The moral of the story is look after your nuts! (Ice Age (DVD))

Member Name: Judgee

Product:	Ice Age (DVD)
Date:	31/03/02 (353 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun

Disadvantages: Not so colourful

The popularity of animated films has increased substantially in the last couple of years. Shrek and Final Fantasy really started the ball rolling and the recent release of Monsters inc helped keep this fairly new format in the spotlight. I have seen all of these films, mostly under duress. Until recently, I did not want to go and see what I considered children's films and viewed them after a lot of arm twisting. I say until recently because prior to watching Monsters inc, a trailer was shown and I took an instant liking to it. This trailer was of course for the latest animated/computer generated film to hit the big screen, Ice Age. Something about the trailer made me giggle and ultimately led to me paying a final visit to my local cinema, which unfortunately is closing down shortly. Anyway, despite my sadness at the loss of the cinema where I went to see Star Wars, Ghostbusters and all those other great films that went on to be classics, Ice Age really cheered me up! Have I gone soft, or was it a good film? Read on to find out more!


Voiceover cast/Characters

Ray Romano - Manfred
John Leguizamo - Sid
Denis Leary - Diego
Goran Visnjic - Soto
Jack Black (I) - Zeke
Tara Strong - Roshan


The Ice Age is coming and any creatures, great or small head south in an attempt to find a warmer climate. An ice age tribe prepares to move the village to warmer climes too, but unbeknown to them they are being watched by Soto, an evil Sabre toothed tiger hell bent on revenge. The villagers killed many of his pack and he is determined to get his own back, in particular he has his eye on a baby in the village, whom he feels would not only make a very tasty snack but a fitting target to exact his revenge.


Ambushing the villagers, Soto sends Diego his right hand tiger to sneak around the back of the village to steal the baby. Diego is discovered by the baby's mother, who attempts to esca
pe with her child. Backed into a corner she is forced to jump off a cliff into a waterfall. She survives long enough to bring her baby to shore and then subsequently dies. Fortunately for the baby, not all the animals have headed south and he is discovered by Sid and Manfred .


Sid is a Sloth and a mouthy one at that. Forgotten by his friends and relatives in the big move south, he wanders around aimlessly and accidentally annoys two Rhinos. The Rhinos decide to give Sid a beating and but for the intervention of Manfred, would have been severely injured if not killed him. Rescued from a battering by Manfred or Manny as he is referred to, a kind if somewhat moody Mammoth. Sid and Manny team up and it is shortly after this that they discover the child.


Sid decides that they should take the baby back to the villagers. Manny is not so sure, he has had dealings with people before and none of them were good. At first Manfred starts to walk away and it is not until Diego turns up that he changes his mind. He knows Diego has some nasty plans involving the child and eventually decides to help the baby.


Diego convinces the pair that he can help them track down the villagers who have just left for warmer climes. Manfred is sure that Diego is plotting something but feels it is better to have the Tiger somewhere he can keep an eye on him. The three set off to find the villagers, baby in tow and this is where the story takes off and I will say no more on this to allow people to see the film for themselves. What I will say is that there is a Sabre toothed squirrel who pops up from time to time, desperately trying to find a place to hide his nut. Watch out for him, he is hilarious!


The voiceover cast is brilliant. I have to admit that I had never really heard of Ray Romano as the grumpy yet caring Mammoth Manny, but it is a name that I will look out for in the future. I believe he may be quite popular on American television but
that is all I know. I am a lot more familiar with John Leguizamo. Die Hard 2 (1990), Carlito's Way (1993), Super Mario Bros. (1993), Spawn (1997) this guy has been in a lot of films, far too many to mention them all. He is not a novice when it comes to voiceovers either. You might recognise his voice as a Rat in Doctor Dolittle (1998). Very similar in his style to that of Eddie Murphy. His voiceover as Sid the Sloth really steals the show. The only other voiceover particularly worth mentioning is that of Denis Leary as Diego. All through the film I thought it was the voice of George Clooney, they just sound so similar! Oh and watch out for a character called Zeke voiced by Jack Black who recently starred as Hal in Shallow Hal.


The animation is great also. Some might think it is a bit bland compared to the multicoloured Monsters inc but it is set in at the beginning of the ice age! The shading and textures are crisp with the main characters animated in a very cartoony type way. Just imagine what road runner would look like with todays technology and it will give you a good idea of what to expect. Some of the detail in the backgrounds is fantastic, watch out for the splashes when one of the villagers runs through water and also look out for the water animation itself which looks almost real in some shots!


The humour in this film was very much to my taste. Again like Monsters inc a lot of it is cutsie humour involving scenes with the baby that will make you go "aaaaaah!". But there is also a lot of great one liners. The squirrel sequences really tickled me though and for me they made me laugh the most. Children in the cinema seemed to like it too and quite often I could hear tiny sniggers all around!


Overall I loved it. I failed to fidget in my seat once and the film seemed to fly by. I guess it is very much down to personal taste when it comes to the recent run of animated films but for me this was the best. It
took my mind off the closure of an old friend, my local cinema and at least the last film that I will ever see there was a good one. Thoroughly recommended for young or old viewers, what are you waiting for, go see it now!



Check out the Official Website, it's a bit slow loading but a few nice games for the little 'uns:

http://www.iceagemovie.com/

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