A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Ice Age

Date Viewed: 3/18/02

Details:

Voice talent: Ray Romano (Manfred the Mammoth)

John Leguizamo (Sid the Sloth)

Denis Leary (Diego the Sabre-Toothed Tiger)

Peter Ackerman (Dodo / Freaky Mammal)

P.J. Benjamin (Dodo)

Josh Hamilton (Dodo / Glypto)

Director: Carlos Saldanha & Chris Wedge (who also "voiced" Scrat and some of the dodos)

Score: +

The Review: How did the Ice Age start? Your guess is probably wrong, if the evidence presented here is any judge; you were given a clue if you saw the trailers to this amusing animated feature.

This film is about character and dialog. Combine a grumpy mammoth who is walking against the crowd (think about it: why?), with a clueless sloth whom even his family and relatives abandon in the annual migration, throw in a human baby that needs either entertainment or rescue, and a hungry cat with a conscience -- and stir vigorously with not a few bit characters worth a short cartoon in themselves. Misfits not so anonymous.

There are some very weird looking critters in the opening migration scene (I like what might be a mutant anteater); the artists looked like they were having fun. The dodos are wonderful and delightfully schizo (if a bit anachronistic); it's a shame they aren't on stage for longer, but there's a good reason (or three).

Quick sight gags proliferate, and everyone has their favorite: mine is the spatial recapitulation of phylogeny in the frozen ice cave, with Sid as the culmination (although the saucer is pretty good, too). Insider (and not so subtle) references to movies and shows also abound: look for Knute Rockney, Lord of the Dance, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, and the X-Files (and I've probably missed many others).

Not quite Pixar quality, but this animation is still quite good. Surrealistic winter landscape reminiscent (in design) of the desert scenes for the Roadrunner cartoons.

Once you get past the dodos, the scrat (a cute obsessive scrawny little critter combining features of both a rat and a squirrel) steals the show in his never-ending pursuit of "his" acorn, lending a sort of Wylie Coyote aspect to his appearances. You look forward to each snippet with the same twisted humorous sense you had while waiting for W.C. to take the fall yet again. He is on screen much too little; so start up the cheers, "More scrat! More scrat!"

The sketchy cartoon illustrations accompanying the closing credits are surprisingly good; they look like throwaway character sketches by a 3-year old, but they capture the characters quite well.

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