Review of Ice Age (2002) by Geraldo G — 22 Dec 2011

While giants Dreamworks and Pixar step forward and outstandingly deliver openings to the Toy Story and Shrek franchises, lower league animation company Blue Square Studios bask in some glory of their own.

Ice Age is a very humerous take on a mammoth (Ray Romano), a sloth (John Leguizamo) and a sabre tooth tiger (Denis Leary) , battling the Ice Age and trying to offload a young human child to its tribe.

The movie should gain considerable respect for how good the animation actually is and that it was created from a company that has just emerged from the shadows. When you look back at three dimensional animated movies like Shrek, Toy Story, Monster Inc etc., then look back at Ice Age, it's unbelievably difficult to say that its appearence isn't comparable to those films made from the high engrossing companies Dreamworks and Pixar.

Overall though is it a five star success? No. It's characters are great; they have plenty of wit and soul about them. It has a decent emotional level, especially towards the end. But it just doesn't quite have that spark what you get from Shrek and Toy Story, not to mention that it borrows from other films to try and maximize its full potential. Still, I'm not taking anything away from an excellent animation which deserves plenty of applause, regardless of its slim faults!