Ice Age is a feature-length computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox in 2002. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson. Its sequels are called Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009). The film was originally to be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, and produced in 2D by Fox Animation Studios, but the rise of CGI animation and the failure of Titan A.E. destroyed Fox's traditional animation division, hence Bluth and Goldman transferred their duties for Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha from Fox's CGI division Blue Sky.
Plot
The film begins with a squirrel known as Scrat, who is trying to find a location to store his prized acorn. Eventually, as he tries to hide it, he causes an avalanche. He barely escapes, but finds himself stepped on by a herd of prehistoric animals. The animals are trying to avoid the Ice Age by migrating south. Sid, a clumsy ground sloth left behind by his family, is attacked by two Brontops whom he angered. Sid is soon saved by Manfred ("Manny"), an agitated mammoth who fights them off. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, Sid follows Manny. Meanwhile, Soto, the leader of a Smilodon pride wants revenge on a group of humans by eating the chief's son, Roshan, alive. There is an attack on the human camp, causing Roshan's mother to be separated from the rest. Soto's lieutenant, Diego, is sent to find and bring the baby back. Sid and Manny spot Nadia near the lake having survived her trip over the waterfall. She has only enough strength to trust her baby to Manny before she disappears. After much persuasion by the sloth, they decide to return Roshan (nicknamed "Pinky") but when they get to the human camp, the humans are gone. They meet up with Diego, who convinces the pair to let him help by tracking the humans. The four travel on, with Diego secretly leading them to an ambush. Soon they reach a cave where Sid and Diego learn about Manny's past and his previous interactions with the humans, where his wife and son were killed, leaving Manny a cynical loner.
At the end of the film, Diego, Manny and Sid battle Soto's pack and a short fight ensues. Diego fights against Soto, and Soto knocks Diego out. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manny, Diego leaps and stops Soto, who wounds Diego in the process. Manny, in vengeance, knocks Soto into a wall of rocks, where sharp icicles fall on Soto, killing him. Manny and Sid manage to return the baby to his tribe, and Diego rejoins them, as the group begin heading off to warmer climates.20,000 years later, Scrat is shown on a tropical island, with a coconut to replace his lost acorn, but as he proceeds to pack the coconut, it causes a volcanic eruption. Originally, Sid was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating Glyptodon, who unknowingly carry her off when she got caught on their backs. Later he makes it look like Diego had killed him, but she saw he was faking, so she deserted him in anger. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. The deleted scenes can be viewed separately, or in Nutty Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD.
Subplot
There is also a subplot where an animal named Scrat makes many comical attempts to bury his beloved acorn. His misfortunes include getting chased by an enormous glacier, being struck by lightning, attempting to thaw out the acorn by a fire too long so that it accidentally took the form of a kernel of popcorn, and finally getting cyronically frozen in an ice cube along with his much sought after nut. 20,000 years into the future, the ice cube washes up on the shore of an island. The sun slowly melts the cube, thawing Scrat and the ice surrounding his acorn, which is barely out of reach, and ends up being removed from the ice cube by the tide. Scrat then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits his head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Believing it to be a giant acorn, Scrat's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. He tries to pack it into the ground as he did previously with his acorns, but in the process causes a volcanic eruption. Scrat is known to be similar to the Laotian rock rat. Scrat also got his own short film entitled Gone Nutty, where he loses his meticulously-organized collection of acorns in a catastrophic chain of events occurring after ramming his acorn into the hole in the exact middle of the collection. He remains with one which is reduced to an ashen crisp after it went crashing down on him with an impact like a missile, ultimately causing the tectonic shift.
Characters
The characters are all prehistoric animals. The animals can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors. Like many films of prehistoric life, the rules of time periods apply very loosely, as many of the species shown in the film never actually lived in the same areas, let alone the same time periods.
- Manfred (Mammoth) — Ray Romano
- Sid (sloth) — John Leguizamo
- Diego (Smilodon) — Denis Leary
- Soto (Smilodon) — Goran Visnjic
- Zeke (Smilodon) — Jack Black
- Oscar (Smilodon) — Diedrich Bader
- Lenny (Smilodon) — Alan Tudyk
- Scrat (Fictional Saber-toothed squirrel) — Chris Wedge
- Carl (Brontops) — Cedric the Entertainer
- Frank (Brontops) — Stephen Root
- Rachel (Female sloth) — Jane Krakowski
- Jennifer (Female sloth) — Lorri Bagley
Reception
Sequels
- Ice Age: The Meltdown was released on March 31, 2006. The film focuses on the melting of a dam (due to, as Sid puts it at the end of the first film, Global warming) and the impeding flood.
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is set to be released on July 1, 2009 which will focus on dinosaurs coming to Earth. The teaser trailer was released with the film Horton Hears a Who! featuring Scrat and his acorn.
