Reviewed by Peter Veugelaers © 2006
- You'll need a survivor pack

 The Ice Age has made way for hotter and greener weather. Manny (voice of Ray Romano), a mammoth, Diego (Denis Leary), a sabre tooth, and Sid (John Leguizamo), a sloth, realize the sunny days will have their down side when a flood is expected to pour through the valley. With their fraternity of animal friends they journey to the other side where a boat will save them if they get there before the flood gets them.

  The latest animated offering from 20 Century Fox is no where near as entertaining as Ice Age (2002) and last year’s other Fox animated offering Robots was far superior.

  Family-orientated and suitable for young children, this is dull, predictable, uneventful and quietly funny but the laughs are few. The slog through the valley to the other side is bearable because of nice scenery, not because of any lively action much. Between the Sloth’s rabid smart mouth, sabre-tooth’s rancid droll, and Manny’s Everybody Loves Raymond sleepy deep monotone there is a couple of more cutely smug than hip possums who will put you to sleep. They banter and grate one another’s nerves for sixty-odd and more minutes and add a dash of sentimentality and everyone is getting along fine.

  A secondary story about Manny’s male pride with a female mammoth (voiced by Queen Latifah) is tasteful but they make a very odd couple and it’s not just the lack of chemistry. They don’t click period, a chalk and cheese pairing as uninviting as Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins’ characters in Mrs Henderson Presents, which in the latter film had them paired for laughs. Not so in Ice Age although its more laughable.

  A movie whose best bits are comedy nods to famous moments in recent and older movies proves something is wrong with the source material. Even the crowd pleasing squirrel with the runaway nut gets overused and thrashed with numerous diversions from the plot to his plight. This has had its day but there appears to be an opportunity for another sequel.