3 stars

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2002)

The humans have (unseen, before the film opens) killed a sabertooth tiger, and the tigers want revenge, so they plot to kidnap a human baby. Diego (voice by Denis Leary) is charged with this task, and he partially succeeds, but finds himself sharing three-way custody of the baby with a woolly mammoth named Manfred (Ray Romano) and a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), who rightly don't trust Diego alone with the baby. Manny and Sid want to return the baby to the humans and Diego agrees, although he secretly has other plans. All of this occurs as the ice age is beginning and almost all animals are migrating south. Interspersed with this main story we occasionally see a hapless sabertooth squirrel thingy trying valiantly (and painfully) to find somewhere to hide the acorn he has found. Besides the squirrel there are a number of other very fun bits, such as dodo birds performing "Tae Kwon-Dodo" and showing why they became extinct, as well as references to Star Trek and Titanic.
The animation is not as polished or flashy as in Shrek or Monsters, Inc., but it might be a little more human. On the whole, I definitely enjoyed this film and would recommend it, but the story which holds the brilliant bits together is pretty obvious and a little too precious to let it measure up to the high standards set by other recent animated films.