In the time-honored tradition of kids' films, Ice Age mixes broad displays of physical cruelty with a sweet message, which in this case is about the need of each member of a herd to look after the other.

Delivers solid laughs and thrills wrapped up in an infectious sense of character.

There's enough classically derived Road Runner-type fun to keep most family audiences happy. But the characters betray their contrivance.

After the first three wordless minutes of Ice Age, where a mute squirrel creature named Scrat hilariously struggles to bury his sole remaining acorn in a newly formed glacier, everything goes downhill.