Ice Age

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Travis Willock reviews

Ice Age
Distributed by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

    CoverBuy the R2 DVD from

  • Cert: PG
  • Cat.no: 2004664
  • Running time: 81 minutes
  • Year: 2002
  • Pressing: 2002
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Chapters: 20
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (Eng only)
  • Languages: English, Spanish, French
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1; Full Frame: 4:3
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
  • Price: $29.98
  • Extras:Audio Commentary, 3 Games, Scrat’s Missing Adventure, Behind theScenes, 6 Deleted Scenes, 6 Production Featurettes, Documentary, Sid’sCommentary, 3 Interactive Animation Studies, Multi-Language Clip, MiniPromos, Bunny Animated Film, Trailers

    Director:

      Chris Wedge

Screenplay:

    Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, and Peter Ackerman

Cast:

    Manfred: Ray Romano
    Sid: John Leguizamo
    Diego: Denis Leary
    Zeke: Jack Black
    Soto: Goran Visnjic

One more CGI flick to doom animation has come along.It’s funny because in 1995, Toy Story seemed like it could never be replicated exceptby the creators. Antz follows A Bug’s Life. Toy Story 2 shows themhow it’s done but then that horribly overrated ‘Shrek’ comes along withJimmy Neutron: Boy Geniusnot too far behind. Now Ice Age proves once and for all that CGI is here tostay for better or worse, and I’m leaning toward worse.

CGI films have a cold technological feel to them and you can still getstuff out of them but not as well as you could watching a traditionalDisney animation from the early 80s to the early 90s. I haven’t seen aREALLY good Disney film since The Lion King and that was in 1994, 8years ago. Even Disney’s recent Lilo & Stitch couldn’t come close toearly stuff. More CGI movies are to follow and each will add truth tothe fact that hand drawn animation is doomed at least in this country(Japan’s anime might be the last testament).

Plots usually don’t matter much in CGI flicks. Load the screen with eyecandy and put in “adorable” characters. The ice age has hit the Earthand a group of cavemen are attacked by a vicious sabretooth pack. Whenthe pack’s leader wants the baby of one of the group’s dangerous huntershe sends Diego off to find it. Meanwhile, reluctant mamoth Manfred and asloth named Sid find the baby and decide to take him to the nearesthuman outpost which happens to be over a mountain. Diego befriends thetwo despite the obvious treachery and now the pack is following themtoo.

A paper thin plot is made worse by the fact that the film just isn’t anyfun. Too much I glanced at the DVD display to see how long it had beenon and hitting the time remaining button to see how long I had to go.Nobody can capture the magic Pixar creates and it should stay like that.The only comedic relief comes from Sid and that’s not much. Trust me,the script is boring with a capital ‘B’.

Despite the bad movie the video quality is excellent of course. All CGIflicks are pretty much guaranteed perfect scores unless something goesterribly wrong. Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen (thankfullythere are two versions as the full frame view is on the same disc)colors are bright as can be. Blacks, when there, are solid entirely.Most of the film takes place in the snow obviously and muted against adeep blue sky. I would even venture as far to say this is the bestlooking CGI film to be on DVD desite some room being crunched by thefull frame transfer.

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. I was taken back by theagressiveness of this track. Rumblings during the avalanches and otheroccurrences are perfectly conveyed. Only problems I noticed were fewinstances when dialouge seemed to fade in. Nevertheless, still a goodtrack.

Anymore it seems these CGI flicks are in a competition with themselvesfor most elaborate DVD packages. ‘Ice Age’ is no exception. Too bad somuch of this seems redundant.

Disc 1:

  • Audio Commentary:A so-so track with the director and co-producer.Sometimes interesting-most of the time boring.
  • 3 Interactive Games: 3 games for the kids but actually well designed (so what if I played them?)

Disc 2:

  • “Scrat’s Missing Adventure”:4 minutes, anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen.Actually serves as a prologue to the movie.
  • Deleted Scenes:6 total, non-anamorphic. Able to be heard in 3languages. Don’t really add much to the movie.
  • Sid on Sid:3 minutes, Sid does commentary on some scenes. Presentedin full frame and is acutally one of the better extras on here.
  • Scrat Reveals:3 Fox Television promo spots. Very short as all three do not even add up to aminute.
  • Animation Progression:3 selectable scenes each with five different angles. Another decent feature.
  • International Ice Age:Pretty worthless as you could watch the wholemovie with another language instead of watching this short clip.
  • “Bunny”:Blue Sky’s apparently award winning short. 7 minutes, 16seconds, non-anamorphic.(DVDfever Ed: “I was thinking it was a tribute to the classic’Eldorado’ character.”)
  • Under the Ice:Houses an HBO First-Look, documentary, Sid VoiceDevelopment, Using 2D in a 3D world, Making a Character, Art of Rigging,Animators Acting, Lighting and Materials, Art of Effects. All arenon-anamorphic.
  • Trailers:3 trailers for ‘Ice Age’, all non-anamorphic. A ‘Like Mike'(shudder) DVD trailer made it here as well.
  • Design Galleries:Size Comparison/The Science Behind Ice Age and Create Your Own Gallery.

Overall though this may look extensive it really all just fluff.Quantity over quality was obviously put into effect here.

Packaging is amaray with a holder inside for the first disc. There are20 chapters total and menus are animated.

Overall, I just couldn’t get much from this movie. The CGI machinationsare starting to get to me and this is just a testament to that. The DVDfares in video and sound but the extras should have been kept short andsimple. I miss the old days of animation.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Travis Willock, 2002.

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