The storyline wanes towards the end and, from the kids' point of view, the whole package lacks momentum.

Carlos Saldanha's mix of race-against-time action and eco-friendly propaganda is actually an improvement on the original, not least for giving its funniest character -- acorn-hunting rodent Scrat -- a lot more to do.

In its untouched-by-human-hand way, it's not bad and, as in the first film, the funniest moments involve the half-rat, half-squirrel Scrat.

Suffering from the same troubles as Dreamworks’ Madagascar series, the Ice Age movies over-modernize their productions with hip lingo, base humor, nonsensical references, and structures them around thin storytelling.