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| Tookey's Review |
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| Released: |
2002 |
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| Genre: |
ANIMATION
FAMILY
COMEDY
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
85 |
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As in Shrek, a garrulous coward befriends a strong but lonely central character. In Ice Age it's a surprisingly fast-moving sloth (John Leguizamo) cosying up to a grouchy mammoth (Ray Romano).As in Monsters Inc, the two chums go through various trials and tribulations to return a baby to her human family. The villain of the piece (well voiced by Denis Leary) is a sabre-tooth tiger with a striking resemblance to Shere Khan, the tiger in The Jungle Book. And the emphasis on different species coming together to form an unlikely herd - a metaphor for America as a racial melting pot? - owes plenty to Disney's Dinosaur.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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The best character doesn't say a word. He's a prehistoric squirrel called Scrat (pictured), and his desperate obsession is to bury an acorn for the winter - no easy task, in a world covered in ice. In the ten minutes or so that Scrat is on screen, Ice Age is brisk, bright and hilarious. But then the other characters open their mouths, and all too often we're up to our necks in slush. Given the lead time involved in such a project, the screenplay must date if not from the Ice Age, at least from before Shrek and Monsters Inc. Unfortunately, much of it feels like a re-hash of their ideas. But though the script won't win any prizes for originality, the characters are often funny and always likeable. And there's a lot that's fresh in the animation, especially a strikingly beautiful journey through an ice cave, and a stunning attack on a human village by sabre-tooth tigers.
Best of all, Scrat the squirrel is a terrific invention, in the knockabout tradition of Chuck Jones and the Looney Tunes cartoons. He deserves to star in his own movie. Though not in the class of Toy Story or A Bug's Life, Ice Age is a creditable first attempt by Twentieth Century Fox to break into the exciting area of computer animation. It's well worth seeing, especially if you're a child.
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