Ice Age (***)
review by Jon Waterman

A sloth, a woolly mammoth and a saber-tooth tiger walk into a movie, and they find this baby, right?  So, they have to sort of take it back to the humans, right?  But the tiger wants it for food, but the other two don’t want him to eat it, but they need him to lead the way, so they can’t get rid of him, right?  And it’s just funny.  I guess you had to be there.

From the looks of it, many of you were there to watch “Ice Age” on its opening weekend.  I was as well.  It’s probably the best movie I’ve seen this year.  But at the same time, it’s not perfect.  There’s still some stuff to gripe about.  However, I should throw some compliments out there while I’m throwin’ stuff.

This is a movie of first-timers.  First-time writers Peter Ackerman (who also did a couple voices), Michael J. Wilson (who also came up with the story) and Michael Berg (who also is named Michael) joined forces to type up the hilarity.  First-time directors Chris Wedge (who also wrote/directed the Oscar-winning short “Bunny”) and Carlos Saldanha (who also worked on “Bunny”) joined forces to direct the hilarity.  First-time actor in an US feature Ray Romano (who also stars on the hit sitcom “Everybody Loves Raymond”) joined forces with many people to voice the hilarity.  But is this movie funny?

Yes.

Expect a lot of physical comedy.  Many falls, a lot of hitting things, much cartoon pain.  However, with such seasoned pros as Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Jack Black, and Stephen Root on staff, you know there will funny dialogue as well.  The funniest part of the movie, surprisingly, was the recurrence of that little guy you see in the trailer, Scratch (voiced by director Chris Wedge).  When I was slightly starting to get tired of the tired story, that little guy came on and made things right again.

Speaking of the story, it’s not really not a new tale.  It’s really a mix of “Shrek” and “Monsters, Inc.”  We have a mammoth (Romano) who is teamed up with a sloth (Leguizamo) against his will, and they have to return a baby they found to its rightful home.  There’s a lot of hokey stuff said.  A lot of standard situations.  In other words, it was a typical kids movie storyline.

So, here’s the deal.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you probably should.  Movies are always more fun when you’re with a crowd.  You’ll have fun.  You’ll laugh.  You probably won’t cry, unless you’re really, really sensitive or have some glandular problem.  Ah, quit reading this and go see it.

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