This 2002 animated movie was a box-office success making $383.3m at the box office on a budget of $59m. I have to admit that I contributed to that as well. I went to see this movie with an ex-girlfriend and we hadn’t been together that long and getting emotionally attached to some cartoon characters was nearly too embarrassing to cope with at the time. This film got my emotions involved and although she didn’t enjoy this too much I did and kept it for myself. It was so successful that it spawned a sequel and then movies after that one as well.
The story as I remember it is about the oncoming ice age which means all the animals have decided to migrate to find warmer climates and save themselves and their species. Humans are attacked by a pack of Smilodon (sabre tooth tigers to you and me) to save the baby a mother falls off a waterfall carrying her baby. Sid the Sloth has taken up with Manny the Mammoth to leave the cold weather and sticks with him more for protection than anything else. The mother sees both as she is washed up on the banks of the river and with pleading eyes gives them her baby. Sid see this as a mission for him and Manny to deliver the baby back to the human tribe. Diego is part of the gang that attacked the humans and is on the trail of the baby and tries to get the mammoth and the sloth to give up the child. Diego decides to join them and the three set off to deliver the baby back to the hunters/humans. All the while Diego has his own motives for the human child and his pack is expecting a delivery of their own. I know it’s not strictly the correct way around but Diego goes a bit of the Oslo Syndrome and starts to care about his new pack off Tiger, Sloth and Mammoth. They go on many adventures and have some good laughs on the way as well, all in the aid of a baby child.
I may have already done the summing up of this movie in the first paragraph I loved this movie at the time and found myself emotionally attached to the three main characters. They make a decision to save another species not for their own benefit but through a duty they have taken themselves. From memory the humans do not speak a word in this movie and you find yourself cheering for the animals over the humans anyway. Near the end when the hunters turn up with spears and weapons to go Mammoth hunting you feel for Manny not the hunters. It maybe that reason or the fact that I give movies more slack when at the cinema but I enjoy it and I would be confident you would too and we are pretty close to that perfect score as well with me being the lowest at 73% whilst IMDb had 7.5/10 and rotten tomato’s giving it the highest score at 77%. So, if you haven’t seen it you go and enjoy it and your kids will too (doesn’t matter their age) and I haven’t even mentioned Scrat who is a lovely little side tale to enjoy alongside the main story.
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