Film review: Ice Age: Lots of heart, loads of action

It was the first rap tune to make it to number one in the pop charts but still, it was farthest from my mind that I will once more hear Ice Ice Baby uttered with total gusto and appropriate motions, more than a decade after blue-eyed rapper Vanilla Ice made it a hit. And to what or to whom can we attribute this surprising revival? To a little squirrel who, while trying to save an acorn for the winter months unleashed the chain of events portrayed in the thoroughly entertaining film Ice Age.

Set in the prehistoric era 20,000 years ago, Ice Age is the latest computer animated feature to hit the jackpot at the box-office. This means that it is nothing like Snow White or Lion King which used hand-drawn cels. This is more like Toy Story or Monster s Inc., and was therefore created entirely by computers. While I initially felt some resistance against the new medium, what can be cuter than animated characters drawn by humans who puts hearts and souls into their craft, I have to admit that the technology does not only result in more realistic images but even in scenes that dazzle by the sheer splendor of the visuals. And when this combines with filmmakers who are witty and imbued with an infectious sense of fun, you get something like Ice Age.

The plot is nothing really new. It is about three diverse characters who are united by a common goal. Had the protagonists been human, the picture would have titled Three Men and a Baby. These three prehistoric mammals are after all trying to cope with the demands of taking care of a baby, including how to manage the intricate diaper, until they are able to give the kid back to his mother. Because they also get themselves into ridiculous and at times life-threatening situations, they can also be considered a new version of The Three Musketeers, The 3 Caballeros or better yet, The Three Stooges.

But while there is no question that Dumas’ novel is a great read that has been translated several times into a movie, fails to hold a candle against the combination of personalities or species created by the writers of Ice Age. The film’s trio of adventurers must be the strangest ever to walk together across the motion picture screen. They are a wooly mammoth named Manfred with the voice of Ray Romano, star of the TV hit show Everybody Loves Raymond, a lazy sloth named Sid voiced by John Leguizamo of Moulin Rouge and a saber-tooth tiger named Diego voiced by Denis Leary who appeared in The Thomas Crown Affair.

Each of them has been endowed by human and animal traits. Manfred, as befits the granddaddy of present day elephants, is a high plains drifter who would much rather be alone and who prefers to go against the trend. Because he is a sloth, Sid is of course, lazy. He wants nothing better than to hook up with somebody who will do all the work. Manny is clever enough not to want to have a lazy parasite like him tagging alone during as serious a trip as his migration to the North, because everybody else is going South, but the cunning Sid has roped him into helping reunite an abandoned baby with his parents.

Now how on earth does a tiger like Diego, sly, self-centered and of course predatory, get into the picture? Well, he is the bad guy pretending to be a good guy to spice up the goings on. He also has to migrate so he decided he might as well do it with Manny and Sid. Beside they have this little kid with them, who, Diego is positive will make a truly succulent dinner. And this is not to mention the huge mammoth and the sloth. Of course, before the picture is over he learns the value of friendship and what it means to be part of the "herd." So he experiences a change of heart and after lots of risks to their lives and limbs and enough thrills to fill an exciting road movie, the baby makes it safe and sound to his parents and the three friends continue on to what I believe would be more adventures that would fuel a sequel.

Ice Age has everything you might require of an entertaining film. Lots of heart, loads of action, clever dialogue, superior acting, that means voices and animation because the characters are very much alive, great music and spellbinding photography and editing. You can almost feel the cold and see every hair in the fur of those mammals. I think I know why they decided to have a Best Animated Film category at the Academy Awards. If they continue to make computer-animated films like Shrek and Ice Age, there is a very strong chance that one day, the nominees for the Best Picture might all be animated.

Oh, before I forget. There is a fourth guy who more than holds his own against the three lead characters and because he is some sort of D’Artagnan, he has emerged as the most familiar, the cutest, the most infuriatingly appealing and the one who gets the action going. His name is Scrat, the squirrel whose acorn brings about the catastrophe. He does not say a word and when last heard from he is still in search of his acorn.

So Ice, Ice Baby, I can just see him starting off the action in the next Ice Age flick.