Movie Review for Ice Age

Summary: Twenty thousand years ago, the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and creatures everywhere were fleeing the onslaught of the new Ice Age. In this time of peril, we meet the weirdest herd of any Age: a fast talking but dim sloth named Sid; a moody woolly mammoth named Manny; a devilish saber-toothed tiger named Diego; and an acorn-crazy saber-toothed squirrel known as Scrat. This quartet of misfits unexpectedly, and reluctantly, comes together in a quest to return a human infant to his father. Braving boiling lava pits, treacherous ice caves, freezing temperatures and a secret, evil plot, these "sub-zeros" become the world's first heroes!

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Kevin Carr of 7M Pictures (7/0)
            a cute film in its own right, and the character that is most to thank for this is the saber-tooth...

By Mike McGranaghan of Aisle Seat (7/0)
            I think it's a safe bet that Ice Age will be a front-runner for next year's Best Animate...

By Jon Lap of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            It is painful to watch the inferior aspects of the film sink under the muddy vestiges of its supe...

By Scott Weinberg of Apollo Guide (7/0)
            It’s a good thing that woolly mammoths are extinct, because this movie will have every kid in the...

By Philip Martin of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
            ...benign, sweet, modest ... a pleasant bit of family-friendly piffle, as unburdened by signific...

By Jane Crowther of BBC (7/0)
            Manages to remain consistently entertaining and delightful throughout.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (7/0)
            I came to scoff and stayed to smile.

By Michael Wilmington of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            Real Ice Ages were no jokes. They lasted about 100,000 years and froze most life on the planet. B...

By Margaret A. McGurk of Cincinnati Enquirer (7/0)
            Fresh, funny and richly imagined.

By Karina Montgomery of Cinerina (7/0)
            Adequate but not nearly up to snuff. Unlikeable protagonists.

By Paul Clinton (CNN.com) of CNN.com (7/0)
            This is one of 20th Century Fox's first ventures into the world of animation, in partnership with...

By Mark Palermo of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (7/0)
            Far from the over-polished sheen of recent CGI features... the [animation's] basic line-structure...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Larry Carroll of Countingdown.com (7/0)
            I laughed more at "Ice Age" than at "Shrek" and "Monsters Inc." combined.

By Bob Aulert of culturevulture.net (7/0)
            ... a pleasant enough way to spend a matinee afternoon with the children in life.

By Steven D. Greydanus of Decent Films Guide (7/0)
            Has neither the invention and creativity of Monsters nor the satiric wit of Shrek, but it still e...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            The creative animation work may not look as fully 'rendered' as Pixar's industry standard, but it...

By John J. Puccio of DVDTown.com (7/0)
            I'm not the world's biggest fan of animated films, but this one had me smiling.

By Andrew Howe of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            If you haven’t lost the ability to wind back the years for eighty minutes you’ll find much to lik...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By David Cornelius of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Loved it, loved it, loved it.

By Erik Childress of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            Because the title suggests a step back and its familiar story doesn’t break new ground, there’s n...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            Ice Age never matches the brilliance of Toy Story or the heartfelt heft of Shrek, but it's an ant...

By Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central (7/0)
            Dreadfully inanimate for an animated entertainment.

By Kevin Lally of Film Journal International (7/0)
            A clever and beautifully designed computer-animated feature that often measures up to the standar...

By John R. McEwen of Film Quips Online (7/0)
            Despite its flaws, Ice Age is fun and mercifully short, providing your youngsters enough time to ...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Christopher Null of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            Dull... monotonous... no surprises.

By Eric Lurio of Greenwich Village Gazette (7/0)
            It's really good in spots and mediocre in others. But on the whole a worthy effort.

By Ross Anthony of Hollywood Report Card (7/0)
            good clean relaxing entertainment with a tender warm heart under all that snow.

By James Sanford of James Sanford on Film (7/0)
            Director Chris Wedge and screenwriters Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson and Peter Ackerman create ...

By JoBlo of JoBlo's Movie Emporium (7/0)
            I would recommend this film more to kids than adults...

By Alex Sandell of Juicy Cerebellum (7/0)
            I'm not saying that Ice Age doesn't have some fairly pretty pictures, but there's not enough subs...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Robert Roten of Laramie Movie Scope (7/0)
            Cute, funny, heartwarming digitally animated feature film with plenty of slapstick humor for the ...

By Kenneth Turan of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            As written by Michael Berg and Michael J. Wilson from a story by Wilson, this relentless, all-wis...

By Rene Rodriguez of Miami Herald (7/0)
            If all of Ice Age had been about the tenacious rodent's misadventures, the movie might have been ...

By Sue Pierman of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (7/0)
            Think about the last time cartoon characters could bring you to tears as well as laughter, and yo...

