Ice Age (movie)
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- This article is about a film. For information on continental glaciation, see Ice age.
Ice Age is a feature-length computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox in 2002. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson.
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Characters
The characters are all prehistoric animals with the exception of some non-speaking early humans. The animals can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors.
- Manfred (mammoth) - Ray Romano
- Sid (sloth) - John Leguizamo
- Diego (smilodon) - Denis Leary
- Soto (smilodon) - Goran Visnjic
- Zeke (smilodon) - Jack Black
- Scrat (squirrel-rat) - Chris Wedge
- Smilodon - Diedrich Bader
- Rhinoceros - Cedric the Entertainer
- Rhinoceros - Stephen Root
- Female sloth - Jane Krakowski
- Female sloth - Lorri Bagley
Plot
After an attack by a pack of saber-toothed cats (Soto, the leader, with Diego, Zeke and another) a camp of neanderthal humans try to protect their women and children. Jumping into a raging river with her baby, one woman is dragged downstream. She manages to place the infant on an embankment but is too drained to climb out of the water herself. Soto orders Diego to find the baby and bring it to him alive.
Meanwhile the animals are all trying to avoid the coming ice age by retreating to warmer climates. Left by his family, Sid, a clumsy Sloth, is rescued from two rhinoceroses by Manfred, one of the last remaining mammoths. Not wanting to be alone Sid follows Manfred, much to the mammoth's annoyance.
Sid and Manfred spot the baby on the side of the river and decide to return it to its tribe, but when they get there the humans have already left. Diego, still trying to pinch the baby, convinces the pair that he knows where the humans are going and begins leading Sid and Manfred to find them.
Over the course of their adventures Diego realizes that it would be wrong to harm the child and works with Sid and Manfred to return it to the tribe. At one point he even fights off his former pack. Eventually finding the humans, the trio return the child and say an emotional goodbye to the baby they had gotten somewhat attached to.
A subplot involving Scrat, a sabre-toothed prehistoric squirrel who defends his beloved acorn with paranoid fervour, is continued in the follow-up "Gone Nutty".
Alert viewers will notice the plot has some similarity to Disney's animated version of The Jungle Book (1967).
Soundtrack
The soundtrack features songs such as "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root. The Japanese release's theme song is "Hitoshizuku" by ZONE.
Factual accuracy
The film has numerous anachronisms and factual errors, though the creators can claim artistic licence. Probably the most glaring anachronism is the portrayed fate of the dodo which, unlike the other animals in the movie, did not actually go extinct until modern times.