The Ice Age is an extraordinary story of loyalty, friendship and sacrifice, colored with a light sense of humor and aesthetic graphics. All this meant that this animation not only gained the title of “cult”, which will be remembered by many viewers, but also has many continuations and nominations for prestigious awards.
Initially, the characters we meet do not have much in common. Mamut Maniek considers his later companion, Sid, to be a slightly less intelligent creature, and Diego is hostile to the rest of the film for much of the film. Everything changes, however, during the joint journey initiated by the accidental finding of a human infant. Maniek, together with Sid, the sloth, undertake to safely lead the child back to the human “herd”. These plans are thwarted by Soto, a representative of the saber-toothed tiger species. Hiding a grudge against the infant’s father, who hunted saber-toothed tigers along with other hunters, he wants to take revenge by killing the baby. This task is delegated to Diego, who by trick joins Sid and Mańek. He proposes to the heroes that he will lead them to a place where people live. As she travels, she unexpectedly becomes very fond of her companions, and eventually betrays her herd to protect her new friends. Eventually, Soto is killed and Diego is seriously injured in fighting him. Everything ends well when the baby is safely brought back to the family. During the cutscenes, we also observe the adventures of a certain Squirrel who, by saving his acorn, initiated the advent of the real Ice Age.
The international premiere took place on March 15, 2002, but in Poland the film could be watched from June 7. The animation was directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, and the script was written by Michael J. Wilson and Michael Berg. In the Polish language version, we could hear Wojciech Malajkat as Manek, Cezary Pazura as Sid and Piotr Fronczewski who played Diego.
