Review: Ice Age (2002)

This is a Resurfaced review written in 2002 or earlier. For more information, please visit this link: Resurfaced Reviews.

Ice Age

Rating

Director

Chris Wedge

Screenplay

Michael J. Wilson, Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, Peter Ackerman, James Bresnahan, Doug Compton, Jeff Siergey, Mike Thurmeier, Galen T. Chu, Xeth Feinberg

Length

1h 21m

Starring

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, Cedric the Entertainer, Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader, Alan Tudyk, Lorri Bagley, Jane Krakowski

MPAA Rating

Buy/Rent Movie

Soundtrack

Poster

Review

It’s the beginning of an ice age and the animals are beginning their trek to the south for warmer climates. When a sloth and a woolly mammoth come across a lost human child, they begin a quest to return her to her parents.

“Ice Age” is the latest computer animated feature to hit the big screen. 20th Century Fox isn’t one of the giants of animation, those titles fall to Disney and DreamWorks. However, “Ice Age” is at least entertaining and that’s a point in the good column.

Ray Romano voices Manfred, a woolly mammoth who is travelling north for the ice age. Along the way he meets a lowly sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo) who’s been left behind by the other sloths. While Sid is trying to make friends with Manfred, they come across an unattended infant cascading over a waterfall. Denis Leary provides the voice for Diego, a malicious sabertooth tiger who is after the baby, but must bide his time as he accompanies the prehistoric duo.

Several encounters dot the trio’s adventures to follow the humans towards their northern home to return the child, including an engagement with a scatterbrained group of dodo birds. They’ve found the last three melons and want to protect them at all cost. They attempt to intimidate the group to keep the melon away from them and a battle ensues that leaves no time for pensiveness.

The voice talents range from enjoyable to abysmal. On the enjoyable end we find Leguizamo, a gifted thespian and talent for voices, gives the sloth a stupidity and a humanity that is necessary for the character to grow. Romano falls to the abysmal side. His character is neither interesting, nor unique. He plays it much the same as his character no the television series “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Much like Helen Hunt in her role for “As Good As It Gets,” Romano does what he needs to, but nothing beyond. He creates nothing truly original, or exceptional. Leary falls in between, his voice a suitable match for Diego. His character is the only one to go through a radical change in the film and he manages to get most of the elements right while still remaining relatively stereotypical.

The film examines the fragile relationship between different species and how a common goal can bring them together. Most of the film simply follows the buddy relationship, not any overriding social matter. “Ice Age” is a simple, modestly funny, often cliched film that never reaches a level that Disney and Pixar studios have been able to achieve.

The computer animation itself is quite good and is certainly not in question. Much like others of its style, “Ice Age” uses its graphics adequately to keep the story going. Directors Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge, as well as writers Michael J. Wilson, Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman understand how to keep an audience entertained, but in the traditional, action adventure style.

“Ice Age” is certainly an audience-pleasing film, but it doesn’t have the narrative cohesiveness to sustain itself beyond the typical.

Awards Prospects

An early contender for the Animated Picture prize at the Oscars, “Ice Age” may suffer against the DreamWorks entry this year, but it’s too early to be certain.