Ice Age

By Megan Spears
Staff Writer

Although this movie will never receive top honors for comical genius, 20th Century Fox’s prehistoric epic “Ice Age” has enough comical punch to entertain viewers of all ages.
Over 20,000 years ago, the Earth was being overrun by ice, and creatures of every kind were fleeing the damage that will surely be caused by the new Ice Age.
The movie “Ice Age” is centered around three eccentric animals, a mammoth, a sloth, and a saber-tooth tiger, on a journey to reunite a human baby with its father. Every few scenes, a saber-tooth squirrel-rat hybrid named Scrat appears to meddle in the heroes’ adventures as he tries with no avail, to bury his nut in the ice. The three must brave boiling lava pits, treacherous ice caves, freezing temperatures and a secret, evil plot to become the new world first heroes.
The cast includes such heavy-hitters as Ray Romano as Manfred the mammoth, John Leguizamo as Sid the sloth and Denis Leary as Diego the saber-toothed Tiger. Other mentionable stars include Jack Black, Cedric the Entertainer, Jane Krakowski and Goran Visnjic.
Some of the best scenes in the movie are when Scrat is in rabid pursuit of his acorn. The squirrel-rat hybrid is reminiscent of some famous Looney Toon characters such as Wile E. Coyote.
Although the movie is mostly a comedy, there are a few sad moments to balance out the comical adventure taken by the four animals. Sid the Sloth has not migrated south yet because his family left him at home after he overslept. Manfred is the one unique animal in the bunch. Manfred was heading north when the Ice Age began because he felt he has no reason to live. Hunters kill Manfred’s wife and child shortly before the oceans began to freeze. He was heading north to die before he joined up with Sid to return the human child.
One way to gage how popular a PG movie will be is whether or not it keeps an older audience entertained for the duration of the movie, and Ice Age has enough comical moments to keep viewers of all ages interested.
The movie is an animated collaboration between 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studio. This is Blue Sky Studios’ first attempt at an animated, feature-length project. The movie is rated PG and runs approximately 80 minutes.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 5 2002. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry