|
'Ice Age' leaves you cold
[Twentieth Century Fox]
Denis Leary voices Diego the saber-toothed tiger, left, John Leguizamo is an energetic Sid the sloth, and Ray Romano is Manfred the woolly mammoth, all fast-food toys waiting to happen in Ice Age.
Related 10 News video
56k
| High-Speed
|
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 14, 2002
A crew of prehistoric animals goes on a quest to help save an infant. But nothing saves this movie from its punchless script.
|
 |
Ice Age isn't a bad animated movie, but it's missing the intangible magic that Disney cast on screen for decades and DreamWorks is now perfecting for itself. It's a reasonable facsimile of the toy stories and fractured fairy tales that captivated audiences in recent years, yet never quite becomes something viewers would want to see over and over again.
Fox Animation Studios has all of the basic elements in place: celebrity voices, mildly irreverent humor and plush-toy design. Ice Age is certainly more fun than Fox's previous entries in the animation race, Titan A.E. and Anastasia. Yet it seldom feels like anything more than a manic technical exercise, a contender working out on the speed bag but still years away from a title shot.
By now, you've probably seen the preview trailer for Ice Age that has been shown for months, mostly the opening minutes of the film when a hyperactive prehistoric squirrel named Scrat sets off an avalanche while trying to bury an acorn. Scrat doesn't have much to do with the plot, but he's the most entertaining creation by director Chris Wedge. The story awkwardly blends the extinction tension of Dinosaur with the lost-child topic of Monsters Inc., without the former's groundbreaking style or the latter's warm fuzzies.
The story is darker from the start. A mother sacrifices herself to save her infant daughter from saber-toothed tigers, and the child is found by Manfred the wooly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano) and Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo). They pledge to return the baby to her father, dodging the elements and one of those tigers, Diego (Denis Leary) who purports to be their ally.
Ice Age soon settles into a pattern of close calls, odd acquaintances and reminders of why the quest is supposed to matter. The parts, such as a show-stopping flock of survivalist dodo birds, are much more satisfying than the whole. The screenplay by Michael Berg and Peter Ackerman never raises the stakes beyond immediate amusement. This is a feature-length film with a short-subject mentality.
Extra footage makes the movie's shortcomings more obvious. Wedge's arctic setting simply doesn't leave much room for creative expression, just snow and mountains and the occasionally eye-catching body of water. With the exception of Leguizamo's energetic line readings, the vocal talent is unremarkable, hindered by a punchless script. Ice Age won't send anyone scurrying to the fast-food restaurant for toys, simply because you get the feeling that's all Fox had in mind from the beginning.
Ice Age
- Grade B-
- Director: Chris Wedge
- Cast: Voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Kirsten Johnson, Jane Krakowski
- Screenplay: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman
- Rating: PG; mild peril
- Running time: 84 min.
Back to Weekend
© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111
|
