Ice Age

Review by Clint Morris

While not exactly an avalanche of universal appeal, Ice Age will certainly melt your heart.

More a live-action version of The Lion King than a kith and kin to Shrek or Toy Story, Fox's latest computer animated film has all the traits of a archetypal family film - memorable characters, outlandish situations and madcap sidekicks, and while most of it has been done before, it still makes for a wholesome well-rounded escapade. "Ice Age", as the title suggests, is set in antediluvian times when glaciers centimetred across the earth.

Three animals find a human baby and set out to return him to his tribe. Manfred, a giant woolly mammoth (Ray Romano) is the leader of the pack, with Sid (John Leguizamo) a motor mouth crestfallen Sloth and Diego (Denis Leary), a morally conflicted sabre-tooth tiger.

If the journey isn't rigid enough in itself, Diego's pack's leader Soto (Goran Visnjic) has ordered an ambush to take place just before the trio meet the baby's people.

In a whole sub-plot of his own, a small squirrel endeavours to hang on to his precious acorn, sometimes intertwining with the journey of the central characters.

Carlos Soldanha and Chris Wedge have directed a fastidious movie. It looks great - Fox's animation studio must be ever so proud - and some of the characters are really endearing and well written.

Its only descent is the story itself. Beside's being an amalgamation of the best bits from Shrek, Toy Story, The Lion King and countless other family faves, it doesn't quite reach the older markets in the same way some of the latter films did.

In terms of talent, Romano and Leguizamo are both at home in their parts - but one wonders whether Romano wouldn't have been more apt to voicing the small Sloth and not the overgrown mammoth.

What does work though is having Denis Leary, voice the inconspicuous and morally conflicted Diego - you could almost believe the character was written for the controversial stand-up artist.

While Ice Age won't wet the appetites of everyone in its reach, it'll hit its target market head on, like squirrels on a snow sled, hanging on for dear life.

Put Global Warming on the back burner and let Ice Age take front-row centre for a while.

3.5 out of 5

Ice Age
Australian release: From 21st March.
Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, Diedrich Bader, Jane Krakowski, Kristen Johnston.
Directors: Carlos Soldanha, Chris Wedge.
Website: Click here

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