| Just as A Bug's Life was a computer-animated comedy inspired by Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai, the funny and often enthralling Ice Age is a digital re-imagining of the Western Three Godfathers. The heroes of this unofficial remake (set 20,000 years ago, during the titular Paleolithic era) are a taciturn mastodon named Manfred (voiced by Ray Romano), an annoying sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), and a duplicitous saber-toothed tiger, Diego (Denis Leary). The unlikely team encounters a dying, human mother who relinquishes her chirpy toddler to the care of these critters. Hoping, against all odds, to return the little guy to his migrating tribe, Manfred and his associates need to establish trust among themselves, not an easy thing in a harsh world of predators, prey, and pushy glaciers. Audiences that have become accustomed to the rounded, polished, storybook look of Pixar's house brand of computer animation (Monsters, Inc.) will find the blunt edges and chilly brilliance of Ice Age--evoking the harsh, dangerous environment of a frozen world--a wholly different, and equally pleasing, trip. Recommended for ages 4 and up. --Tom Keogh |
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 Super cool movie the same as before |
| Review Date: March 24, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Wayne Klein, My Little Blue Window, USA |
Another re-release for "Ice Age" (this is the third counting the single disc edition of the film) to coincide with the sequel, this edition essentially is the previous two disc edition with some minor features added that don't make it any more worthwhile to pick up. The DVD ROM printables and "Scrat's Frozen Facts" appear to be the newest features on this set. Most of the featurettes are recycled from the previous edition.
No issue with the transfer per se since it is a digital cartoon this edition appears to be from the same source as the previous edition. Should you upgrade? Not if you have the previous two disc edition but if you have the single disc edition and you want the extras, this is the way to go. Sound is crystal clear with nice use of 5.1 effects.
The DVD ROM printables and "Scrat's Frozen Fun Facts" an interactive feature that can be accessed during the film appear to be the newest features on this set. The latter has behind-the-scenes clips you the film in various stages of production while also including comments from experts on natural history discussing the what scientist believe the world was like then. Most of the featurettes are recycled from the previous edition. Otherwise the commentary tracks, deleted scenes and just about everything else is imported from the previous two disc edition of the film. There's also theater money that can be presented for "Ice Age 2".
If you purchased the previous two disc set of this movie, I'd take a pass on this one. There's no improvement in this edition vs. the earlier two disc set in my mind.
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This is as cool as it gets!
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| Review Date: May 4, 2006 |
| Reviewer: lighten_up_already2, Kirkland, WA USA |
Here's why:
First, a great character driven story with a positive message. The heroes in this story don't start out as heroes at all. Sid is an annoying and rather pathetic sloth who is left behind when all his friends migrate. Manfred is a mammoth with "issues" who at the beginning is walking the wrong way for some reason. Why? Does the scene with the moving cave drawings explain this? Was his wife and offspring killed, and was he walking the wrong way to end his own life? Diego the sabertooth tiger is an order following killer on a mission.
Each of these characters grow beyond themselves to save a human baby. Sid assumes responsiblity and develops courage. Diego learns to think for himself and do the right thing. Manfred overcomes his grief and self-centerdness and endures all kinds of trials to save a baby who may grow up to be a hunter of mammoths. This is a story how anyone, regardless of how non-heroic they may be, can rise above themselves and do what is right when they have to.
Second, this DVD lets you watch the movie five different ways: Widescreen, Fullscreen, "Nutty Movie" mode where you can watch the deleted scenes as if they'd been spliced back into the movie, commentary mode, and "extreme cool" mode where you watch the movie in a window while documentary material plays in another window. How cool is that?
Third, the deleted scenes are actually very interesting. They have their own commentary too. Sylvia is a great character (a sloth girlfriend of Sid's) who was going to be in the movie but was cut out and replaced. The commentary tells why.
Fourth, the two shorts are great. Gone Nutty is more of Scrat chasing acorns, and Bunny is a brilliant short about an elderly female rabbit's last minutes of this life and the transition to the next.
And there's a lot more. It make take until the next ice age for me to get through all the stuff on this DVD! |
Ice Age Meltdown
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| Review Date: March 20, 2002 |
| Reviewer: , Idaho |
| My husband and I went to this movie afraid that we'd be looked upon as crazy adults because we weren't packing any kids. But some of our favorite actors were lending their voices and acting talents to the endeavor and we couldn't miss it. What we didn't expect was a movie so engaging that it kept child and adult alike enthralled. Comedy, drama, the reality of life, and hope encircled the silly cast of mammoth, sloth, saber-tooth tiger, and an obsessive-compulsive saber-tooth squirrel. It was a great "get-away" movie, but it was mostly just a good movie. And it answers a couple of life's mysteries. I have to tell you, we laughed and cried -- be prepared. And not one kid in the theater was disruptive -- simply because all of them were too mesmerized by this wonderful movie. Don't expect Lucas Films or Disney perfection... just expect a great time. |
Very good movie!
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| Review Date: April 7, 2002 |
| Reviewer: , |
Ice Age is an impressive attempt from 20th Century Fox to enter the world of animation (it should be worth noting that Ice Age is 20th Century Fox's final animated movie, since their animation studios has been shut down due to financial difficulties), and they succeed with flying colors. The story is very ingenious and centers on the importance of friendship as the three mammals (a sloth, a mammel, and a sabertooth tiger) return a lost baby to his tribe. The friendship between Mandfed the mammoth and Sid the sloth is very similar to that of Donkey and Shrek in "Shrek," and I enjoyed the scene where the mammals are chasing the baby through the ice caverns. And let's not forget Scrat--he definitely steals the show throughout the movie, and all because he wanted to find a place to bury his acorn.
Ice Age is fabulous, but even this movie, Shrek, and Monsters, Inc. can never top the animation in the movie Toy Story. Still, I do plan on buying the DVD of Ice Age when it comes out later this year (I'm guessing the DVD will be released during the Christmas holidays). |
Profound AND Funny
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| Review Date: July 18, 2004 |
| Reviewer: E. Karasik, Washington, DC United States |
| I got indignant when one of my favorite reviewers panned this film and decided to rise to its defense. Not only does this film work brilliantly as an allegory about bridging ethnic and cultural divides, but it is by turns hilarious and deeply touching. The story follows a group of migrating prehistoric mammals (a saber-toothed tiger which is a predator; and a sloth and woolly mammoth, which are prey species) who find a lost human infant and ultimately make the difficult and dangerous decision to reunite it with its human tribe. The personalities of all three are well developed, and their nonstop bickering is a riot. Naturally, there are many internal divisions, and the saber-toothed tiger is secretly plotting to ambush the group, but in the end the shared experience of bonding with the infant unites them. There is a highly entertaining scene where the group travels through an ice cave in which is embedded hilarious references to other life forms including extraterrestrials. There is a very touching scene in which the mammoth contemplates human pictographs of hunters killing a family of mammoths with spears, only to be comforted by the human infant in his care. The animation, especially the facial expressions for the animals, and of course the ill-fated squirrel whose attempts to gather and store nuts form a cruelly funny sub-theme, is incredibly clever. The film is just brimming with sly humor, tenderness, and witty sight-gags; I've probably seen it five times and haven't gotten bored yet. |
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