Ice Age

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.

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.

Newsweek David Ansen

A clever, pleasingly sentimental tale of prehistoric times.

TV Guide Frank Lovece

No matter your age, this is one great AGE to be at.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Full of visual dazzle, engaging characters and a reasonably sprightly narrative.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Marvelously funny.

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.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Its story, characters, dialogue, humor and voice performances are first-rate.

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.

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.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

The coolest animation in town.

USA Today Mike Clark

A minor delight but a delight just the same.

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.

Variety Joe Leydon

An entertaining story that, while not terribly original, is sufficiently arresting and often laugh-out-loud funny.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

To complain about the lack of originality is to ignore the real wit and joy behind this very fun film.

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.

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Diverting, if undistinguished.

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.

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.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Almost everything about Ice Age proves to be disappointingly generic.

Chicago Reader Hank Sartin

The animation is remarkable, except for the stiff, marionettelike humans.

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.

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.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Has a heart bursting with good intentions, something that goes a long way in dimming from memory its inherent routineness.

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.

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.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

Has only its stylized designs to recommend it.

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.

Time Richard Corliss

It yearns for Pixar-style wit without quite earning it.

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.