Ice Age Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)March 18th, 2002
ICE AGE
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Wooly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano, TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond") is trekking south when he spies a sloth in a scrape. After taking on a couple of rhinos to save Sid (John Leguizamo, "Moulin Rouge"), the usually solitary beast can't shake off his grateful companion. Meanwhile, saber-toothed Soto (Goran Visnjic, "The Deep End") is getting revenge on a human 'herd' by targeting baby boy Roshan for breakfast, but a brave mother thwarts him. Right hand tiger Diego (Denis Leary, "Final") is sent to rectify the situation,
but finds Manny and Sid planning to return Roshan to his people in "Ice Age."
Academy Award winning director Chris Wedge, whose Blue Sky Studios produced the digitally animated short "Bunny," doesn't break any new ground with his prehistoric comedy, but scores on the old-fashioned merits of entertaining characters in a simple story interspersed with Wile E. Coyote-style mayhem. "Ice Age" may recall "Shrek" with its giant beast pestered by unwanted companion and "Monsters Inc." with its baby returning plot, but it's not up to those films' standards. Still, this is a cute flick with charms of its own.
Diego sizes up the unexpected turn of events as an opportunity to make Soto doubly impressed - not only will he deliver Roshan, but he'll guide the mammoth into an ambush of salivating saber tooths. Diego makes nice and soon Roshan finds himself with an odd trio of male guardians, a filmic device used from John Wayne Westerns to French farces. The three have adventures ranging from stealing a melon from a pack of idiotic, self-extincting dodo birds to a wild slide through a glittering glacial tunnel. Of course, they bond, with Diego having a change of heart after his life is saved by a particularly selfless and courageous Manny.
The artistry of the animation is almost entirely focussed on the characters. Manny's marble eyes convey a wide range of emotion while Sid's cartoonish contortions are always slothlike. Humans are drawn more simply, resembling modern renderings of vaguely Neanderthal American Indians. Backgrounds and landscape are pretty drab in comparison, although an animated cave drawing which explains Manny's melancholy is nicely done. Blue Sky's best creation is Scrat, a prehistoric squirrel-rat whose efforts to bury his precious acorn are woven in and out of the main storyline as well as bookending the film.
Casting and voice work is spot on, with the unusual choice of Romano working surprisingly well for the majestic loner with a big heart. Leguizamo injects a bit of 'sufferin succotash' spit and sputter into Sid's spewings while Leary tames his usual roar with some smooth smokiness for the two-sided tiger.
B
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