Ice Age (2002)

Set during the Ice Age, a sabertooth tiger, a sloth, and a wooly mammoth find a lost human infant, and they try to return him to his tribe.

Directors:

Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha

Writers:

Michael J. Wilson (story), Michael Berg (screenplay),

Stars:

Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 23 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ray Romano	...	Manfred (voice)
John Leguizamo	...	Sid (voice)
Denis Leary	...	Diego (voice)
Goran Visnjic	...	Soto (voice)
Jack Black	...	Zeke (voice)
Cedric the Entertainer	...	Carl (voice)
Stephen Root	...	Frank / Start (voice)
Diedrich Bader	...	Saber-Toothed Tiger (voice)
Alan Tudyk	...	Lenny / Oscar / Dab (voice)
Lorri Bagley	...	Jennifer (voice)
Jane Krakowski	...	Rachel (voice)
Peter Ackerman	...	Dodo / Macrauchenia (voice)
P.J. Benjamin	...	Dodo (voice)
Josh Hamilton	...	Dodo / Aardvark (voice)
Chris Wedge	...	Dodo / Scrat (voice)

Storyline

Back when the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and animals were scurrying to save themselves from the upcoming Ice Age, a sloth named Sid, a woolly mammoth named Manny, and a saber-toothed tiger named Diego are forced to become unlikely heroes. The three reluctantly come together when they have to return a human child to its father while braving the deadly elements of the impending Ice Age.

---

Plot Keywords:

baby | ice age | ice | sloth | sabertooth tiger | 

---

Taglines:

Ice Age is coming

---

Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for mild peril

Details

Official Sites:

20th Century Fox [France] Twentieth Century Fox [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Croatian

Release Date:

15 March 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

La era de hielo

Box Office

Budget:

$59,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$357,575 (Japan) (9 August 2002)

Gross:

$4,158,805 (Japan) (30 August 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Blue Sky Studios, Twentieth Century Fox Animation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Blue Sky has engineers on its staff who understand the physics of sound and light and how these elements will affect movement in characters.

---

Goofs

In the opening sequence Scrat is running along a valley floor when he is squashed between two colliding mountains of ice. When he is ejected from the crevasse, he is suddenly thousands of feet above the valley floor.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Freaky Mammal: Well, why don't they call it The Big Chill? Or The Nippy Era? I'm just sayin', how do we know it's an Ice Age?
Freaky Mammal: Because, of all...
[shouts]
Freaky Mammal: the *ice*!
Freaky Mammal: Well, things just got a little chillier.

---

Crazy Credits

Drawings of the creatures appear over the credits. Most drawings were done by children of Blue Sky Studios employees.

---

Connections

Referenced in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

---

Soundtracks

"The Comedians"
Written by Dmitri Kabalevsky

User Reviews

A time in history when animals could talk, but humans couldn't yet!

In what amounts to a throw-back to the early, manually-animated cartoons, "Ice Age" chooses a very simple story around which is wrapped clever and exciting animation. Highly intelligent sabre-tooth tigers want to get revenge for the killing of one of their pack, so plot to steal the baby son of the human tribe leader. A goofy sloth (Lugiezamo) and a kind wooly mammoth (Ray Romano) rescue the child and attempt to find his parents, joined by a sly tiger (Denis Leary) who at first is planning to lead all of them into a corner so his tiger friends can help get the child back and eat the mammoth. But a series of events, and the tiger's being saved by the mammoth, causes all of them to "bond".

The DVD is flawless. The Dolby surround sound is remarkably good, truly surrounding you with sound. The direct digital to DVD video transfer is as good, colorful, and sharp as the other recent ones like "Toy Story 2", "Shrek", and "Monsters Inc." There is a whole second disk of "extras" which take you through the whole animated film-making process. Also a short animated film "Bunny" which won an oscar in 1998. Plus another "short" which shows the little squirrel, 20,000 years later, in an ice block drifting onto a deserted island, and his pounding of a coconut into the ground triggering the continental drift which resulted in the present day continents! Very inventive and funny.

Watching "Ice Age", my wife and I noticed that much of the action and pratfalls reminded us of the old "Roadrunner" cartoons. In the DVD extras the director mentions that those old cartoons of Chuck Jones were the insriration of many of the scenes. Yes, a throw-back to the old manually-animated cartoons, and a worthy tribute.