Entertaining, but nothing new

Rating: 5/10 (2 March 2019)

I had this idea that this film, and the sequels, are basically about this squirrel, which is actually a sabre tooth squirrel, named Scrat, that is running around trying to do something with its acorn. Well, it is sort of like that but it is sort of a lot more than just that, he really is only something that sort of happens in the background, but he does keep on popping up throughout the story, and not surprisingly the movie opens with him, and closes with him.
Anyway, this is one of those films that I have actually been meaning to watch for quite a while but never really got around to it. I guess being as old as it is now sort of starts to give some character to it, and it also makes me think that maybe there is some actual staying power to it, especially since a number of sequels (four) were spawned out of it. Well, it turns out that this was not really the case.
So, other than our squirrel, which is really only a background character, the film is about how a Wooly Mammoth named Manfred, and a Sloth named Sid are attempting to get a human baby back to their parents. The catch is that humans aren't actually seen as being all that nice - not only are they predators but they are apex predators, which is why the sabre tooth cats sort of have a problem with them.
Yeah, this is one of those quest stories, but it is also a story about how three unlikely people are thrown together and end up becoming good friends, particularly since one of them is a sabretooth tiger and sort of has some rather dubious ulterior motives. Then again, as can be expected with a lot of similar films, we can probably work out where this is all heading.
Manfred is rather interesting though because he is a lonely and brooding character that seems to be going against the grain. Everybody is migrating south, but he is heading north. As for Sid, well, he is just plain annoying, namely because he gets left behind when everybody else sort of decides to head south - they basically decide not to wake him up.
I guess I could say that this film was fun, but honestly, there really wasn't all that much with it that made it stand out from all the other films that seem to come and go over the years. Yeah, it had staying power, but the catch is that new moves have come along, and all the kids who grew up with this film are all adults now.