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Ice Age
20th Century Fox Film Corporation

Ice Age reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 60 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.7 out of 10
based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 44 votes
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MPAA RATING: PG for mild peril

Starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, Tara Strong, Cedric the Entertainer, and Jane Krakowski

A quartet of misfits (including 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) unexpectedly, and reluctantly, comes together in a quest to return a human infant to his father. (Twentieth Century Fox)


GENRE(S): Family/Kids  
WRITTEN BY: Michael Berg
Michael J. Wilson (also story)
Peter Ackerman
 
DIRECTED BY: Chris Wedge
Carlos Saldanha (co-director)
 
RELEASE DATE: DVD: November 26, 2002 
Video: November 26, 2002 
Theatrical: March 15, 2002 
RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

90
Washington Post Desson Thomson
This digitally animated movie, filled with a cast of charming, funny critters from long ago, is family entertainment at its most bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
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83
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Ice Age never matches the brilliance of ''Toy Story'' or the heartfelt heft of ''Shrek,'' but it's an antic and sweet-spirited pleasure.
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80
Newsweek David Ansen
A clever, pleasingly sentimental tale of prehistoric times.
80
TV Guide Frank Lovece
No matter your age, this is one great AGE to be at.
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80
Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Full of visual dazzle, engaging characters and a reasonably sprightly narrative.
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80
New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Marvelously funny.
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75
ReelViews James Berardinelli
They center on the devilishly clever, exceedingly enjoyable interludes featuring the aforementioned rodent in situations and circumstances that recall the great animated work of the recently departed Chuck Jones.
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75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Its story, characters, dialogue, humor and voice performances are first-rate.
75
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Comes closer than any other recent animated film to the Looney Tunes ideal. Just as Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny entertained without either condescending to kids or lobbing adult jokes over their heads.
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75
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a fast, funny picture, and the worst thing you can say about it is that it's no "Toy Story," no "Shrek." That may be true, but one thing Ice Age proves is that the new digitized cartoons are a form whose time has come.
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75
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The coolest animation in town.
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75
USA Today Mike Clark
A minor delight but a delight just the same.
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75
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A pleasure to look at and scarcely less fun as a story. I came to scoff and stayed to smile.
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70
Variety Joe Leydon
An entertaining story that, while not terribly original, is sufficiently arresting and often laugh-out-loud funny.
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70
Film Threat Michael Dequina
To complain about the lack of originality is to ignore the real wit and joy behind this very fun film.
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67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
Cute and often clever, there's nothing particularly memorable in this computer enhanced rerun, but this harmless little comedy has an unexpected warmth that melts the frozen plot.
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63
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
How odd that some of the most appealing elements of this new animation should be action sequences as old as cinema itself.
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63
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Diverting, if undistinguished.
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63
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Ice Age snaps with visual wit whenever director Wedge breaks the stale story to pieces and pumps in some bracing fresh air. So it's fitting to find, when the final credits roll, that he played Scrat.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
There are too many moments in Ice Age when you find yourself thinking: less bonding and fewer anti-Darwinian life-lessons please; more of that anarchist Scrat.
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63
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Almost everything about Ice Age proves to be disappointingly generic.
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60
Chicago Reader Hank Sartin
The animation is remarkable, except for the stiff, marionettelike humans.
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60
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
If Ice Age lacks the fit and finish of top-of-the-line films from Pixar, DreamWorks or Disney, it's still an impressive piece of work for a new feature animation group, and a harbinger of cool cartoons to come.
50
The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Kids won't mind a bit, but adults accustomed to "Shrek" and Pixar will have no trouble spotting what's missing.
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50
Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
Has a heart bursting with good intentions, something that goes a long way in dimming from memory its inherent routineness.
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40
The New York Times A.O. Scott
The blandly likable computer-animation extravaganza Ice Age actually seems like a fossil, a relic from another era.
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40
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
It's a shame no one gave the three voice stars of this appealing animation -- Ray Romano, John Legui zamo and Denis Leary -- a shot at the script.
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40
Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Has only its stylized designs to recommend it.
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40
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The problem rather is the wholesale embracing of what has become de rigueur in animation, the practice of treating major characters as if they were stand-up comics working a room in Las Vegas.
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40
Time Richard Corliss
It yearns for Pixar-style wit without quite earning it.
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30
New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky
Renders it a cross between "Three Men and a Baby" and "Monsters, Inc." But it's bereft of the charisma of the former and the energy of the latter; stuck in a frozen wasteland, it possesses all the vigor of a Popsicle.

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
A animated classic. Brilliant.

Ciaran G. gave it an8:
You'll probably get a good laugh out of it no matter what age you are.

Astrid L. gave it a9:
Even though it was predictable, it was different. It had incredible warmth, and the lack of a better plot goes unnoticed with impeccable humour and wit in its place. Unforgettable.

apple gave it a6:
Average movie nothing speciaal... see incredibles & nemo they're great.

m k gave it a7:
Pros: some funny scenes, great cast, funny squirrel. cons: not very original (even though, they started making ice age before shrek). overview: a great family film, but just dont expect originality.

derya gave it a10:
It was wonderful it can watch many times again.

Maziyar G. gave it a 10:
It was awsome,,i sw it 4times and still i d like to see it again when ever i feel sad...!!!i love scrat and also sead is so cute!

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