Movie Type: Family-Oriented Adventure, Prehistoric Fantasy
Themes: Missing Persons, Daring Rescues, Survival in the Wilderness
Main Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
A team of "sub-zero heroes" band together to save a human infant in this digitally animated feature from Oscar-winning director Chris Wedge, whose unique lighting software (called "Ray Tracing") sets his visual style apart from earlier CGI efforts. Twenty thousand years ago, the Earth is overrun by freezing temperatures in an Ice Age that is sending all manner of critters scattering in the path of encroaching glaciers. When a lost human infant is discovered, an unlikely quartet of misfits forms to return it to its mother: Manny, a depressed woolly mammoth (Ray Romano); Sid, a fast-talking sloth (John Leguizamo); an acorn-crazed squirrel named Scrat (Wedge); and the devilish saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary). Before they can complete their mission, the reluctant compatriots will brave pits of boiling lava, dangerous caverns of ice, and even a traitorous plot within their midst. Ice Age (2002) also features the voices of Jack Black, Jane Krakowski, and Goran Visnjic. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
Riding a wave of good feeling toward animated films, The Ice Age made a jaw-dropping $46 million in its opening weekend, in turn setting a new March record and reversing the fortunes of Fox's animation wing following the disappointing Titan A.E. (2000). An instant contender for the 2002 Best Animated Feature Oscar, The Ice Age can be viewed as derivative in its approach nonetheless. The central relationship between a dyspeptic woolly mammoth (Ray Romano) and the talkative sloth who follows him (John Leguizamo) is Shrek all over again, their guardianship of a lost human baby has shades of Monsters, Inc., and the prehistoric migration milieu even triggers unfortunate Dinosaur flashbacks. But beyond its basic structure, which must hew closely to standard guidelines to be successful, The Ice Age is a glittering fiesta of images bolstered by clever, laugh-out-loud set pieces. The animation itself is edgier than its closest digital contemporaries, mingling styles that recall claymation and old Hanna-Barbera cartoons into a finely detailed, visually arresting patchwork. The fact that it doesn't directly resemble an existing style is rare in an industry where imitation is not only commonplace, but expected (see Dreamworks' first forays into Disney-style animation). The film's great running joke finds a squirrel chasing an acorn between converging glaciers, avoiding extinction in improbable ways. It also scores with set pieces in which the characters slip down a sort of ice cavern water slide, and steal melons from a band of apocalypse-fearing dodos, who have a hard time staying alive. The Ice Age shows mastery of how to underuse its dialogue, as well, including the fascinating choice to leave the humans voiceless. The comic relief role usually has a high irritation quotient, but Leguizamo's lispy, slurring voice is surprisingly tolerable. And the moments of complete silence are the most notable, as when a wall of cave drawings recounts the sad loss of the mammoth's family. The complete package is one of the more satisfying, not to mention technically accomplished, family movies to come along in years. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
James Bresnahan - Animator, Michael Thurmeier - Animator, David Newman - Conductor, Chris Wedge - Director, Carlos Saldanha - Director, John Carnochan - Editor, Christopher Meledandri - Executive Producer, David Newman - Composer (Music Score), Brian McEntee - Production Designer, Lori Forte - Producer, Sean Garnhart - Sound/Sound Designer, Michael J. Wilson - Screen Story, Peter Ackerman - Screenwriter, Michael J. Wilson - Screenwriter, Michael Berg - Screenwriter, Dave Walvoord - Supervising Technical Director
The film begins with a squirrel known as Scrat, who is trying to find a location to store his prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to hide it, he causes an avalanche. He barely escapes, but finds himself stepped on by a herd of prehistoric animals. The animals are trying to avoid the ice age by migrating south. Sid, a clumsy sloth left behind by his family, is attacked by two Brontops whom he angered. Sid is soon saved by Manfred ("Manny"), an agitated mammoth who fights them off. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manny. Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of a Smilodon pride wants revenge on a group of humans by eating the chief's son, Roshan, alive. There is an attack on the human camp, causing Roshan's mother to be separated from the rest when she falls over a waterfall. Soto's lieutenant, Diego, is sent to find and bring the baby back. Sid and Manny spot Roshan and her mother near the lake, having survived her trip over the waterfall. The mother only have enough strength to trust her baby to Manny before she disappears. After much persuasion by the sloth, they decide to return Roshan (nicknamed "Pinky") but when they get to the human camp, the humans are gone. They meet up with Diego, who convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to an ambush. Soon they reach a cave where Sid and Diego learn about Manny's past and his previous interactions with the humans, where his wife and son were killed, leaving Manny a cynical loner. At the end of the film, Diego, Manny and Sid battle Soto's pack and a short fight ensues. Diego fights against Soto, and Soto knocks Diego out. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manny, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manny, in vengeance, knocks Soto into a wall of rocks, where sharp icicles fall on Soto, killing him. Manny and Sid manage to return the baby to his tribe, and Diego rejoins them, as the group begins to head off to warmer climates.
There is also a subplot where an animal named Scrat makes many comical attempts to bury his beloved acorn. His misfortunes include getting chased by an enormous glacier, being struck by lightning, attempting to thaw out the acorn by a fire too long so that it accidentally took the form of a kernel of popcorn, and finally getting frozen in an ice cube along with his much sought after nut. 20,000 years into the future, the ice cube washes up on the shore of an island. The sun slowly melts the cube, thawing Scrat and the ice surrounding his acorn, which is barely out of reach, and ends up being removed from the ice cube by the tide. Scrat then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits his head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Believing it to be a giant acorn, Scrat's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. He tries to pack it into the ground as he did previously with his acorns, but in the process causes a volcanic eruption, mirroring the opening scene when Scrat causes a break in the ice with an acorn.
The characters are all prehistoric animals. The animals can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors. Like many films of prehistoric life, the rules of time periods apply very loosely, as many of the species shown in the film never actually lived in the same time periods or the same geographic regions.
Ice Age was released into theaters on March 15, 2002 and got a 78% approval rating on the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, out of 131 reviews.[1] Similar site Metacritic had a score of 60% out of 31 reviews.[2]
The film had a $47.9 million opening weekend, a large number not usually seen until the summer season, and way ahead of Fox's most optimistic projection of about $30 million. Ice Age broke the record for a March opening (first surpassed in 2006 by its sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown) and was the then-third-best opening ever for an animated feature—after Monsters Inc. ($62.6 million) and Toy Story 2 ($57.4 million).[3]Ice Age finished its domestic box office run with $176,3 million and grossed $383,2 million worldwide, being the 9th highest gross of 2002 in North America and the 8th best worldwide.[4]
Ice Age: The Meltdown was released on March 31, 2006. The film focuses on the melting of a dam (due to, as Sid puts it at the end of the first film, Global warming) and the impeding flood.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was released on July 1, 2009. The film focuses on dinosaurs being discovered underground.
