Ice Age was originally conceived byFox Animation Studios as atraditionally animated film, but became a full-lengthCGI film from Blue Sky, which had been transformed from avisual effects house to a computer animation studio. Focus shifted from making an action-adventure drama film to a more comedy-oriented one, and several writers, including Berg and Ackerman, were brought on to lighten the tone.David Newman composed and conducted the film's musical score.
Ice Age was released in the United States on March 15, 2002 by20th Century Fox. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $383 million, and becoming theeighth highest-grossing film and the highest-grossing animated film of 2002. It was nominated at the75th Academy Awards forBest Animated Feature. It spawneda franchise, consisting of several sequels, spin-offs, specials, shorts, and video games.
Plot
A herd of prehistoric animals is migrating south to avoid a forthcomingice age. Sid, a clumsyground sloth, is left behind by his family and personally chases the herd, but is attacked by an angry pair ofbrontotheres after he ruins their meal. Sid is reluctantly rescued by Manfred "Manny", a surlywoolly mammoth who did not migrate with the others. Sid insists upon following Manny, but the latter wishes to be alone and is frequently annoyed by Sid's outgoing demeanor.
Some time before these events, a human tribe hunted and killed half of aSmilodon pack for their pelts. Soto, the leader of the surviving saber-toothed tigers, leads a raid on the human camp, intending to exact revenge by personally killing Roshan, the infant son of the chief. Soto has his lieutenant Diego bring the baby to Soto alive. Roshan's mother, however, flees with her son and leaps over a waterfall. Soto orders Diego to pursue Roshan and bring him back alive, threatening to kill him if he fails.
Manny and Sid encounter Roshan and his injured mother in the river at the bottom of the falls. The woman leaves the baby with them, but is washed away. Sid attempts to return the baby to the human settlement, but finds the camp deserted. Diego offers to take the baby off the duo's hands, but a mistrustful Manny orders Diego to track the humans for them instead. Diego complies, but that night, he secretly sends word back to Soto that he is bringing both the baby and a mammoth for the pack to eat.
After several misadventures and bonding moments during their adventure, the "herd" of three travels through an ice cave and discovers some humancave paintings. Though Manny experiences a flashback to when his family was killed by human hunters, he has become deeply attached to Roshan. Diego, beginning to second-guess his mission, changes sides completely after Manny saves his life from alava flow. He informs Manny and Sid of Soto's pack waiting to ambush them atHalf Peak. Though the pair remain skeptical, having learned they were set up, Diego successfully convinces them their only chance is to trust him.
Manny, Sid, and Diego plot to trick the pack of cats and escape. This initially works, but Soto and two others manage to corner Manny at a cliff edge. Diego jumps in to fight Soto and save Manny, and is severely injured in the process. Soto is thrown against an overhanging rock and is killed by fallingicicles, which prompts the rest of his pack to flee.
As Manny and Sid grieve for Diego, he convinces them to leave him and return the baby to the humans before the mountain passes fill with snow. Manny and Sid catch up to the humans and Roshan reunites with his father, who gifts Manny the shell and bead necklace he had for his son. Diego, having survived his injuries, catches up just in time to say goodbye to Roshan, and the reunited trio, now best friends, head back south towards warmer climates.
