March 16, 2002 -- "Ice Age" is a cute, funny, heartwarming digitally animated feature film with plenty of slapstick humor for the kids, lots of in-jokes for the adults and heart enough for everyone.

The story chronicals the most unlikely "herd" in the history of the planet, Manfred the wooly mammoth (voice by Ray Romano of "Everybody Loves Raymond"), Sid the Sloth (Megatherium, giant ground sloth, voice by actor John Leguizamo of "Moulin Rouge") and Diego, the sabertoothed tiger (voice by Denis Leary of tv's "The Job"). The three undertake a perilous journey through a frozen landscape in an attempt to reunite a human baby with his father. While Diego has a hidden agenda on the trek, the motives of Manfred and Sid are entirely altruistic. This realization is made even more acute when it is revealed that humans killed Manfred's family. It is obvious that Manfred and Sid, at least, are acting on herd values, not human values. To humans, animals are just food, but to Sid and Manfred, the helpless baby is an animal like them, who needs to be cared for. To Diego, the baby is food, but later on, even the mighty carnivore softens his view.

Much of the comedy comes from Sid, who is way too hyperactive to be a sloth, and Scrat, a squirrel, who is periodically seen throughout the film trying to bury an acorn, with catastrophic results. Scrat is like Wiley Coyote, suffering numerous fatal injuries, but always bouncing right back for another try. Sid is a motormouth, much like Eddie Murphy's donkey character in "Shrek." He's whiny, but loveable, and his heart is in the right place. Manfred is a wonderful character, solid, virtuous, noble, dignified, compassionate, but also a bit of a curmudgeon, at least on the surface. Underneath, he's all heart, a gentle giant. Soto the Sabertooth (voice by Goran Visnjic of "The Deep End"), the leader of the sabertooth pack, is the true villain of the show. He is single-mindedly vengeful.

Much of the comedy for adults comes from numerous in-jokes. One scene has a reference to the La Brea tar pits and extinction that will probably fly right over the heads of the kiddies. Then there's the Star Trek reference to a flying saucer trapped in ice and an ice diorama of Sid's evolutionary line. There is also a funny takeoff on slow-motion sports replays. There is a pretty good balance between of jokes and sight-gags aimed at kids and jokes aimed at adults. It is a good family movie in that regard. There is the usual Hollywood feel-good message of peace, love, anthropomorphic animals and vegetarianism. There is also a message about forgiveness, caring and peaceful conflict resolution that is very nice to see. This kind of generosity of spirit would go a long way toward resolving some conflicts.

The computer animation is striking. The animation was done by Blue Skies Studios. Director Chris Wedge, who won an academy award for short animated film called "Bunny," is one of the co-founders of Blue Skies Studios. The artwork is impressive and the characters lifelike and expressive. Computer animation begins with old-fashioned drawings and clay sculptures. Then the image is computerized over a virtual skeleton and muscles to simulate realistic movement. Other computer programs are used to create realistic movements of hair, steam, water and other effects. Still other programs create shadow effects to give the images more of a three-dimensional look. Computer animation is one of the wonders of the modern age. The main strength of this film, however, is in its strong story and good character development. This film rates a B.

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