Even The Coldest Heart Will Be Warmed By Ice Age

I usually have trouble dragging myself to the movies to see a movie that is less than 100 minutes long. A statement like this will likely draw gasps of horror from many here at Epinions, as the comment "I really loved this movie, but it was a bit too long" crops up far too often for me to understand.

I mean, am I really the only one who would gladly watch a movie for five hours if I was enjoying it and it was constantly entertaining? Am I the only one who looks at his watch and is disappointed to realise that there must only be a few minutes left in the film?

Ice Age, at a little over 83 minutes is usually something I wouldn't bother seeing at the cinema, but in this particular case, the running time is just about spot-on. The movie follows in the tradition of Monsters Inc and Shrek, in that it is completely computer animated and spectacularly well animated at that.

In fact, Ice Age follows on in more than a few ways from Shrek as two of the central characters, Manfred (aka "Manny") the mammoth (Ray Romano) and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) bear more than a passing resemblance to Shrek and his sidekick Donkey. Both Shrek and Manny are large, glowering loners, with a hidden heart of gold and both Sid and Donkey are annoying chatterboxes, who really grow on their off-siders and prove to be highly loyal and dependable, despite their comic relief nature. Even the meeting of the two characters is nearly identical, wtih Sid, fleeing for his life, bumping into Manny, who then defends the cowering sloth from his would-be assailants. There is even a bit with Manny, happy inside his shelter and poor Sid left outside and a perilous journey high above some molten lava which carry a strong sense of Deja-Shrek.

The fact that I find it hard to believe that the makers of Ice Age didn't rip off a few things from Shrek wasn't enough to dampen my enjoyment of the film, which ranges from outright hilarious, incredibly moving and emotional.

The film sets us up wonderfully right from the start with the introduction of Scrat, a sort fanged, prehistoric squirrel, whose only ambition in life is the acquisition and concealment of acorns. Unfortunately, on the barren Ice, there isn't exactly a plethora of hiding spots for poor Scrat to store his bounty, so the only option is to bury the nuts and Ice isn't exactly conducive to being dug by tiny, rodent claws. Scrat says nothing more than "Eek" in his recurring bits in the film, but the calamities he invariably finds himself had most of my fellow movie goers howling with mirth.

Scrat though, isn't one of the starring characters, with Manny, Sid and Diego, the sabre-toothed tiger (voiced by Dennis Leary) being the mainstays as the tale centres around the three unlikely companions and their efforts to return a lost human baby to it's "Herd" and the sly Diego's hidden agenda.

Now usually, any film featuring a baby, with lots of toddling around, goo-gooing and ga-gaing has me running for the hills. I hate. babies and find them utterly irritating. I don't mean to be like this, but somehow it is my lot to be as I am. Somehow, Ice Age manages to avoid rubbing even an old sour-puss like me up the wrong way, so baby-haters of the world, feel safe to see the film.

Ice Age is not without it's darker moments, with more than a couple of deaths taking place (though it is done subtly so small children would have no idea what had happened), revelations of a great personal tragedy for one of our intrepid heroes and some unanswered questions about the morality of one creature killing another. Parents who are worried about unsuitability for children, shouldn't be too perturbed though, because other than this, and one extremely mild joke about same-sex relationships, everything is pretty tame and harmless. The adult humour is perfectly clean and will fly over the heads of most children and at the same time, there is plenty for the kids to get a good laugh out of too.

The animation in Ice Age impressed me a great deal. It is probably easier to animate snowy white settings, so any comparison to Shrek is probably unfair, but some of the creatures looked incredible and don't even get me started on the water - I felt like I could reach out and splash around in it!

The sound track is pretty unobtrusive, but lends the movie it's own special personality, capping off a film which took me from fits of laughter, to glistening wet eyes during some of the more sentimental moments. Ice Age ends with a surprise epilogue into the life of Scrat, which just as his entry into the film got the film rolling perfectly, likewise rounded things off with a great laugh and I walked out of the cinema smiling happily and knowing that Ice Age will be featuring heavily in my DVD buying future.