By Nell Minow of Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies (7/0)
            The fur and feathers, the glint of the sun on ice, and the soft sparkle of the snowflakes falling...

By Kevin A. Ranson of MovieCrypt.com (7/0)
            ... nicely entertains and gives all audiences something to enjoy, which is always the goal for an...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Jorge Avila Andrade of Moviola (7/0)
            Un triunfo de la animación y una muestra de lo que se puede lograr dejando volar libremente la im...

By Michael Dequina of Mr. Brown's Movies (7/0)
            To complain about the lack of originality is to ignore the real wit and joy behind this very fun ...

By Widgett Walls of Needcoffee.com (7/0)
            These people wouldn't know subtle characterization if it put on a giant furry monster costume and...

By Peter Rainer of New York Magazine (7/0)
            Yet another marvelously funny digital-animation feature.

By Elias Savada of Nitrate Online (7/0)
            It's a keeper.

By Jim Chastain of Norman Transcript (7/0)
            All in all, Ice Age was pleasant enough. I would liken it to Jello, something that I might have ...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Edward Johnson-Ott of NUVO Newsweekly (7/0)
            The dynamic personalities of the characters more than compensate for any slight deficits in the l...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            The animation in 'Ice Age' is definitely cool, but in terms of story and characterization it's ra...

By Dennis Schwartz of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
            The film has too many spots where it's on slippery footing, but is acceptable entertainment for t...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            "Ice Age" yields to the temptation of conventional animation standards, but it does so with a cle...

By J. Robert Parks of Phantom Tollbooth (7/0)
            Though the plot is generic, the movie is enchanting.

By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
            Age doesn't come close to the triumph of Shrek or Monsters, Inc., though it's not nearly as dull ...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Tracy McLoone of PopMatters (7/0)
            Sounds like your standard road movie about a bunch of guys who get on each other's nerves, right?...

By James Kendrick of Q Network Film Desk (7/0)
            funny and sweet and often clever, but it sometimes feels a little too formulaic

By Andrew Manning of Radio Free Entertainment (7/0)
            A thoroughly mediocre entry in the world of computer animation that does nothing to push the enve...

By Mary Kalin-Casey of Reel.com (7/0)
            Directors Wedge and Carlos Saldanha have done a splendid job of integrating action, adventure, an...

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            may recall "Shrek" with its giant beast pestered by unwanted companion and "Monsters Inc." with i...

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            It is not of the same knock out caliber of “Shrek” or “Monster’s, Inc.” but “Ice Age” packs a res...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Betty Jo Tucker of ReelTalk Movie Reviews (7/0)
            Manfred, Sid, and Diego demonstrate the old Ice Age adage that a friend is someone who knows all ...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            Kids, of course, will love Ice Age. Adults will be entertained, but no more.

By Jack Garner of Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (7/0)
            The animation is clean, efficient and clever -- certainly on a par with other recent computer-gen...

By Harry Guerin of RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) (7/0)
            With animated movies these days it's a case of survival of the funniest, but with its mix of slap...

By Jim Lane of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
            The characters are visually unappealing (the pictures don't live up to the voices) and the story ...

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (7/0)
            A good, solid, enjoyable animated film for all ages.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            Think of it as "The Jungle Book" with a case of frostbite.

By Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            Leguizamo's motor-mouth sloth has more punch n' bite than Eddie Murphy's ***.

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of Spirituality and Practice (7/0)
            A very entertaining family film with a relevant moral: in a dangerous world looking out for numbe...

By Rob Blackwelder of SPLICEDWire (7/0)
            The lack of a original themes is largely made up for by the movie's sharp and spirited sense of h...

By Staci Layne Wilson of StaciWilson.com (7/0)
            Warm and fuzzy.

By Paul Salfen of Supercala.com (7/0)
            While not quite "Shrek" or Monsters, Inc.", it's not too bad. It's worth taking the kids to.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            This animated feature may not have quite the appeal to adult audiences as some recent films, but ...

By Frank Lovece of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            ... no matter your age, this is one great Age to be at.

By Ian Waldron-Mantgani of UK Critic (7/0)
            Dull and mechanical, kinda like a very goofy museum exhibit

By Mike Clark of USA Today (7/0)
            A minor delight but a delight just the same ...

By Jeffrey Chen of Window to the Movies (7/0)
            It has nary an original frame in its digital reel.

By Phil Villarreal of Arizona Daily Star (3/4) No reference
            At the same time touching, funny and breathtaking.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Bill Muller of Arizona Republic (3/4) No reference
            Over the years, Hollywood has crafted a solid formula for successful animated movies, and Ice Age...

By Michael Tunison of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            ... there's enough cool fun here to warm the hearts of animation enthusiasts of all ages.

