Ice Age

A little news from work: Our group is moving offices, to another building on campus. We're going to be closer to another slice of our department. Related to this, I'm going to be getting a window office! It doesn't have a great view, but at least it's natural light! It took me three years and two departments to get it, but that's not bad, all-in-all, I think.

However, it sounds like we'll be moving when I'll be down south going to Disneyland with Debbi, Lisa and Michel. Which will make my third consecutive office move at Apple which occurred when I was on vacation. Go figure!

Ice Age (2002) is a terrifically funny animated film. Occurring during the beginning of the encroaching ice age, most animals are migrating south, but not Manfred the mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), who is heading north. Along the way, he saves Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) from being pummeled by some irate rhinos. Sid end up following Manfred north, much to Manny's chagrin, since Sid is talkative and none-too-bright.

Meanwhile, a pack of saber-tooth tigers assaults a human village, seeking revenge for the damage the humans inflicted on their tribe. The humans repel the tigers, but the chief's infant son is lost. Manny and Sid find it, but the tigers have dispatched Diego (Denis Leary) to bring it to them. Diego persuades Manny and Sid to let him track the humans so they can return the kid to them, but of course he has his own agenda. The trio embarks on their quest and has many small adventures.

Computer-animated with a somewhat less slick style than either Monsters Inc. or Shrek, it's sometimes reminiscent of old Warner Bros cartoons (the neurotic squirrel which is the film's signature character, and who spends most of the film trying to store acorns for winter, strongly resembles Wile E. Coyote). Ice Age adopts the Pixar formula: Build your film around a great story, and the script here is as funny and poignant as Pixar's films. CGI is still having trouble portraying humans, and the humans here look particularly peculiar, though they're not really any worse than the princess in Shrek.

The thing that bothered me most about Ice Age was that it was sanitized: There are some very violent scenes, and sometimes they avoid showing the gruesome results with some clever filming, but other times you can't help but notice that some mauled creature conveniently displays no blood whatsoever. It's pretty silly. I don't demand gore, but implausibility just to make it safe for the kiddie set is irresponsible.

That said, Manny and Sid are a very funny pair, and Manny gets in plenty of snide remarks. Sid is the soul of the film, along with the human infant. There are many fine moments, and the whole enchilada feels more genuine and less cliched than your standard modern-day Disney film (the film owes a thing or two to The Lion King, but is a better film overall).

The film also has a closing sequence to equal that from Shrek, which is no mean feat.

Have you noticed how the good animated features these days are buddy films? All the Pixar films (save maybe A Bug's Life) are. So are Shrek and this one. I think the next leap in animated films will be breaking out of this mold to make something more intricate and sophisticated. An animated film for adults, with no bones thrown to satisfy the kiddie set. That's the film I'm really looking forward to.