ICE AGE

US, 2002, 88 minutes, Colour.
Voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Dennis Leary, Goran Visnic, Jack Black.
Directed by Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha.

Ice Age starts off with a funny sequence about a creature trying to bury a big nut that he has found, but the ice is too hard. As he pushes the nut, he creates a crack, then a crevice, then an avalanche and finds himself propelled far below into the valley and into the path of a procession of prehistoric creatures who are migrating south to warmer climes. I think that this opening got us all in - and the children stayed put for the whole of the 80 minutes, which is not too long.

The funny parts concerned a sloth named Sid. Sid has been left behind by his family but cheers up when he sees a mammoth coming his way. The mammoth's name is Manny, and a very sympathetic mammoth he is. While Sid often annoys him, they travel together, with Sid chattering away.

Then comes the serious part. Fierce sabre-tooth tigers attack the human camp to take a baby as prey. The mother escapes with the child by leaping over a waterfall. The child is saved and Sid and Manny take care of it. The rest of the adventure concerns a tiger named Diego who is supposed to get the child for his pack. Instead he learns friendship, even some heroism, from Manny and Sid as they try to save the baby.

As with this kind of film, there is a lesson for the young audience to learn. We are urged to help one another - that is what belonging to a herd means. The film also helps children imagine a prehistoric age with its landscapes, with icy mountains, exploding volcanoes, and fertile valleys and its animals.

And, at the end, there is another joke with the creature and his nut as he thaws from the ice, 20,000 years later in the tropics. It's not one of the great animated features for children, but it should entertain them.

1. An entertaining story? Adventure, characters, dangers? An ecological and historical message? The blend of the humour with the serious?

2. The style of the animation, the stylised backgrounds, the puppet-like characters, 3-D use of characters in the background, the computer work, the voices?

3. The title, the opening and the close with the creature trying to store its nut, causing the glaciers to crack, falling down into the drier valley - and the irony of his being seen throughout the film trying to preserve the nut, at the end, 20,000 years later, frozen, melting, the nut going out to sea before he melted, his anger, finding the coconut, bigger and better?

4. Syd and his family, their abandoning him, the animals' migration and their going in procession south? His trying to decide what to do? Manny and his going in the opposite direction? Meeting with Syd, their going together - despite Syd's constant talk, irritation, getting in the way?

5. The humans, the attack, the plight of the mother and the baby, the mother being pursued by the tigers, her going to the waterfall, throwing herself over, saving the child, her disappearing in the river? The grief of the husband, the necklace, his having to go with the other men away from the scene?

6. The tigers, villains, sabre teeth and fierceness? The herd? The chief and his wanting the baby? Diego and his place in the herd, the fight, the pursuit of the woman? The tigers hungry and in a pack? Commissioning Diego to follow the baby and find it and bring it back? The tigers in pursuit?

7. Diego and his confrontation of Manny and Syd? His seeing the baby, deciding to follow? His setting them up for the ambush, Manny saving him from falling over the cliff? His change of heart, willing to give his life to save the baby from the tigers? His injuries? His recovery and joining Syd and Manny after they gave back the baby, their explaining to him the nature of being in a herd and caring for each other?

8. The adventures of the three with the baby, the chases, the slides, the parallels with winter sports and the way that they were visualised for adventure and comedy? The bridge, the heat, the molten lava and the volcanoes, the dangers for the animals?

9. The personality of Manny, the big mammoth, alone, seeing the sketches in the caves and their coming to life and his visualising what had happened? His irritation with Syd, coming to like him? His willingness to save Diego from death? His being cornered by the tigers, Diego saving him? Giving the child back to its father? Always remembering the child?

10. Syd, the comic character, chattering, adventures, waddling and being ridiculed? Befriending Manny, sheltering with him? The friendship with Diego? Caring for the baby? Giving it back to its father?

11. Diego, the tiger, the set-up, his being saved by Manny, his change of heart, giving his life, joining the group? The other tigers and their defeat?

12. Imagining prehistoric times, animals, humans, hunting, survival, nature and the Ice Age, the coming of heat, the reference to global warming? An entertaining serious comedy?