A definite watch for the whole family

Rating: 8/10 (1 September 2006)

When watching family animation I always like to have a good laugh and appreciate the sentimental and humorous ideologies as well as the fantastic graphics and this 2002 hit is one if not my favourite animation.
This story sees a sloth; a mammoth and a sabre-toothed tiger form an unlikely friendship as they travel through the icy climate looking for humans to return the stranded baby.
The story is slow moving. This way we can accept the different ideas put forth and gain the persona's of the characters. Its emotional, funny, and appreciative of the family comedy drama genre.
The side story about the Scrat the squirrel is great and adds a different aspect to the animation genre. It's a little story about one squirrel and his nut and the physical humour is great.
Having different animals the audience can gain an insight into different views, opinions on life. It's an unlikely combination and that's what makes the whole film exciting, because we don't know how they're going to deal with each other.
The film is very humorous, it prides itself on physical humour although it does have some great speech humour between characters. Having humour was great but a real reason why I loved this film is because it is emotionally driven as well. The film sells ideologies of loyalty, friendship, families and survival making it a real aspect of real life. It preaches through the likable characters and therefore younger children will appreciate the ideas and realise how important they are in real life, because they will admire the characters and want to understand about life. Having humour combined with emotion allows audiences to accept the characters who are portrayed in a 'real' light.
My favourite scene involved the three animals trying to rescue a watermelon from a group of dodos who are tripping over themselves, literally. It is hilarious and younger audiences as well as an older one can appreciate the hilarity behind the great physical humour.
The CGI used is simply outstanding. It is used very effectively to gain the aspects of the characters. The funny expressions of the squirrel, the stupidity of the sloth, the greatness of the mammoth and he scenery is also outstanding, especially in the ice cavern towards the end.
It's a different animation to what you normally see. Because of the high amount of loyalty emotional situations it is very different to your other animation films such as 'Toy Story 2' which should have been emotional but was comedy driven, and therefore adds something different.
I definitely recommend it to anyone. It's a great film to watch with the family. You will laugh and you will cry when watching 'Ice Age' an enjoyable comedy/drama with a great energetic storyline