Well, what do you know? 20th Century Fox DID it!

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2002)

I went to see "Ice Age" out of curiosity and boredom only. I thought, "What the heck, let's go see it." I didn't have terribly big hopes for it and just thought it would be merely a slightly passable hit which would be mildly successful because of the lack of animated films otherwise out in theaters at the time of this writing.
But what do you know? The great news is that 20th Century Fox has managed to pull a winner out of its bag on their very first outing!
Although the plot won't win any huge awards for originality, it's beside the point: the fun here is with the wildly zany, energetic direction that the film takes in getting from A to B. Unlike the horrendous "Shrek", which was basically a bunch of childish gross-out jokes attached to an extremely juvenile attempt to mock Disney (which was so limp that it ended up being the motion picture equivalent of scribbling dirty pictures and wisecracks all over a bully's photo in his high school yearbook), this one is guaranteed to appeal to ALL ages and not just those who haven't yet outgrown the buttcrack/fart stage. This is because "Ice Age" is written with a very adult, sly and sophisticated sense of humour that hasn't really seen much of the light of day since the original Looney Tunes creations, gags which grow out of situations and personality as well as clever animation--NOT just cheap laughs.
The film is blessedly free of the trendy gross outs that prevails excuses for modern family comedy today. There are only three gags here (which I won't give away) which mildly approach that area--but they work because of the attitude behind them. Let me give you an idea by saying this: the stupid gross outs in "Shrek" were created by people would thought that the offensive bodily actions THEMSELVES were funny. By sharp comparison, the three in this film are funny not because of what they are, but because of the identifiable situations they are PLACED in. There's a huge difference, one that frat crowds tend to be all too late to realize until they hit the emotional equivalent of puberty.
I'd be tempted to say that it was created as a tribute to the now-late Chuck Jones if it weren't for the fact that it's been in the works since long before his death. I say this because it pays such a huge and loving tribute to the classic WB studio. It's no coincidence that the little squirrel-like character who spends all his time trying to hide an acorn is created with a facial structure and expressions which are almost identical to Wile E. Coyote's.
And speaking of facial expressions...well, the ones here put "Shrek" to shame. They are wild, cartoony and even manage to outdo the emotions expressed in even Pixar's creations. This film KNOWS it's a computer-animated cartoon as opposed to a computer-animated "feature film", so it goes for broke with fantastic exaggerations that would do the Old School proud. Even its gorgeous backgrounds refuse to take themselves too seriously, sporting a cartoonish surrealism that echoes Maurice Noble.
My only complaint is that, as with "Shrek" and the Pixar films, the people STILL tend to look awfully plastic. But that's such a minor quibble concerning this film, because its only main concern is to provide audiences with the best time watching a comedy that they've seen all winter. And it succeeds terrifically.
Take the kids, take your parents--heck, take your grandmother. Everyone will get a kick out of this gem.
(NOTE: Why slap a PG rating on a film that has virtually nothing any more objectionable in it than Disney's current G-rated animated features?)