Ice Age film review

certificate_U

ICE AGE

Set against the onslaught of the Ice Age - and a world filled with wonder and danger - the story revolves around three characters: Manny, an acerbic woolly mammoth; an irreverent, unsocialised giant sloth called Sid; and Diego, a scheming sabre-toothed tiger.

Sid awakes one morning to find that everyone has migrated to avoid the impending ice flow and left him behind. Keen to catch up with them, he befriends Manny, a mammoth with problems of his own. Together the pair find an abandoned baby and decide to return him to his tribe.

But life in the Ice Age was never simple and before long they attract the attention of a pack of mean sabre-toothed tigers who all fancy the idea of a mammoth sized meal. Can our heroes defeat the baddies and complete their quest?

While Ice Age's animation is not as jaw dropping as Monters Inc or Shrek, it is still very impressive: this winter wonderland is much more than just white snow. Parents and children alike will enjoy the steady stream of one-liners especially from the much put-upon Sid the Sloth.

All this aside, it is the antics of a sabre-toothed squirrel called Scrat that steal the show. This wiry oddball of a creature tirelessly flits about throughout the entire film, desperately scrambling to locate a safe place in which to stash his one and only acorn. It is a running gag that never fails to amuse as anyone who has seen the trailer will know.

As family films go this is as good as they come. It looks great, has a strong, easy to understand storyline for the youngsters and above all is great fun.