Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha's Ice Age (2002)

This animated movie has got to be the best one I’ve seen this year. It offers some surprisingly well developed characters in a story that is really simple, but moving. Directed by Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha, this story hits where others miss, because the characters live separate lives from their “voice” actors. John Leguizamo plays Sid the sloth, Ray Romano Manfred the Wooly Mammoth. Dennis Leary is Diego, the Sabretooth Tiger, with other voices by Jack Black, Cedric the Entertainer and Goran Visnjic.

Unlike Monster, where you can see Goodman in the character, and Shrek where Eddie Murphy and Mike Meyers are recognizable in their roles, this animation transcends the personalities of the voice stars. Besides which, it offers clever dialog and a heart warming story of a friendship that grows among a herd of three unlikely species characters, returning a human infant to his tribe.

FILM ELEMENTS

DIRECTION

Chris Wedge, who directed the animation in Joe’s Apartment, and won an Oscar for his short film Bunny in 1998, teams up with Carlos Saldanha of Blue Sky Studios. Saldanha worked on the animation for Fight Club. Together, they created a movie that shows thoughtful attention to development of characters, which aside from the visual effectiveness (which is amazing) is the real strength of this movie. The characters are complex, and interesting.

ANIMATION

This is a highly stylized animation, and the interesting aspect of the setting in the Ice Age is the deliberate reversal of the roles of animals and humans. Instead of the humans humanizing animals, the animals add life to the humans. Not once in this movie do the humans ever speak a word. Unlike animated movies where all the efforts are tuned to make characters realistic, there is no such conflict in this movie. The characteristics are simplified and exaggerated to emphasize the salient characteristics of the animals they emulate, but that is as far as it goes. It is also amazing how the background of snow and ice in the second part of the film brings enhances the building of character , as the animals get to know each other better.

The terrific animation in this movie extends to the DVD menu options, and the whole experience is fun for kids of any age.

HUMOR

this is a cleverly written script, and the comedians do get to be funny. The animals share witticisms on their coming demise, and the gags start early. In the opening migration sequence, some animal children have to be called from the tar pit, where they are “playing extinction”.

EDITING

In the original story, Sid was not a completely loveable character, and one whole character (Sylvia) was edited from the movie. Having listened to the commentary, and seen the deleted scenes, I have to say that the character that developed with the editing process is the best one. A sloth that gets left behind because he overslept is a lovable loser. A sloth who gets left behind because he is avoiding commitment is simply a loser, and isn’t entirely loveable. Unfortunately, it lends less meaning to a whole scene where Sid is joining some lady sloths in a hot tub, making it a complete dead end, only there for a few gags and some interesting animation. It is the only flaw I can find in the story, and it is easily forgiven by watching the rest of the movie.


MUSIC and SOUND EFFECTS

Music in an animation takes on incredible importance, and is a big a part of building tension and emphasizing action.
The score by David Newman , nominated for an Academy Award for Anastasia, was excellent, and the sound effects were superb. Pay attention to the ice slide sequence, for the best example.

DVD FEATURES

The two DVD set offers lots of terrific extras as well, including games, several commentaries, and the Missing Adventure of the scrat, a cross between a squirrel and a rat. The second DVD gives you several “making of” featurettes, deleted scenes and a whole lot more. Of special interest should be the Oscar Award winning short animation, BUNNY by Chris Wedge. That alone ought to be something to whet your interest.

THE PLOT

The Ice Age is forcing the migration of all animals South. But Sid the sloth has overslept, and been left behind. Manfred the Mammoth for some reason, is heading the other way. And somewhere further to the west or east, the humans are having some dramatic moments with some Sabre tooth tigers.

Sid is a lovable loser, who gets himself in trouble with a couple of rhinos who were about to eat their “last” salad together, and Manny saves him, although he isn’t thrilled about it. Sid tags along with reluctant Manfred.

The drama for the humans and tigers intensifies as the tigers attack, hoping to get the prize of the human infant for their leader Soto, intent on revenge. Instead, the mother runs with the baby, throws herself off a cliff into a raging river , and survives long enough to get the baby to shore, where it is found by Sid and Manfred. Sid talks Manny into rescuing the infant.

Meanwhile, Diego has a mission to deliver the baby to Soto, and deterred from stealing the kid, he joins the other two animals in getting the baby to the pass before it becomes impassable through ice and snow. Is he trustworthy? Is there a double-cross afoot?

Well you may have to discover this all the rest of the fun for yourself!

The real question might be, what is a scrat? Does he ever get his acorn? You’ll have to watch through the end credits to find out!

THE CAST

Ray Romano as Manfred the Mammoth. If you don’t know Ray, he is a stand-up comedian. He became a star with his TV show Everybody Loves Raymond, and he is naturally funny in this voice, but humor is not his most important characteristic. He is a friend, stands up for the little guy, protecting him because it is the right thing to do. A completely admirable character. He is an self imposed outcast because of something bad that happened to him involving humans. So this story is his story of how he finally resolves his conflict/ Perhaps the message here has more to do with forgiveness.

John Leguizamo as Sid the Sloth. Leguizamo is energetic, and becomes Sid, rather than allowing Sid to become him. I don’t care for the character most of the time, except that at the bottom of it all, he’s not a bad guy. In the end, you forgive him his less endearing qualities.

Denis Leary-as Diego-the Sabertooth tiger. Of all the characters, this one is the most complex. Unlike the others, he is part of a pack already, and is a high ranking member of that group. He is expected to act in a way consistent with his species. However, something happens which will change that, and it is the turning point in this movie. No one ever expects an animated film to end badly, but Diego is sinister enough to make it doubtful.

Goran Visnjic as Soto-The handsome actor is indeed the epitome of evil and his sinister snarl is chilling. I thought he was excellent.

Jack Black as Zeke. Zeke is the goofy greedy Sabertooth tiger. He is animated as not quite right and Jack Black adds his comedic skills to making this character, who should have been minor, memorable.

Cedric the Entertainer as Rhino-Although this is a small part it is one of the funniest parts of the movie as the rhinos charge Sid for stealing and eating the last dandelion.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION


If you are going to invest in only one animated family movie this year, this one ought to be on top of the list. Trust me, you’ll love this movie!