Ice Age Review

Hello and welcome back to Mesozoic Mind. Today, with winter bearing upon me where I live, we are reviewing a fitting filmthat has turned 20 this year from the age of the mythical format known as the VHS tape, a bulky and hardy format in plastic and celluloid, which was an endangered species in the early 2000's, as well as the subsequent film series that I followed (but got progressicely worse the further it wenr).


If you haven't seen the movie like I have, Blue Sky's (RIP to them) Ice Age (2002) tells the story of three different stranger mammals, a Mammoth named Manny (Ray Ramano), a ground sloth named Sid ((John Leguizamo), and a Sabretooth cat named... Diego (Denis Leary). They are all brought together amidst a giant migration by a younng neanderthal baby (while not named in the film, is named Roshan) orphaned in a sabretooth cat attack on his tribe, and they agree to return it to them before they can leave, but have to dodge the pack who want to eliminate the humans.

In terms of contexualising the film, Ice Age came out in the early 2000's at a time when interest cenozoic life, and Ice Age was peaking. Think about how many documentaries about frozen mammoth mummies and human evolution came out around the time, to rival even ones about dinosaurs in number (including yes, Walking with Beasts).

Accuracy is evidently not the film's main focus, with species from throghout the Cenozoic and around the world stuck into a Pleistocene setting never specified if Eurasia or North America, from Moeritherium to Dodos to Macrauchenia and Glyptodonts, and the designs of them are highly cartoonish and stylised. Due to the intentional cartoonishness, I can't really get into the specifics without looking pendatic (beyond maybe the trunked Macrauchenia as opposed to big noses), so moving on.

The humour is generally good, which is why I rewound the tape a lot to watch many of them over and over. The scene in the ice caverns with the three slipping around trying to catch a slipping-away Roshan is in particular the best in the film IMO. However, Hot take: I do not find Scrat all that funny. His scenes are distracting from the plot and get tiring quick for me.

The story, while not as deep as other animated films and mostly a vehicle for gags, is fairly straightforward and enjoyable, with little in the way of detours. The emotional scenes, like meeting Roshan and his mother, the cave painting sequence, and the final encounter are also well done, as the films knows to keep its characters quiet during them, making for some hauntingly beautiful ones. Meanwhile, I love Diego's character arc, going from merely being another member of the sabretooth pack using Roshan, Manny, and Sid for his own purposes to caring about them.

The CG holds up fairly well, whether its the cartoonish art style or the lighting effects bouncing off the ice and snow.  Speaking of the former, you can tell a lot of the film takes influence from early 20th century palaeoart for the stylised designs, like Charles R. Knight and Zdenak Burian. It's nice is what I'm saying.

The music is also good, whether its by Thomas Newman, or yes, the travel montage with Rusted Root's "Send Me On My Way". You're already thinking of the latter song, aren't you?

As for what I don't like about the film:

Some of the designs are a bit offputting, like the sabretooth cats: the way theey have oversized, sloping chins looks off. The humans are also off, given the CG limits of the time (hence why for a while everyone joked about Roshan being an ugly demon to kill).

I find that Manny can occasionally be as annoying as Sid is due to his grumpy demeanor and downright whiny at times voice. That's only a minor complaint, though.

I rescind my praise of the jokes. Some are just unfunny rewatching them, though that might just be me. The story is admittedly isn't that deep. I feel it could have benefited from a few more serious and quiet moments.

As for how I'd improve the film... I'm instead thinking about a live-action remake. No, not like those souless Disney ones, but something more like Disney Dinosaur (also an nostalgic classic) meets Alpha (2018). It would retain the basic plot and characters, but move it to a more realistic setting like ours and be way more accurate to life.
  • Story - 8/10
  • Accuracy - 4/10
  • Aging - 8/10
  • Animation - 7/10
  • Music - 8/10
  • Overall - 8/10
Overall, Ice Age is a wonderful film classic from the early 2000's, with charm and a unique focus then just "Dinosaurs" (even if the franchise itself did feature them).

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