What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this animated feature aimed at young children seems to have more than its share of scary scenes and frightening creatures. A mother drowns while trying to save her infant. Fang-toothed tigers are continually shown in close-up while on the attack. Murderous rhinos chase the earth’s most vulnerable beings. Nature’s calamities (avalanches, erupting volcanoes) are overpowering and threaten everything in their paths. Animals are depicted as killers simply for the sake of evil, rather than as a means of survival.The human tribes featured are powerless in the face of a dangerous natural world.
- Families can talk about what Manny says about members of a herd being willing to risk their lives for each other. Why was it so important for Manny to return the baby, even though the humans had hunted his herd? How did that help to heal some of Manny's sadness?
- Why did Diego change his mind about Manny? Why did Manny change his mind about Sid? Was it because of something Sid did or because of something Manny learned about himself, or both?
- What is different about the way that Diego and Manny react to human attacks?