'Ice Age' is fresh, funny, richly imagined

By Margaret A. McGurk
The Cincinnati Enquirer

ICE AGE (Rated PG for mild peril) Three and One-Half Stars (Good-to-Excellent). Three prehistoric animals embark on a quest to return a human infant to his tribe in this fresh, funny and richly imagined animated comic adventure. Starring the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary. Directed by Carlos Soldanha and Chris Wedge. Twentieth Century FOX, 85 mins.

Set in prehistoric times when glaciers still scoured the earth, the movie finds a wealth of pleasure in a simple story: Three animals find a human baby and set out to return him to its tribe. The leader of the expedition is a Manfred, a heartsick woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano); Sid, a motor-mouthed sloth rejected by his family (voice of John Leguizamo); and Diego, a morally conflicted saber-toothed tiger (voice of Denis Leary).

Danger is ample; Diego's pack leader Soto (voice of Goran Visnjic) is determined to ambush the group, which must also dodge avalanches and volcanoes.

The parallel adventures of Scrat, a saber-toothed squirrel who wants only to convey one precious acorn to a safe hiding place, provide some of the movie's funniest visual jokes.

"Ice Age" is directed by Carlos Soldanha and Chris Wedge. Wedge is the maker of an Oscar-winning short film, "Bunny. His company developed the magical animation techniques that give this all-digital creation density and luster that far exceeds most computer graphics. Their breakthrough has to do with the way light plays across both the characters and the imposing, often majestic ice-blue backgrounds.

Their system renders the animals at once rich and real, (as in the convincing elephantine gait of Manfred) but deliberately cartoonish at the same time. As always, the most problematic figures are the humans (computer animators have yet to figure out how to make people who don't move like stick figures). But the filmmakers overcome that with stylized designs that makes their creations convincing but clearly imaginary. The script by Michael J. Wilson, Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman is quick, clever and emotional, and makes fine use of the voice talent at hand. Romano in particular is wonderfully effective as the morose but honorable Manfred.

The movie's greatest weakness is its predictability; for all the exciting dangers and comical mishaps the animals encounter, there are few surprises along the way.

Still, "Ice Age" makes for truly fine family entertainment, a spirited adventure packed with entertainment to charm parents and kids in equal measure.

Rated PG for mild peril.