Film Review

ICE AGE

GLOSSARY

backdrop = a setting or context
buddy/road trip = a journey along a road with a companion
dull = lacking in energy or enthusiasm
fare = manage in doing something
flick= movie
gaggle = a group of people, especially a noisy or disorderly group
quest = adventurous expedition in search of something
scheme = make a secret plan
stumble = to find or come across something by chance

Only in the unique cosmology of animation do we find a world where animals can talk... and humans cannot.
Ice Age is in many ways the archetypal animated - updated for the computer era, of course.
It's a road trip populated by quirky and characters, all on an unlikely that they'll never complete
unless they somehow manage to work together.
Ray Romano voices a burly mammoth named Manfred, who upon a lost human baby (well, homo erectus at least)
shortly after rescuing a useless sloth (John Leguizamo).
Manfred is content to leave the thing alone, but comes a saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary)
intent on taking the baby back to his pack as vengeance for his brethren killed by human hunters.
Unable to convince himself to leave the baby to the tiger (who he will return it to the humans),
Manfred and co. all venture out together as part of an uneasy alliance, while the tiger to lure Manfred into a trap
where he may become dinner for a hungry pack of tigers back home.

Considering Dinosaur was a disastrous attempt at explaining extinction and evolution to kids,
it's no surprise that Ice Age only marginally better at that task.
As a buddy/road movie, the plot is surprisingly straightforward, a straight shot (and a mere 74 minutes until the credits roll)
from introducing a gaggle of uncooperative species to the point where we are left with a scrappy little gang walking into the sunset (...of their species' existence).
Unfortunately, a straightforward plot may make this more palatable for the kids (though the one sitting behind eventually
became more interested in kicking my seat and going home than in watching "that little guy" on screen),
but it ultimately makes it a substantially experience.
There are virtually no surprises in the story - and even Romano (who is sadly miscast in a role that should have gone to John Goodman) sounds bored.
Even the animation, which admittedly makes the animals look good, monotonous, with almost every scene set against a of snow.
Snow ought to present a curious animation challenge, but in Ice Age, it has all the complexity of white paint.

Customer's review

The first film is an unexpected delight. Several mismatched animals from the Palaeolithic age of a mammoth,
a sloth and a sabre-toothed tiger end up travelling together when they come across an abandoned human child.
The comedy never lets up and the film manages to avoid descending into cutesy schmaltz as it delivers a strong story
involving the child being pursued by a pack of tigers, culminating in a moving ending.
There are numerous comic set-pieces, not all of which are relevant to the story


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