Far-Fetched But Funny Animal Yarn

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2011)

The computer-animated epic "Ice Age" musters cross-generational appeal--adolescents as well as adults--with its "Looney Tunes" like tale about a woolly mammoth, Manfred (Ray Romano), a dim-witted sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo of "The Pest"), and a sagacious saber-toothed tiger, Diego (Denis Leary of "The Amazing Spiderman") and their exploits 20,000 years ago when glaciers moved and wildlife migrated. Director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha get things off to a hilarious start with a woebegone little character named "Scrat" as it chases an acorn without being crushed by a glacier. The desperate efforts by the varmint to save the acorn while not being killed by the ice makes this opening gambit wonderfully funny. Basically, this is a road trip comedy with an odd couple. The story unfolds rather dramatically with a pack of saber-tooth tigers plotting to wipe out a village of prehistoric humans so that they can get the morsel of a baby. Later, the helpless Sid has to elude a couple of pugnacious rhinos and Manfred intervenes to save his life from the rhinos. The saber-tooth tigers attack the village. During the battle, the mother seizes her baby and flees. Diego corners her on a high rock above a water fall and she plunges into the rapidly flowing water to save her child. Downriver she manages to get the baby safely put on land while Manfred and Sid watch. The next time that we see them, Sid observes that the mother is 'gone.' "Ice Age" turns into three critters and a baby. The baby grows up enough to learn how to watch. Other amusing gags include our heroes stumbling upon a tribe of dodo birds that contribute more to their own extinction by stupidity than the dangers that they face. Diego joins up with Manfred and Sid but he does so because the saber-tooth tiger leader wants him to deliver the baby alive or suffer dire consequences. We learn later on from a cave painting what may have happened to Manfred's family. "Ice Age" packs several surprises, and sensitive adults will shed tears at Diego's untimely demise. Sid and the acorn-chasing Scrat steal the show. The animation is particularly good, too. The end gambit with a frozen Scrat washing ashore on an island is a rib-tickling hoot.