Lately, it seems you can't turn around without seeing another animated kid's film appear on a movie theater marquee. Disney and Dreamworks have the market on this genre pretty well cornered, but Fox's "Ice Age" shows that there's definitely room for more cartoons on the big screen.
"Ice Age" is a thoroughly charming computer animated spectacle with plenty of slapstick humor and goofiness for the kids and a handful of clever, more sophisticated jokes to keep the adults engaged.
It follows the adventures of a stoic wooly mammoth named Manfred (voice of Ray Romano), a wacky sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo) and a saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary) on the eve of a particularly grueling winter.
Sid's entire family has abandoned him to migrate south and he befriends the highly reluctant Manfred. They are brought together when they decide to return a human baby to its father after he is lost in a saber-toothed tiger attack.
Complicating this expedition is Diego, who claims to want to help find the infant's parents, but is actually planning on taking it to his pack for a main course. The three animals bond and become an unlikely trio in the midst of blizzard conditions.
The animation is strange and somewhat inconsistent. The primitive human characters have rigid, angular faces that would fit better in a Playstation game than a kid's film. This was perhaps done to emphasize their Neanderthal nature, but it doesn't quite work and their movements are jerky.
Some of the animals are totally cartoon-like and some of them are absolutely realistic, making the viewer wish there had been a more level perspective taken on the animals' appearances.
On to the good news: the sight gags come sporadically, but they're really good. There is a lengthy sequence where the animal trio battles a military of dodo birds for access to watermelons. These birds are absolutely hilarious. They surround Manfred at one point and chant in unison "Doom on you! Doom on you!" to curse him to extinction. Creepy yet hilarious moments like these are sheer dynamite.
One of the best scenes in recent animated history follows this, as Sid takes on the entire dodo troop in a reckless attempt to deliver a watermelon to the hungry baby. The slow-motion battle between a sloth and goofy-looking birds is simply transcendent.
The design of the arctic landscape is eye candy. In particular, the ice tunnel that they slide through - finding all sorts of frozen extinct species - is a fun ride.
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The film is framed by a prehistoric squirrel-like critter that sets the events in motion at the beginning and provides a humorous denouement at the end. He keeps getting crushed or sidetracked in his never-ending attempt to either bury or eat his acorn. This running gag continues all the way through the movie and, strangely, it never gets old. The viewer can't help but laugh every time the unfortunate but cute little critter comes on screen.
The vocal performances are great all around. Leguizamo gives his goofball sloth a real heart behind his silliness. Romano plays the strong mammoth with a past to the hilt. And of course, Leary is gold as the sinister tiger.
The film has a strange tone, largely due to its time period. It approaches the fact that the species it presents are largely going to die out after the ice age with irony and gallows humor to keep it from getting too morose. It seems to say that if these creatures are going to go extinct, they're going out with a laugh.
"Ice Age" definitely has a lot of intense moments. All three of the main animals are put in life-threatening situations that are fairly suspenseful. The violence also veers between being goofy and dead serious, so the kiddies may be a bit upset. Still, none of the main characters die and it ends on a happy note, so it's hard to believe that it'll upset anyone for long.
It's not as sophisticated as Pixar's animation, but Fox is relatively new to computer animated kid's flicks. This is a noble first effort. Take the kids (or the kid in you) to "Ice Age" and chill.
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