Amazing, heartwarming, clever, hilarious, everything you could possibly want.

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2003)

Many critics and snobs say that this movie is adequate but doesn't compare with Monsters Inc and Shrek. Ice Age is much too under-estimated. It's better than Monsters Inc and just as good as Shrek. Perhaps the concept for the film may be familiar to the other two, but they were all in production at about the same time so you can't blame them for that.
It is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny and is always consistently entertaining. The visual gags and the wit should appeal to adults and children of all ages. While in Toy Story 2, serious scenes dragged the film down and made it lose momentum, in Ice Age moments of sentamentality are heartwarming and engaging. But if you have problems with your inner-child, thats not my problem.
The cast may not be as well known as the vocal talents in Shrek, they still work perfectly together. Ray Romano exceeds Mike Myers (whose evident flaws were overlooked) as being the loner-like but lovable mammoth (Shrek was an ogre) and was highly appropriate for the part. No one will EVER match Eddie Murphy as the talking donkey, but John Lequizamo is a good contender as the comical sloth. Denis Leary is also very good. ER's Goran Visnijc is more of a Gene Hackman in "Antz" than a John Lithgow in "Shrek", and gives the film a darker mood instead of more comedy, which is fine in its own way.
It follows a familiar outline, but Ice Age is always entertaining and definitely the best animated movie of 2002. 8.1 out of 10.