A mammoth, sloth and saber toothed tiger escort a human baby back to its father in the ice age. Pleasant children's film that will please most adults. 3 Flys Out Of Five

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2002)

Ice Age is the latest of the 3D animated features aimed at that magic demographic  the children's movie adults can be dragged along to. Shrek, The Toy Story Double and Monster's Inc. have been huge successes in recent years. Ice Age will do pretty well.
Ice Age is less sophisticated than the others though, with a story line less likely to excite the intelligence of older viewers.

Still Ice Age has its more cerebral moments. It's set while animals are migrating to beat what looks to be at least pretty harsh winter. Three youngster mammals are playing in a tar pit or mud hole. Their mother tells them to hurry up and join the herd. `You can play extinction later.'
In a fun sequence the creatures are walking through an ice cave and enclosed in the walls are the entombed bodies of previously extinct animals. Then we see evidence of alien visitors from millenniums past. The anti evolutionists will be tutt tutting to the max.
But the star of the show is a creature you'll see in the shorts for the feature. It's a desperate, jerky squirrel trying to bury his acorn. He pops up throughout the film and is a fascinating show stopper.
Ice Age mainly concerns three animals trying to return a baby human to its species. A wooly mammoth, a sloth and a saber toothed tiger unite in an uneasy alliance and test the odds trying to get baby home.
The animation is of course astounding but seems sadly lacking when the humans hove into view. We seem to be able to move a mammoth more realistically than a human. Perhaps the animators haven't put the energy yet into animating people. The Final Fantasy team might be able to give lessons however.
Ice Age isn't as entertaining as Shrek or Monsters Inc but its reasonable holiday fare for both children and the oldies.
3 Kids Flys Out Of Five