Ice Age

Twenty thousand years ago, the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and creatures everywhere were fleeing the onslaught of the new Ice Age. In this time of peril, we meet the weirdest herd of any age: a fast talking but dim sloth named Sid (voiced by John Leguizamo); a moody woolly mammoth named Manny (voiced by Ray Romano); a devilish saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary); and an acorn-crazy saber-toothed squirrel known as Squrat. This quartet of misfits unexpectedly, and reluctantly, comes together in a quest to return a human infant to his father. Braving boiling lava pits, treacherous ice caves, freezing temperatures and a secret, evil plot, these "sub-zeros" become the ice world’s first heroes!

Welcome to the prehistoric world of Ice Age, a smart, character-based comedy from Academy Award winning director Christ Wedge. Wedge won the Oscar for directing the animated short Bunny, whose realistic lighting effects gave the film a unique look, feel and organic realism.

In Ice Age, when Sid "adopts" Manny as his protector, the mammoth tries everything he can to unload his newfound baggage. But that’s only the beginning of his frustrations: Manny has been roped by Sid into helping reunite an abandoned human baby named Roshan with his family. They are joined by Diego who befriends Sid and Manny, all the while seeing the infant as a tasty treat.

As Sid, Manny and Diego make their way across the vast, ice-covered landscape, another creature, a prehistoric squirrel/rat known as Squrat, tries desperately to carry out his mission in life–to bury an acorn–which, alas, triggers calamitous events.

While Scrat wages war with the Ice Age itself over his precious nut, Manny, Sid, Diego and Roshan embark on an incredible journey. They narrowly escape avalanches, battle over food with a hapless flock of doomsday dodos, explore the mysteries of a diaper, careen through a prehistoric roller coaster of ice funnels and traverse ice bridges over lakes of volcanic lava. They become the weirdest herd of this, or any, age.

As for Squrat...He is probably still trying to retrieve that cursed acorn.

According to Wedge, Ice Age has everything, including action, humor, adventure and heart. Perhaps that explains why, when asked to offer a thumbnail description of the film, Wedge and the filmmakers have more than a few at the ready.

"It’s a comedy of peril," says the director, who at times was known to also refer to Ice Age as "three prehistorical mammals and a baby". Producer Lori Forte calls Ice Age a story about the first "dysfunctional family". Others on the production team would refer to it as a buddy picture or even a road movie–without the car, of course.

But more than anything else, Wedge insists, Ice Age is about four characters, three of which unexpectedly come together to form a family, while the fourth helps bring on an Ice Age that descends upon these characters like a curtain coming down. "Each character is on a journey for his own personal reasons, each having his own agenda. Coming together was not a situation that any of them expected, or thought they needed."

These figures and the relationships that develop between them form the heart and soul of Ice Age. When we first meet Manny, the massive woolly mammoth is walking against the tide of creatures migrating south, fleeing the onslaught of the ice age.

"Manny’s a lonely, aloof high plains drifter," says Wedge. "He’s heading north just because everyone else is heading south." Adds Ray Romano: "Manny is a bit of a misanthrope, he doesn’t really like or have the time for anyone. But his gruff exterior hides a good heart. And he has principles, so when he meets Sid, the human baby and Diego, he has to help."

A different kind of relationship is provided by the dynamic between Manny and Sid, the terminally lazy sloth who joins Manny, much against the latter’s wishes, in a journey that neither expected. "Manny sees Sid as a thorn in his side," says Ray Romano, "but Manny ultimately sees something in him. Sid brings out the good in Manny; it’s a little like an older brother/younger brother relationship."

Sid’s over-the-top antics, combined with his endearing qualities, makes him the comic core of the movie. "Sid is possibly the reason sloths got their reputation," notes Chris Wedge. "He’s a lazy guy who knows he’s about to become someone’s meal unless he hooks up with a big brother, a bodyguard, so he gloms onto Manny."

The third member of the wacky triumvirate, Diego, the saber-toothed tiger, has an agenda that has more to do with survival than striking up friendships with a woolly mammoth and a sloth. Like Manny, Diego has an acerbic quality with a heart that he has yet to be able to show. "He never knew what family is, or what friends are," notes Wedge, who conceived Diego and his fellow tigers as a militant faction of animals trying to figure out how they are going to survive the Ice Age. "We treat them like a combat unit."

Ice Age opens in Metro Manila theaters on March 30.