Hey folks, Harry here... as far as I can remember this is the first review of the whole film ICE AGE, it's still rough, but it is the entire story... whereas what RAV saw a few weeks back was just a rough assembly of a couple of scenes. And it sounds pretty cool. These guys' BUNNY is awesome, and I hope like with Pixar, that Fox lets them attach BUNNY pre-film as a bonus treat. That'd rule! Here ya go...
Hi there Harry
A micro-scoop from London that's probably old news but you never know. I saw a screening of Ice Age this morning, organised for staff of News Corp and their families. The Fox marketing guy explained that it wasn't a finished print, it was going to be a video projection and there would be occasional lapses in image quality and missing sound effects - and copyright guff written across the top of the screen during the whole film. Sound of collective hearts sinking - but in fact the projection was of a high standard, could quite get the Shrek sense of every blade of grass, but it was adequate, and there were only a handful of unfinished moments.
You know what? I liked it. A lot. Coming from a house with young kids and mucho cartoons, this was up there with the best of them. Big stretch and slam energy on the action scenes. Strangely gripping story that wasn't afraid to be a bit dark - frankly, probably a bit too dark for the tinies, it was genuinely sad at times. I loved Shrek, but somehow it seemed a bit squashy and sentimental compared to this - Ice Age had a much stronger third act. I suppose what Ice Age didn't have was major stand-out characters - the Mammoth and Sloth pairing was standard (the sloth was funny in a Daffy Duck glutton for punishment sort of way), but it was dynamic to have them team up with the sabre tooth who was - and I guess this is a spoiler - a bad guy, we know he's bad, but he's pretending to be their friend. They're trying to get this human (neanderthal?) baby back to its tribe, the sabre tooth leader wants the kid to exact awful revenge upon. And off we go.
What I liked most was the script and story. The setting and the gags around the impending Ice Age were inventive and surprising - couldn't see much mileage in the period - no dinosaurs, ferchrissakes - but they managed it somehow. The humour does the current thing of making cracks for the grown-ups, but it wasn't afraid to be occasionally near to the knuckle, too. And there was loads of physical comedy and jumping around in the snow - studio people obviously think that kids today spend their entire time snowboarding and white water rafting - ha ha, is all I can say.
The animation was - what's the word - enjoyable. I guess it wasn't up there with the uber-rendering of Shrek and Pixar, and there was that inconsistency thing where some creatures are better than others - the sabretooths seemed much more clunky than the sloth, for instance. But I'd give it points for verve, and wearing its style on its sleeve - it makes its own world, and a surprisingly convincing one at that.
Over all, thumbs up. I enjoyed, the kids enjoyed, it was much better than I thought it would be. Very nice moments, touching, sad beats that are more than you might expect from this franchise ready fare. It's a whole new "dark PG" world out there.
I'll balance my enthusiasm by saying I was the only adult out of 4 in my party that rated it - but I was the only nerd, I mean buff.
Call me - Sulaco
