie one day. I loved the underdog feel. The idea of fighting (for it) together....Everything converged to the right spot—everything was just happening.

I just rewatched your great short Gone Nutty (2002)—how did that fit into your artistic evolution, and was the recognition of an Oscar nomination a significant boost?

It was great. Making a short allowed us to experiment. Not having too much pressure allows you to experiment and play around—and accomplish a lot in a short period of time. It was before (2005’s) Robots, and I had ambition of directing on my own.... It was a way to prove to the studio that I could take on a bigger project, and I later did Ice Age 2 by myself.

Do you write characters with certain voices—about how they’ll sound—already in your head?

Sometimes a voice comes that you hear and you can’t get rid of it. It’s great because if you nail (the voice casting), it’s a home run. If you miss it, it’s hard to get the voice out of your head. For Ice Age 3, for Buck, we had the voice in our head until we came across Simon Pegg and it was a great choice. Until you go to the first session and do the first book script, you don’t know for sure—but you have a sense. One character was Queen Latifah for Ellie—I had her (Queen) in my head when creating Ellie....She wasn’t available on our schedule but...once I knew she was it, I had to make a sacrifice. I don’t regret that a bit. Ellie is one of those characters that causes you to get inspired by the actress, in her expressions.