Animals Featured
Living Creatures
- Aardvark (red long-nosed creatures seen in the migration scene)
- Brontops (Carl, Frank, and many others in the migration) *
- Canis (guard dogs owned by humans)
- Dodo (an army of dodos were trying to escape from extinction by stock-piling watermelons)**
- Glyptodon (large armadillo-like creatures that were seen in the migration scene)*
- Synocnus (Sid and three females)
- Macrauchenia (yellow long-trunked creatures that were seen in the migration scene)*
- Mammoth (Manfred and five others seen in the migration scene)***
- Neanderthal (Roshan and his family)
- Palaeotherium (grey short-legged creatures seen in the migration scene) *
- Scrat (Laotian rock rat)
- Smilodon (Diego, Soto and other sabers)*
Animals with an asterisk were extinct by the time the movie was set. Animals marked with two asterisks are extinct now.
Dead or Frozen Creatures
- Perch (flung at Manny's face at human camp site)
- Tyrannosaurus Rex (shown in ice cave)
- Piranha (shown in ice cave)
- Amoeba (shown in ice cave as Sid's ancestor)
- Conodont (shown in ice cave as Sid's ancestor)
- Eryops (shown in ice cave as Sid's ancestor)
- Hapalops (shown in cave as Sid's ancestor)
References
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Who would've thought the ice age would be so entertaining?
Ice Age has everything an animation film needs to succeed. Firstly, it
dtgonehome from United States - 8 June 2009has an all-star cast, which as always is a futile gesture as they are
never seen by the audience and only heard; one could hire any
down-and-out from the street and hire them to do an equally effective
voice-over. Secondly, it has dozens of clichéd, repetitive and
unoriginal subplots, involving good and evil, right and wrong and so on
and so forth. Thirdly, it's got an amazingly stereotypical cast of
characters: there's the guy who's annoying and talkative, the guy who's
misanthropic and has the clichéd emotional back-story behind him, and
the guy caught between the sides of good and evil. Finally, there's the
cheesy montage of the characters' journey with a feel-good song playing
in the background found somewhere in the movie, usually around the
middle.Ice Age possesses all of these attributes, plus more. But out of this
something amazing happens, something that I never would've expected
beyond my wildest dreams and expectations. Ice Age turns out to be
good. In fact, it's better than good – it's fantastic, superb and
surprisingly wonderful. Whilst it's eclipsed by the greatness and
superiority of the animated works of a certain Pixar Animation Studios
(whose films can most definitely be considered extreme outliers), Ice
Age is a top-notch animation movie, one which manages to just entertain
us and enthral us despite being dastardly conventional.The guy who's annoying and talkative in Ice Age is Sid, an ugly-looking
sloth with the unique voice of John Leguizamo (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin
Rouge!). He's been left behind by his family in the annual migration
where all the animals (all creatures from the ice age) head south for
the winter, and from there he never shuts his mouth as he rants on
about how his family hates him, oh woe is me. Sid bumps into the
misanthropic character who has the clichéd emotional back-story behind
him, Manfred – or Manny, as he's more affectionately known. Manny is a
gigantic brooding mammoth, and is voiced by another recognisable voice,
Ray Romano (the title character of Everybody Loves Raymond). Together
they form an unlikely bond, which eventually develops into a steady
friendship, and the reason for this lies in the most unlikely of
things: an Eskimo baby.The character who's caught between the sides of good and evil is a
Sabretooth tiger called Diego, voiced by Dennis Leary. He's been
coerced by his sadistic pack leader to kidnap the baby and bring it
back to the pack to satisfy their hunger. Manny and Sid catch onto
Diego's intentions and join together to protect the baby and bring it
back to his parents; however Diego manages to persuade them to bring
him along, as a much-needed tracker. From there it's a journey from
Point A to Point B as the trio attempt to reunite the baby with his
parents, and all the while Diego is unsure on whether he should protect
the baby or follow the whims of his pack leader. And in between, as
usual, there's the cheesy montage of a snippet of the characters'
journey with a feel-good song playing in the background, somewhere
around the middle of the film.One thing that makes Ice Age unique, to a degree, is a constant subplot
which opens the film and ends it, and in between intercutting between
the main story. It follows a persevering and relentless little squirrel
dubbed 'Scrat', whose mission in life seems to be to bury an acorn,
much like a dog would bury a bone. His reasons are seemingly unknown,
as much as his attempts are futile, as Scrat can never seem to bury his
beloved acorn without causing some huge natural disaster, such as
melting polar ice-caps, earthquakes, even volcano eruptions. These
snippets are interlaced all over the movie, and add an extra dose of
humour to the film, refreshment and a break from the main story.Not that the main storyline needs any breaks. It's so typical, so
conventional and really nothing special; the only thing preventing it
being dead-on commonplace is probably its setting: the cold and
pristine landscape of the ice age. However, everything just seems to
miraculously work, and we just can't help but love the story, love the
characters and love everything the movie has to offer.What also makes Ice Age work, and helps the film overcome these
dreadful clichés, is most probably it's animation, which is
top-of-the-range and simply wonderful to look at. The studio behind Ice
Age is not Pixar or DreamWorks, as one would expect but instead from a
newcomer to the industry, Blue Sky Studios. Ice Age is their first
feature-film, and I must say I'm impressed. The quality of animation is
as good as any other 3D animated film out there today, and adds to the
already-wonderful viewing experience the film magically possesses.The gags are, for the most part, hit-and-miss, and sometimes they get
as annoying as Sid himself; however it's made up for with the great
script, lovable characters and just a wonderful feel for the film. As
you can tell it's definitely pleased me, and so there's no doubt that
it'll please it's real target audience without fail. And instead of
cringing and becoming nauseous like any other film would, Ice Age
ensures that we just brush it off and move on with the rest of the
film, with its coolness, humour and entertainment.
