Rating:
Directors: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha (Co-Director)
Producer: Lori Forte
Writers: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman
The voice talents of: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Jack Black
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AGE Rating: Directors: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha (Co-Director) Producer: Lori Forte Writers: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman The voice talents of: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Jack Black |
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Review by: Ian
Golding
3/15/02
There's a lot about Ice Age to like. It's genuinely funny, the animation is pretty well done, and most importantly, it doesn't bog its audience down with pointless songs that are nothing but Oscar bait. There is no time in the film when one of the characters stop whatever they were doing and belt out a song that was written by Randy Newman. It just tells its story.
20,000 years ago, the animals are all migrating south, hoping to escape the eventuality of extinction due to the impending Ice Age. All the animals, that is, except Manfred the Mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano, and Sid the Sloth (Leguizamo). Manfred has recently lost his family to human hunters, and Sid is so irritating that his family of sloths didn't wake him up when they left to migrate. Manfred grudgingly saves Sid's life and then won't leave Mannie alone. While Mannie is trying to get away from Sid, they stumble upon a lost human baby and a saber tooth tiger named Diego (Leary). Diego's pack attacked the baby's village, and wants to bring to the baby to his pride leader (E.R.'s Goran Visnjic). Diego doesn't let on about this, and offers to help Mannie and Sid track the baby's family, who have also migrated. Together, they all face some relatively funny obstacles and meet up with some crazy prehistoric animals, including a Sqrat (half squirrel, half rat) who can't seem to catch a break in burying his prized acorn. Sqrat's antics are the highlight of the film; they are masterfully done bits of pure slapstick comedy.
Ice Age does well in that it makes the characters very endearing without going over the top for laughs. Leguizamo's Sid could have easily been very annoying, like Jar-Jar annoying, but he wasn't. He was just a goofball who understood his place in the world and accepted it. He knew he was a nuisance, but his personality played perfectly against the grumpy Manfred. Romano too was perfect casting for the film, as he led a grouchy, vexed tone to Mannie that could have easily gone too far. It's a pretty simple formula, which I will break down for you, Will Hunting style:
Easily Annoyed Mammoth( 73+6x-z/2) + Very Annoying Sloth (52 + Yx+6) = Comedy Gold.
It works well, and giving them a fairly important quest in protecting the baby helps keep them focused on the task at hand, and at the same time, allows the audience some time to get to know them better. Adding Diego to the mix reminds us exactly how dangerous this world is, and watching Diego follow an arc from pack hunter to member of a herd is gratifying, and the right message to send to kids. This is important, because after all, Ice Age is a kid's movie. While it's all well and good that adults enjoy it, kids must like it and get a good message out of it. I'm sure that some NRA whackos would disagree with me, saying that the message of the film is that hunting is bad, and it's more liberal P.C. bullshit, but who cares? It's funny to laugh at those people. The rest of us can understand that the film is actually trying to preach against all killing, which isn't exactly breaking the sound barrier in terms of themes, but hey, it's for kids.
All in all, Ice Age is a perfect
film to watch if you're tired of the same old Disney films or
are sick and tired of the seizures brought on by episodes of Dragonball
Z. The animation isn't a match for Pixar, but that doesn't
mean a thing. Pixar is the absolute best, and it's unfair to dismiss
other animation out of hand. This film may not have the visual
zeal of Toy Story or Monsters, Inc., but the story
can hold its own.
A quick post-script -- this film has a character voiced by one
half of Tenacious D, (the greatest band in the world) Jack Black.
JB is woefully underused, and doesn't bring anything to the table
from a comedic standpoint. He's completely wasted as Zeke, a member
of Diego's pack of Saber-tooth tigers. It doesn't hurt the film,
but don't go in expecting Jack to steal the show, as he does in
almost every other movie he's in, because he doesn't here.
(Note: I have changed the rating of
this film on 3/29/02 because, in retrospect, it was too low.)
Agree? Disagree? Talk about it in the forums.
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