Did I see the same movie as everyone else? What was the point? Boring & hard to follow

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2002)

In reading these reviews, I find it hard to believe that I saw the same movie. Ice Age had okay animation, although not as good as Shrek, a few funny scenes, but overall as an adult it did not catch my interest at all and I found myself to be quite bored upon renting it. I have no idea how kids liked the movie so I can not judge as to them.
I did not particularly like or identify with any of the characters (except maybe Scrat, the proto-squirrel trying to hide his nut who was rather funny). I also like for my movies to have a well-rounded, well-conceived plot, which Ice Age definitely did not. In most stories, such as Shrek, we understand the plot and root for the heroes to overcome problems or adversaries and triumph in the end. In this story it was hard to tell who were the heroes and who was not.
I need to preface my review in that I love the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. I also loved Shrek and think it still to be the most clever and witty animated movie ever, along with a cool soundtrack. Monster's Inc. and Toy Story were good but not great animated stories along the same lines and I have watched each of them several times for entertainment value. Therefore, I am not a cartoon slammer and I am not some old fuddy-duddy who does not understand what is funny and what is not. I don't try to look for some hidden agenda or deep, mysterious moral behind a movie, I just watch to get some enjoyment and fun out of it (such as Shrek).
And then comes "Ice Age." I rented it last week. Unfortunately, with "Ice Age", I was rather confused, bored almost all the time, and perhaps appalled at times by the meandering storyline that never quite connected up for me. The animation was okay but Shrek is a much, much better movie in all facets.

*SPOILER WARNING* I won't go into detail as to the plot as that has been done elsewhere. But I could not really ascertain what we were supposed to feel in this movie? Was this a buddy movie, a morality play about helping others, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or what? Very murky writing from what I could see as I could not gather what it all meant. I am not one to slam movies and can find almost anything good about the most awful movies I have ever seen, but I had no clue as to motivations or who we should root for --- the humans who apparently kill all animals, the Mammoth and sabertooth Tiger who are doomed as doomed can be due to extinction issues in real life, or
the sloth, who is rather stupid and the only one who should not survive anyway (See Jar Jar Binks - LOL).
But in "Ice Age" what was the motivation for Manfred the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth, and Diego the Sabertooth Tiger, taking the human baby back to the hunters? Apparently we are to assume that they were "doing the right thing." Accepting that theory, then why was taking the human baby back to the hunters the right thing? One could assume that as far as motivations go, it might have been better to kill the human baby so that Manfred and Diego could live longer. After all, these were HUNTERS not Cro-Magnon vegetarians!
Also, at the end of the movie, I find it hard to believe that Sid would not hunt down his old sloth herd and that Diego would not find a new bunch of sabertooth tigers to hang with. The buddy-buddy connection was not as strong or believable as in Shrek. Especially, since Diego turns out to be a "friend" only in the last 15 minutes of the movie or so after leading Manfred and Sid to an ambush for the first 1 1/2 hours of the flick.
Maybe I am overly cynical, but in the flash-back scene, it appears as though Manfred the Mammoth had his entire family killed by hunters and now he is taking a baby back that will grow up and kill him, too? Is he stupid? Is this some kind of thorn in the lion's paw type quid-pro-quo?
Are we supposed to see some kind of profound life-changing experience, i.e, the Mammoth brought back the baby, I will never hunt again??? Fat chance of that, I would think. There is no connecting up so that we actually believe the hunters will not kill the animals ever again, so who are we to speculate?
Also, is this some kind of pro-vegetarian movie, don't kill the animals because they are the same as us? Fat chance again. Ice age humans lived a nomadic hunting existence and did not start agrarian societies until some 10,000 years later. So they did not establish farms or stay in one place as that was not possible with the advancing Ice Age. They ate what they could, which was mostly meat, along with berries, fruits, and what-not they picked as they went along. So the chances that they would not kill Manfred for food at a later date are slim and none. Not believable even in a kiddy movie context.
Don't forget at the beginning that either Diego or the head of his sabertooth pack says that the hunters have killed half their pack and that is why they want to kill the baby. So Diego helps take a human baby back, so the baby will grow up and kill him, too??? Is this believeable or am I missing something?
Interestingly enough, the main hunter never mentions what happened nor sheds a tear about the death of his wife (who apparently drowns off-camera), it is all about the male baby who will also grow up to be a hunter. And this is a kid's movie??? Very shocking/interesting undertones for a kid's movie. Not exactly the type of sentimentality engendered when Bambi's mother dies!
Also, for continuity's sake, I thought that Diego was trying to lead the Mammoth and Sid into a trap of the other sabertooth Tigers and not necessarily to the humans? However, coincidentally the humans and sabertooth Tigers are all in one place. I really did not see an entire pack, just 5 or 6 Tigers. They could have easily jumped the Mammoth and Sloth earlier in the film instead of supposedly letting Diego get the baby and bringing the baby to them.
Scrat the proto-squirrel provides some good scenes although he really does not fit into the storyline at all. The dodo dancing scene was interesting as was the Ice slide scenes. Even taken as a cute, funny kiddy story with no motives attributed to the producers, I didn't appreciate the undertones to the rhinoceros pair. This was truly not necessary. Also, as adults we know the Mammoth and the sabertooth Tiger are doomed to extinction, so this put a bad slant on the movie for me, knowing that Manfred and Diego were doomed from the get-go.
Overall, I would have to give Ice Age an 8 for animation, but a 2 for plotline and continuity. I did not really care much about the characters and did not really care what happened at the end. Here coming up on Christmas, I hate to sound like the Grinch, but this movie was not good at all for adults.