Greatest Movie Ever
I First Saw Ice Age On Video When I Was 8 Years Old. I Enjoyed It
gavin-thelordofthefuture from United States - 28 May 2009Though. The Only Part Is Where Those Sharp Ice Things Land On That
Saber Tooth Tiger Who Wanted To Catch The Baby So He can Eat Him.My Favorite Characters Are Sid, Manfred, Diego, And The Rest Of The
Characters. They're Well Talented By The Voice Actors Including Dennis
Leary Who Voiced A Ladybug Named Francis In 1998's A Bug's Life, And
John Leguizamo Who Played Luigi In 1993's Super Mario Brothers The
Movie. My Favorite Scene Is Where The Gang Tries To Catch The Baby In
An Ice Ride And In The End Diego Shouts "Who's Up For Round Two?!" It
Was Great.Ice Age Is The Greatest Movie Ever And I'll Always Watch It Again
Someday.
An Animated film for All ages!
One of the truly finest examples of animation in the new age of
Gunn from Minnesota - 7 May 2009computer animated films. This little film has it all, a very funny
script, delightful characters, a perfect cast of voice actors,
fantastic animation, a terrific score by David Newman, poignant scenes
and a sweet story of animals trying to survive the ice age. Ray Romano
does a great job as Manny the Mammoth, John Leguizamo is fine as Sid
the Sloth, Dennis Leary is perfect as Diego the fierce sabre tooth
tiger who learns the meaning of friendship and the character of Skrat
the wacky squirrel, voiced by director Chris Wedge, steals every scene
he's in and becomes a star. The plot involves an unlikely trio of
animals trying to deliver a lost human child back to his tribe. Kudos
to all the animators, artists, technicians and everyone else involved
in this wonderful film.
A really nice surprise!
I think too many people compare this to Monsters' Inc and Shrek in
Bethany_Cox25 from United Kingdom - 6 May 2009terms of animation quality. I also think that this film would have been
a lot more successful, had it not been released too soon to Monsters'
Inc. I thought it was a well-written film and in some case sweet too.
The animation is spot on, and when I saw it at the cinema, the whole
room were in hysterics in the first five minutes, because of Scrat, who
was one of the funnier characters. The voice work is highly
commendable, especially Ray Romano as Manny and Denis Leary as Diego.
John Leguizamo has his moments as Sid. The script was well written,
very funny, but sometimes especially towards the end, when the humour
could have been more focused. I actually liked the sentimentality
brought into the story. The baby, is one of those characters you love
or hate, I warmed to him, but i never empathised with him. Although, I
was really moved by the bit where Manny is seen staring at the drawing
with the hunters killing mammoths. Anyway, the music score was perfect.
All in all, a funny and sometimes touching picture, that had a tendency
to get a bit slow, but overall this is misjudged by people. 8/10
Bethany Cox
Everybody SHOULD love Manny,
I have never understood the popularity of "Everybody Loves Raymond" nor
tyler-and-jack from Edinburgh. - 3 March 2009the appeal of it's bland star, Ray Romano. So it came as a pleasant
surprise to me when I found that he was perfectly cast here as the
voice of Manny, a woolly mammoth, in this animated movie set during the
dawning of the ice age (funnily enough). John Leguizamo, another actor
not always at his most appealing in the flesh, also delivers great fun
as Sid The Sloth while Denis Leary lends his standard growl to the role
of Diego, a sabre-toothed tiger with a sinister hidden agenda. These
three mismatched characters band together as they try to return a baby
to his distraught father and, as expected, opinions on each other are
changed and lessons learned en route.With a rather unique, stylised look to the characters and animation,
Ice Age still manages to look great throughout, despite the obvious
predominance of ice and snow. There is a quirkiness that could grate
with some but, hopefully, ends up just wrapping a standard family movie
in a fresh pixellated coat. In fact, calling this a standard family
movie is really selling it short - alongside the wealth of puns, dumb
fun, visual gags, scripted gems and sly nods to other materials are
plenty of touches for adults to enjoy and, like the best animated
features, a number of issues that are addressed without patronising
children.This movie has friendship, family, loss and loneliness . . . . and a
most unlikely "STAR" in the shape of a nut-crazy prehistoric squirrel
named Scrat.See this if you like: Ice Age 2, Robots, The Emperor's New Groove.
Pages: [85] 84 83 82 81 80 79 78 77 76 75 … 1 » Show All
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