It's another CG animated flick that is all the rage these days. You don't get much cell animation anymore except on TV and even that's rapidly going to CG. What's the gist of this one? Well, it's clearly a kids movie, and not just because it's only PG.
The plot behind this one involves our trio of mammoth, sabretooth tiger, and sloth living in a community of critters near an ice dam. The ice is melting revealing vegetation and that sort of thing, but the real danger is that ice dam. There is water behind it that will cover the entire plains where they live, especially since their environment is a big bowl that will serve to contain the water when the dam goes. So they begin a journey to a large log that will serve as a boat to ride out the flood when it comes, but while everyone else sets right off, our trio gets sidetracked by girl mammoth and her possum "brothers." Hence the romantic subplot as the mammoth believes he is the last of his species, and the discovery of this female introduces the idea that there is hope for repopulation...if he can convince her that she is not a possum.
It's got some decent humor and the characters are fun in their construction. It gets emotional in regards to the mammoth subplot, but that is only a small piece of the larger whole in this one. Some parts of the plot are a bit contrived in order to give the kids a happy ending, but it works for the most part. Of course, we still have the nut-loving Scrat, who provides interludes to the big story as he chases down his one nut, and this time, even factors into the ultimate climax of the story (albeit in a rather cheap way).
The issues in this one are rather numerous and lead to some of the plot contrivances. The main issue I had was with the antagonistic force. As the critters all set out, pieces of the ice dam had fallen into the small lake they used for water. In one of these frozen pieces were two nasty looking carnivorous fish. They were completely encased in ice, but somehow were totally on when they thawed out. In addition, this lake appeared to be walled in where the water had come down over the ice dam, but later, the trio encountered these nasty fish while crossing another frozen body of water. How'd they get there? Then again, where'd this body of water come from?
The final climax, of course, involved the breaking of the dam and the water flooding this encased plain. Given the size of the journey, and the landscape they crossed, there is no way the entire area would flood. One striking feature that would make it impossible was during the vultures' song, it is revealed that the "bowl" has a huge depression where another lake of water flows and looks more like it empties to the ocean. It also has some enormous crevasses where the water would have little hope of overflowing. Basically, given the terrain they crossed and the tense moments this terrain gave us, it would be impossible for this area to totally flood the way it did.
Some other issues are more just me and minor. The constant references to popular music got old very quickly. The vultures' song was very amusing, but since we had been force fed song reference after song reference to this point, it became just one more song thrown in among so many. Another oddity was a direct reference to the dinosaurs. None of these animals would have any memory of the dinosaurs, nor would they be able to comment about the getting sloppy.
It's a cute movie with a feel good flow to it. A lot of silly slapstick comedy, one liners, and toilet humor make the kids laugh while some subtle (and even overt) innuendo gop right over their heads, but they'll still enjoy it despite its implausabilities.
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