The settings are cold, but the movie isn't.

Rating: Null/10 (30 March 2003)

Twentieth Century Fox hasn't had the best of luck with animated movies -"FernGully: The Last Rainforest" is best forgotten, "The Pagemaster" was patchy, "Anastacia" wasn't bad but was unmemorable, and "Titan A.E." was a misfire (in addition to helping shut down Fox Animation Studios). "Ice Age" finally delivers the goods through Blue Sky.
This is well animated than Walt Disney Pictures's own prehistoric trek "Dinosaur" but a better movie all told, because it has characters on its side - a sloth and mammoth trailing behind in the annual migration to get away from the winter discover a human baby (given to them by his mother, who dies in escaping a tiger attack) and take it on themselves to return the child to his people before the snow sets in and closes the only route available. If dave-hart is reading this, the reason they're joined by a sabretooth tiger called Diego is that he's been sent by the leader of his group to get the baby from Sid the sloth and Manfred the mammoth ("I see - can't have kids of your own, so you want to adopt") and bring him back, so that his revenge can be complete; the tigers attacked the humans because the baby's father hunted the tigers. As Mrs Loman put it, "Attention must be paid."
The storyline won't win any awards for originality, but the movie has plenty of points of interest (the mute human characters - "You know humans can't talk!" - in accordance with the true first settlers of America, have distinctly Native American looks), and enough humour and genuine appeal to win over most viewers; the flock of survivalist dodos preparing for the imminent Ice Age are my favourites among the subsidary characters, but the three main characters all get to share the spotlight. As the one who's the most nebbishy, Sid could have been truly annoying, but he stays the right side of amusing throughout (kudos to the writers and John Leguizamo); Manfred is good enough to suggest another look at "Everybody Loves Raymond" may be in order, and as for Denis Leary as Diego... well, when is he NOT worth the time?
It is a bit predictable, and it's not Pixar admittedly, but it's not as self-satisfied as DreamWorks either; it's just a movie. But it's a good one - entertaining from the running joke of Scrat and his nut to the final scene. "Ice Age" is the best prehistoric cartoon since "The First Bad Man," though not quite up to Tex Avery level... but then again, what is?
And please note the absence of dinosaurs (and singing). Already this is more accurate than some live-action movies.