Ice Age

Blue Sky Studios has been known for making very visually pleasing animated film since the 2000s, and despite having an extensive line up of films throughout several years that gives them a library pretty close to something like DreamWorks and Pixar, they have never released material that comes close to the level of brilliance that those companies have had in the past, mostly releasing kid-centric entertainment that relies on its visual rather than its characters, stories and writing. it’s a shame they never got much of a chance to get one great movie out before Disney bought them up and effectively closed their studio, but they still have certain films that people recalled and mostly enjoy, one being their very first film, the 2002 CG animated comedy, Ice Age. Set during, fittingly enough, an Ice Age (specifically the Pleistocene ice age), a mammoth named Manny (voiced by Ray Romano) is thrown into a situation that he doesn’t want any part of when he inadvertently gets a tag-along in the form of Sid the sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) while trying to migrate to a new home due to the forthcoming Ice Age. While the usually alone Manny doesn’t appreciate this, another face is added when the two encounter a human baby whose mother was killed trying to save it from drowning. Forming an attachment, the two decide to help the baby get back to its tribe, while a saber-tooth tiger named Diego (voiced by Denis Leary) says he’ll help track the humans, with the two not knowing that Diego is part of a pack of tigers who plan to kill to child with his leader Soto (voiced by Goran Visnjic) waiting in the background to secure the kill. Now forming their own herd, the three slowing warm up to each other (including the baby) as they make their way to the human tribe, while Diego slowly starts to reconsider his group’s decision and might not want to hurt the child or his new friends. Before it spiralled into the sequel disease, Ice Age still harbors the Blue Sky Studio’s film-killing cliches of being an unfunny, boring, generic but nice-looking film. Despite that, it has stronger aspects and a better understanding of how to construct a film that keeps it from being disastrous, just inoffensive.

The set-up is very basic buddy road trip movie; characters with conflicting personalities are forced to travel either out of necessity, similar goals, or just to survive. While that is a very by the numbers narrative and the movie doesn’t really go out of its way to change much outside of that archetype, it was the studio’s first film to be released as well as a first-time job for the writers of this film (being Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman), so maybe it can get some slack in that department. What it doesn’t get away from is how much it doesn’t change and how it plays this trope quite safely. It doesn’t alter the formula and instead just goes through the basics which involves arguing, betrayal, and eventually coming together in the end. Without taking the next step, nothing in the film is surprising or challenging in any way, be it in story, characters, and especially humor. For a studio that should’ve wanted to leave an imprint in the animation department (at least in terms of what unique qualities people should expect from their films against others), it became clear that this studio was going to be a lot more child-centric, a lot less timeless in its writing and its characters (especially with the choice of talent behind them) and a lot more focused on comedic possibilities and slapstick rather than deep character, stories or messages. Thankfully the film is quite short, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome, the pacing is okay, and it skims through the motions quicker than most other movies would do at the time. The idea of an animated road trip movie was nothing new even when it came out and it didn’t take advantage of the animation addition to bring something unique to the cliche except making them animals. The only real addition they add is that they can get more bizarre and sometimes throw in even more dangerous obstacles and encounters which can be over exaggerated and emphasized, but they aren’t done especially well. The biggest credit that can be given to this movie is unlike some of BlueSky’s other films later down the line, it does try to be a real movie with more serious moments. There are quiet scenes where no dialogue is needed which involve nice music and good pacing. The moment is just allowed to sit and be an experience, scenes like meeting the baby for the first time or a scene where they encounter some cave paintings and such, it knew to just let those moments play out and not ruin them with a bad joke. Things like that keep it from being a completely washed-out children’s film with little care other than jokes, much like its future sequels would devolve into.

The characters are very stale and generic, but harmlessly so. Manny is the quiet one with a tragic past, Sid is the loud annoying one, Diego is the evil one who eventually changes side, it’s that kind of set up and everything they can do with those kinds of characters, they do it. Sid is annoying throughout and the lack of a funny script doesn’t help when he’s supposed to be the comic relief. Diego’s inclusion of bad guy turned good isn’t a bad idea, but more detail and more establishment would have made it more effective. Manny’s pessimistic attitude and gruffer demeanor is straight forward, and his change is rushed and not really focused on, but it doesn’t hurt the film that much. The acting is very toned down, simple, and very mellow in emotion. It’s not without effort, but it’s not enough to leave any impression. Leguizamo’s voice’s is very grating, but Leary and Romano are just okay at best even though these three as choices do feel pretty bizarre for the time and would lead way to other moments where BlueSky would include odd voice talent for their characters in their films. The villains are amazingly bland and forgettable, having more than necessary, no personality from any of them and lacking any good motivation. The only good character in the film as well as the only true funny thing in this whole movie is the squirrel, Scrat voiced by director Chris Wedge. Despite having no dialogue and only appearing in small amounts throughout the film, his simple yet overly exaggerated mishaps involving his acorn are surprisingly entertaining to watch, relying on classic Road Runner/Coyote style slapstick and set ups that work much better than any verbal comedy portrayed. It kind of shows the qualities that BlueSky could be great at, and it provides a decent mimicry of the slapstick type without feeling like its stealing from anything.

The biggest drawback for this film is that it’s so largely unfunny. The humor is either blatantly simplistic, forced modern-day references, or just anything that would make a toddler giggle. To their credit though, the physical stuff, mainly involving the squirrel is not that bad. Nothing said in this film is ever funny, but the slapstick is usually done very fast and very brutally, as physical comedy should be, and it is reasonably done. Like every one of their films, it also has a pleasing look to it.  Though the CG itself doesn’t especially hold up very well by today’s standards, it does have a nice glow to the ice and water that create some nice-looking environment shots. A movie set within the Ice Age was never really tackled previous, so doing one in animation was a strong idea in order to showcase different landscapes, environments and creatures that would’ve been unique to that time period. The colors do have a strong influence on the look as it gives the movie atmospheric tones, making happy warm moments, and harsh cold dark moments. Ironically enough, the contrast of the simple colors with the big blue sky above them makes them pop much more, and despite clearly showing its age allows the movie to still look nice all these years later. The textures on the animals aren’t very flowing or realistic and the human characters look like malformed dog food (the baby looks pretty creepy most of the time), but they aren’t very noticeable and are fine enough for the time.

Ice Age may suffer from the typical tropes that stop BlueSky from producing quality films, but it isn’t as bad as some of their other movies that come later. It’s simple and doesn’t attempt anything new or unique, but it isn’t harmful to anyone and for kids its serviceable. The laughs are almost non-existent when the squirrel isn’t on screen but just stomach through the stupid sloth and just wait them out. It’s not something you need to see and it’s not even really a good film, but nothing will really be lost from viewing it either. It does look nice, and it does at times treat itself seriously with some quiet moments, but the forgettable story and awkward script feels much more like what they would produce in the future. It’s a mediocre film with good elements, overall, it results in a short icy breeze of inadequacy.