Humour, touching moments, action, and great animation make this a worthwhile CGI film

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2009)

After Pixar and DreamWorks Animation had made successful CGI animated movies, Blue Sky Studios, another computer animation company, made their feature-length debut with this 2002 blockbuster, "Ice Age". Even though this was apparently both a critical and box office success, and has spawned two sequels since then, it took me years to finally get around to seeing it. I'm not exactly sure why, since I've been aware of its existence for a few years now and saw "Robots" nearly four years ago and "Horton Hears a Who" last year. However, despite how long it took me to finally watch it after all these years, I now have seen it. Aware of its popularity beforehand, the movie did not fail to meet my reasonably high expectations.
The story takes place many thousands of years ago. An ice age is coming, and animals are migrating south to escape the increasingly cold weather. A goofy, motormouth sloth named Sid wakes up to find that his family has migrated without him, and he is alone. As he tries to migrate on his own, he meets two rhinos and accidentally angers them. They want to kill him, but as he runs from them, they are fought off by a woolly mammoth named Manfred, whom Sid calls "Manny." Sid begins to follow Manny, even though the mammoth finds him annoying and wants him to go away. Nearby, saber-toothed tigers invade the camp of a human tribe in an attempt to eat an infant as an act of revenge! The mother of this infant runs away with him and jumps into a river, leading her to Sid and Manny. Manny saves the baby just before his mother drowns, and the mammoth and sloth must attempt to get him back to his father. Diego, one of the tigers who attacked the camp, helps the two, but what they don't know is that he is leading them to a trap!
The animation here is amazing, which is often the case in these CGI films. They developed some beautiful imagery of frozen land. I didn't like the way the humans were animated as much as the way the animals were, but animation-wise, I definitely can't complain about anything else. There's a lot of humour in the film, often thanks to the goofy antics of Sid, voiced by John Leguizamo (though other characters can also be very funny as well), and the comical situations and conflict the main characters get into on their adventure. The subplot with a squirrel named Scrat trying to bury his acorn in various places is also pretty funny, if you like physical humour. Around the beginning, it may look like the film relies mainly on the animation and laughs for entertainment value, but as it goes on, it proves this isn't quite the case. There are some good action sequences, and eventually some touching moments and good morals, which it wouldn't be the same without. Of the three main cast members, Leguizamo was the only one I wasn't familiar with, and he does a nice job with his voice-over. There's also good voice acting from comedians Ray Romano (Manny) and Denis Leary (Diego).
Since they started making full-length computer animated movies in the 90's, I've seen many that have come out over the years, and have found that some are masterpieces while others are basically average (haven't seen any terrible ones, though it takes a lot to make a movie terrible to me). Like a number of others I've seen, this one comes somewhere in between, but fortunately comes closer to the former. I guess I can see why this 2002 release doesn't have appeal as wide as several Pixar efforts do, but can also see why it is quite popular nonetheless. "Ice Age" was a good way for Blue Sky Studios to make their feature-length debut, and they have since gone on to do more good stuff. This movie has a simple but effective plot, plus a lot more to entertain viewers of different ages, making it another example of good family entertainment. Regardless of your age, if you like computer animation, this particular film probably isn't one to miss.