The formula at work

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2005)

They're an odd team, so they have problems; yet, after a while, they belong and learn about themselves. Yeah, that old chestnut. Then there's the other chestnut (or acorn) which provides us with what is the best that this has to offer. Sadly, the greatest sequence is indeed the utterly irrelevant epilogue (though it is of course wisely placed in the end). The whole has a half-baked air to it, thanks and no thanks in part to the animation.
Sure, it was aimed at kids, but even they deserve better.
One of the low-points of the film perfectly represents the rest of the writing and voicing (animation-wise and movement-wise, the moment is better): the "shlalom" exclamation (whether semi-improvised or not). Leguizamo, who reportedly didn't quite know how to voice Sid at first, decided to go with a lisp. How hilarious, the sloth's got a lisp. Ray Romano fails as well, but in the opposite way. These aren't total failures, but even if they were, the almost witless dialogue would still be the same. (Unfortunately, I can only discuss the English voicing, but perhaps I'll update this if I for some reason feel the need to see this for the third time.)
There's pseudo-energy, which is bad.
In addition to the at-times grotesque-looking fauna (the female sloths look almost as disturbing as that lass next door, and that, I'm telling you, is saying something), the humans look atrocious, as I'm sure you already know. The surfaces, too, are too artificial-looking, which becomes apparent because the landscapes are, and had to be, so vast and, you know, monotonous. (So much so that they rival Romano's voice. Drums.) The film does, I must admit, look very nice at times. In fact, the water looks too nice in these surroundings.
I know it seems as if I despised the film, but such is not the case. This does not make me want to pay for the upcoming sequel, but there's good to it. It's concise, and there's still the occasional good quip in the dialogue and the occasional lively moment in the animation. All the recycling is quite competently realised, which saves this from being a complete failure. Come to think of it, it's only a minor failure, a routine effort. Could've done without the obligatory montage sequence to a bad song, though.