Ice Age ***
Directed by: Carlos Saldahna and Chris Wedge
Written by: Michael J. Wilson (Story); Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman (Screenplay)
Featuring the voices of: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary
Rated G (There’s no reason to give it anything above a G, really.)

There is absolutely no reason for a kiddie flick to be stupid. The Toy Story series understood that. Sometimes, Disney remembers that. Cats and Dogs tried, but it didn’t quite work. Ice Age understands it just fine, thank you very much.

The title says it all. Thanks, and good night. Actually, there is a bit more than that. The movie starts out with the annual multi-species migration to the south. Darn near everything is heading south except for Manfred (Romano), a mammoth. He and his issues are heading north. Sid (Leguizamo) meant to head south, but the rest of his sloth brethren decided to just let him sleep because he’s annoying. Sid gets on the wrong side of two proto-rhinos (the side with the horns), and is ‘saved’ by Manfred. Manfred doesn’t like Sid, or anyone else for that matter. Sid, however, tags along. As if you didn’t see that coming. Diego (Leary) is a saber-toothed tiger. His pack was decimated by humans. The head of the pack, Soto (Goran Visnjic), wants revenge. The pack will attack the tribe at dawn. Diego’s job is to bring the baby to Soto alive. Of course, Diego doesn’t get the baby, who winds up with Manfred and Sid. Sid wants to return the baby to the tribe. Manfred could care less. Diego knows where the humans are. Manfred, Sid, Diego and the baby (named Lumpy, Stinky Drool-Face, and a host of other things by Manfred) set off on their journey, wherein they learn lessons. There’s also a proto-squirrel named Scrat, who manages to steal the show several times.

Now, CG animation is becoming more and more prevalent. In fact, Shrek, Monsters, Inc. and Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius are all up for Oscars® this year. How does Ice Age compare to them? Quite well.

Blue Sky Studios didn’t go for strict realism in their designs. They could have quite easily, I suspect. Blue Sky did the CGI effects in Fight Club. Obviously, they aren’t going to be able to measure up to what Pixar can do, but they understand their limitations and use them to their advantage. The movie looks like very high-quality stop-motion animation. Think Chicken Run or Wallace and Gromit, but just a tiny bit smoother. The characters are fairly blocky which actually works quite well. Blockiness aside, the characters are all expressive, and move like they have skeletons and mass. The physics never faltered, which is a BIG selling point for me. Of course, there are scenes where you replace ‘normal’ physics with ACME physics and just enjoy the ride.

That’s another thing this flick got right. It wasn’t afraid to just be silly and stupid. That’s where Scrat comes in. Now, I had 3 choices this week. I could have chosen Showtime, with Eddy Murphy and Robert DeNiro. That could have been really, really good. I could have seen Resident Evil, which has Milla Jovavich fighting zombies. I went with Ice Age because of Scrat. The first trailer I saw had Scrat running around on top of a glacier with an acorn in his paws. He wants to bury the acorn. Don’t ask why. Burying the acorn is apparently the only reason Scrat exists. When he finds a suitable place to bury the acorn, the hole causes the ice to crack. And crack. And crack. And it just keeps going. The crack causes an avalanche, and hilarity ensues. His life really doesn’t get any better. He’s cursed or something. You sort of feel bad for the guy. To swipe a great quotation from Roger Ebert, his life is just “one damn thing after another”. Thank goodness for that.

Another great scene involves dodos. Survivalist dodos. They’re convinced that an ice age is coming, and they’ll have to live underground for billions of years. They live up to their names. Scrat isn’t stupid – he’s just wired to bury a nut. That’s all he knows. The dodos, on the other hand, can think. They just can’t do it very well.

Now, before you think that Ice Age is all just fun and games, it does pull something of a Bambi. If guns had been around 20,000 years ago, you would have heard a shot fired. I refuse to say that it’s too intense for kids, however. Things are hinted at. Are the things sad? Yes, of course they are. Sometimes things are sad. If your child has seen Bambi, however, there’s nothing to worry about in Ice Age. Forgiveness is another big theme in the movie, which is never a bad thing.

I really liked this movie. Time will tell if it’s going to be a classic. There are some dark moments, but no more so than when Uncle Walt was making things like Pinocchio or Snow White. Most importantly, it doesn’t dumb itself down.

And Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones is going to rock SO hard.