If Ice Age is anything to go by, life on earth twenty thousand years ago was none too rosy and not just because the weather was a tad on the nippy side. It's not that we don't all like to live dangerously here in the 21st century after all, we've got cellular phones, cigarettes and . . erm . . cholesterol to contend with. But hey, at least we don't have to put up with massive avalanches, exploding lava pits and vicious packs of sabre-toothed tigers. Well, I don't at least.
So spare a thought for the three intrepid heroes of this latest computer-generated animation spectacular, brought to us by the little-known 20th Century Fox sub-division Blue Sky Studios. A woolly mammoth, a sloth and a sabre-toothed tiger (voiced by Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary respectively) form an unlikely alliance to go against the migration-grain and head north to re-unite a human baby with its knuckle-dragging family.
The animation has a distinct Looney Toons feel to it and, while Sid the sloth gets all of the best lines, it's Scrat who steals the show in his all too rare appearances. Half-squirrel half-rat (hence the name, I suppose), he pops up as a hilarious side issue making forlorn attempts to bury his last acorn.