Ice Age Review
by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)March 18th, 2002
Susan Granger's review of "ICE AGE" (20th Century-Fox)
With its first full-length, digitally-animated feature, 20th Century-Fox joins Disney and DreamWorks in the ever-growing race for the family audience. This adventure revolves around a trio of prehistoric, sub-zero heroes - Manfred, a moody, misanthropic mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) who refuses to join the southern migration; Sid, a manic, loquacious Sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo); and Diego, a sneaky saber-tooth tiger (voiced by Dennis Leary) - traveling together on a perilous quest to reunite an abandoned baby with its human tribe while the daunting and dangerous forces of nature close in around them. "We're the weirdest herd I've ever seen," comments Sid. The most amusing, diverting character is Scrat, a hapless saber-tooth squirrel-rat (voiced by director Chris Wedge) who inadvertently cracks a glacier while trying to bury an acorn and is obsessed with his precious nut. And the most sinister is Soto (voiced by Goran Visnic), leader of the lean, mean saber-tooth tigers. The original computer-animation by the artists of Blue Sky Studio, located in White Plains, NY, is more hard-edged and realistic, perhaps, than usual but it suits the theme of teamwork & trust in this frosty setting. Particularly impressive - and appreciated by the young audience - is the exciting ice funnel-slide sequence. Writers Michael J. Wilson, Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman's returning-a-lost-child-to-its-family plot is similar to "Monsters Inc." but that shouldn't bother kids at all, particularly since the voice work is so effective. Nor will the fact that they've seen many of the funny gags and one-liners on the TV commercials. So on the Granger Family Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Ice Age" is a slick 7. Cool.
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