I love cartoons. They can show things that films with 'real' actors and scenery cannot - though computer effects are changing that more and more. They can push the boundaries of satire ('The Simpsons'), good taste ('South Park'), spectacle ('Aladdin'), or reality ('Toy Story'). There are some good examples of this in 'Ice Age', such as when we see a motley herd of now-extinct mammals migrating across countryside, chatting like old friends. Such scenes are a pleasure to watch, as we get the feeling of both the familiar and the strange at the same time, usually in a way that makes us laugh. While Ice Age is not as good as the top animated movies of all time, it's a really fun film. Sit back, enjoy the deliberate anachronisms, the lovely backgrounds and the belly-laughs.
The story follows Manfred the grumpy mammoth, Sid, an idiotic sloth, and Diego, a sabretooth tiger, as they take a human baby back to his tribe - for very different reasons. On the way, naturally, they have a whole lot of problems. Also popping up throughout the journey is Scrat, history's unluckiest rodent, who is desperately trying to bury an acorn for the winter: in glaciers, on top of dead trees, in ice-caves. His opening scene is a classic.
It's a simple story with a very predictable end and a middle that is just a series of funny incidents with some character-building moments thrown in, but some of the scenes, such as the nappy-changing or the dodos, are hilarious, the animals are likeable and it looks good. There is one quite touching moment too, when cave paintings of mammoths come to life in front of Manfred's eyes.
Not a must-see, but good for a fun hour or so.
7/10

Horror fans (I'm speaking to the over 12's, although if you're under 12 I apologise for what you might deem an insult): In short, if you appreciate having your imagination disturbed by well written, original storytelling, punctuated by unpredictable well planted scares, and delivered via convincing performances, then I can heartily recommend - AVOIDING THESE STEAMERS - made by directors who have apparently long since past their sell by date. It's no accident that almost every episode feels as if it were made in the 1980's. Not to put blame squarely on the shoulders of some of these old boys (or indeed the 80's) because where would we be without certain movies from the likes of Argento, Carpenter, Landis, Dante and Barker (Actually Clive, WTF are you doing in there?! Glad to see Romero had the good sense to give it a miss as I'm sure he was asked to partake...). More perhaps we should point the finger at creator Mick Garris whose credentials include the logic defying and depressingly ill-advised TV remake of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 'The Shining'.
Perhaps it is an indication of the state of television today. Are we so starved of good TV horror that we applaud any old sloppy schlock that the networks excrete onto our sets? Sadly, maybe so.
Normally I wouldn't see the point of adding a comment that doesn't argue the faults and merits of a production, I'd just rate it accordingly. However, as this series is woefully lacking in any merit (with perhaps the sole exception of the theme tune) I write this as more of a warning than a review: DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY. If you disagree with me then it's more than likely that you haven't seen enough decent horror. Perhaps the earlier films of some of these directors would be a much better place to start, but if these 'Masters' of Horror were being assessed on these works alone, they'd never have been allowed to graduate with even their Bachelor's degree. Unless of course they were studying for a degree from the University Of S**t.