By Pablo Villaca of Cinema em Cena (3/4) No reference
            A Era do Gelo diverte, mas não convence. É um passatempo descompromissado – e só.

By Alex Ramirez of Cinenganos (3/4) No reference
            Una cinta digna de pelear con los estudios y empresas fuertes en el área y una historia entreteni...

By Jackie Potts of Citysearch (3/4) No reference
            Although some early characters, like Kristen Johnson's female sloth, were iced, there's still ple...

By Shay Casey of Daily-Reviews (3/4) No reference
            While it doesn’t stumble over itself, it doesn’t exactly swing for the fences either.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Steven Rosen of Denver Post (3/4) No reference
            [D]espite its familiar subject matter, Ice Age is consistently amusing and engrossing ...

By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (3/4) No reference
            In all, we get a visually crisp, though generally tame, offering.

By Susan Stark of Detroit News (3/4) No reference
            ... a visually pleasing, imaginative entertainment for the family audience.

By Sean O'Connell of Eclipse Magazine (3/4) No reference
            Needs a hit of Ritalin as much as it needs an original idea.

By Shirley Klass of Fantastica Daily (3/4) No reference
            The sweet, happy ending will satisfy the movie goers.

By Liz Braun of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            What sets Ice Age apart from similar family fare are a witty script and the all-digital animation...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Louis B. Hobson of Jam! Movies (3/4) No reference
            Truly this Ice Age is not enough. Bring on the next one as soon as possible.

By Marshall Fine of Journal News (Westchester, NY) (3/4) No reference
            A revelation: a computer-generated film that brings an expressionistic sensibility to the three-d...

By Manohla Dargis of L.A. Weekly (3/4) No reference
            From the squirrel's mad, droopy eyes, to the rumba rhythms of Manny's rear end, to the way Diego ...

By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            ... Ice Age treads predictably along familiar territory, making it a passable family film that wo...

By Chuck Rudolph of Matinee Magazine (3/4) No reference
            There isn’t one moment in the film that surprises or delights.

By Matt Easterbrook of Matt's Movie Reviews (3/4) No reference
            From what I’ve seen so far this year, Ice Age has got to be the leading contender for best animat...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Michael Elliott of Movie Parables (3/4) No reference
            Bringing the expressive cartoon characters to life are some equally expressive vocal talents.

By Mark Dujsik of Movie Reviewing Teens (3/4) No reference
            A funny and lighthearted three-dimensional cartoon. Inspired and imaginative humor.

By James Rocchi of Netflix (3/4) No reference
            Computer-animated fable has newfangled look, old-fashioned laughs.

By Jonathan Foreman of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            Almost everything about Ice Age proves to be disappointingly generic.

By Gene Seymour of Newsday (3/4) No reference
            Vivid conception with amusing, witty stretches that offset the intervals of goo.

By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            The really vexing thing is that it already contains the seed of a really good, funny animated fil...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            Ice Age is full of wonderful throw-away gags, both visual and verbal.

By Steve Schneider of Orlando Weekly (3/4) No reference
            The path Ice Age follows most closely, though, is the one established by Warner Bros. giant Chuck...

By Gary Thompson of Philadelphia Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Ice Age is the first computer-generated feature cartoon to feel like other movies, and that makes...

By Carrie Rickey of Philadelphia Inquirer (3/4) No reference
            On its icy face, the new film is a subzero version of Monsters, Inc., without the latter's imagin...

By Joe Baltake of Sacramento Bee (3/4) No reference
            ... unlike many family-oriented movies, Ice Age isn't afraid to frighten or disturb.

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Romano has the perfect voice for a large, furry, short-tempered beast.

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Ice Age will probably get enough kids smiling to earn its big cost back, and then some. And yet t...

By Joe Leydon of San Francisco Examiner (3/4) No reference
            It's clever enough to amuse adults, yet sufficiently kid-friendly to delight tykes with diminutiv...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (3/4) No reference
            ... cute, pleasant, unadventurous.

By Todd Anthony of South Florida Sun-Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            ... crackles with slick, eye-catching animation and off-the-wall humor.

By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) No reference
            The clever script straddles the line between adult appeal and kid appeal, with amusing jokes abou...

By Dustin Putman of TheMovieBoy.com (3/4) No reference
            In the annals of big-budget, modern-day animated excursions, Ice Age is one of the lesser efforts...

                         Reviews of Ice Age
By Audrey Rock-Richardson of Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah) (3/4) No reference
            If it wasn’t trying so hard to be funny, this unremarkable yet pleasantly entertaining movie migh...

By Desson Thomson of Washington Post (3/4) No reference
            Family entertainment at its most bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Movie Distributors
20th Century Fox

Production Companies
Blue Sky Studios

Movie Studios
Twentieth Century Fox Animation
20th Century Fox