Michael J. Wilson, who had written and developed the film's original story treatments in conjunction with Forte, wrote the first draft for the script, andChris Wedge, a co-founder of Blue Sky, was brought on to the project as the director in late 1998.[3] Fox also opted for the movie to take a more comedy-oriented direction, and brought writerMichael Berg to help emphasize a more comedic tone. After being hired, Berg reportedly told the studio that he couldn't write a film made for children, to which the studio responded, "Great! Just write a good story."[3]
Story development began in spring 1999,[5] and official production on the film began in June 2000, one week after the closure of Fox Animation Studios.[6] 150 employees were hired to work on the film,[6][7] and a budget of $58 million was granted by Fox.[3] Peter Ackerman was hired as a third writer for the film, and collaborated extensively with Berg for three years before the two eventually moved on from the project.Jon Vitti andMike Reiss, both former writers forThe Simpsons, were added later on after Berg and Ackerman left to further polish the script.[3]
For research, the film's development team took several trips to theMuseum of Natural History early on in production in order to make sure that the film authentically felt like theIce Age.[8] Ultimately, the team translated the information that they had compiled in their research by stylizing it in order to fit with the film's story.[9] A team of 32 animators went out and did research to figure out the movements of different animals; for instance, for the movement of Scrat, animators visited a park and observed local squirrels, taking note of their "twitchy" way of moving.[5]
Writing and character development
Michael J. Wilson stated on his blog that his daughter Flora came up with the idea for an animal that was a mixture of both squirrel and rat, naming it Scrat, and that the animal was obsessed with pursuing his acorn.[10] The plan to have Scrat talk was quickly dropped, as he worked better as a silent character for comedic effect. The name 'Scrat' is a combination of the words 'squirrel' and 'rat', as Scrat has characteristics of both species. Wedge has also called him "saber-toothed squirrel".[citation needed]
Scrat's opening adventure was inserted because, without it, the first real snow and ice sequence wouldn't take place until about 37 minutes into the film. This was the only role intended for Scrat, but he proved to be such a popular character with test audiences that he was given more scenes. The filmmakers made it so that many of the scenes with Scrat appear directly after dramatic moments in the film.[citation needed]
In a 2012 interview withJay Leno,Denis Leary revealed that his character, Diego, originally died near the end of the film. However, it was reported that kids in the test audience burst into tears when his death was shown. Leary warned the producers that something like this would happen. When it was proven true, the scene was re-written to ensure Diego survived.[citation needed]
Originally, Sid was supposed to be a con-artist and a hustler, and there was a finished scene of the character conning some aardvark kids. His character was later changed to a talkative-clumsy sloth because the team felt the audience would have disliked him. There was an alternate scene of Sid in the hottub with the ladies which shows him saying to them "Let's jump in the gene pool and see what happens." One of the female sloths then kicks him in the groin. This was cut because it was not suitable for children and may have gotten the film aPG-13 rating by theMPAA. Other innuendos with Sid were cut from the film. Sid was supposed to have a female sloth named Sylvia, voiced by Kristen Johnston, who was interested in him and chased after him, despite his dislike for her and his tendency to ditch her. All the removed scenes can be seen on the DVD.[citation needed]
Animation
The characters and environments inIce Age were modeled and animated using WaveFront'sMaya animation software. Rendering was completed using CGI Studio, an in-houseray tracing program being developed since Blue Sky's formation in 1987 and previously used for Wedge's 1998 short film,Bunny. WhileJimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, released three months beforeIce Age, became the first computer-animated film to make use of ray tracing technology,Ice Age would have received the distinction had it been released at the time Blue Sky began work on the movie.[5]
In order to keep the film at a more exciting pace, the development team took certain liberties with Sid in terms of realism. Although real-life ground sloths were slow-moving and rigid, Sid was given a fast movement speed in certain scenes, as well as a more flexible range of motions. Conversely, the character's arm movements were more restricted in order to retain a sense of laziness true to the nature of sloths. Manny was a particularly difficult character to animate due to his unique attributes as a mammoth, such as his long fur and massive trunk that covered up his face.[11]
Dealing with a creature which had seldom appeared in animation at the time, the team needed to figure out how Manny would realistically move with character designerPeter de Sève explaining that "a wooly mammoth isn't simply an elephant with long fur". According to co-director Carlos Saldanha, Diego was one of the most complexly animated characters in the movie, with some scenes showing off his high movement speed as a sabre-toothed tiger while others kept his movement more contained and focused on his facial expressions to carry the moment.[11]
Voice casting
The voice cast ofIce Age was encouraged tomake up their own dialogue during recording. Several lines in the film were improvised by the actors.[12]
For Manny, the studio was initially looking at people withbig voices.[13]James Earl Jones andVing Rhames were considered, but they sounded too obvious and Wedge wanted more comedy.[14][15]Albert Brooks was also offered the role.[16] Instead, the role was given toRay Romano because they thought his voice sounded very elephant-like. Wedge described Romano's voice as deep and slow in delivery, but also with a "sarcastic wit behind it".[15]
John Leguizamo, who provided the voice for Sid, experimented with over 40 voices for the character, including a slower-sounding voice to fit with the lazy nature of agiant sloth. Leguizamo came up with the final voice and trademarklateral lisp for the character after watching footage of sloths and learning that they store food in the pockets of their mouths which ferments over time.[17] Leguizamo remarked in an interview withBBC that he had wanted to contribute to an animated project for a while, claiming that veteran cartoon voice actorMel Blanc was "one of my comedy Gods" and a large source of inspiration for him as a child.[18]
The official soundtrack toIce Age was released on May 14, 2002, byVarèse Sarabande. The soundtrack consists of the original musical score composed for the film byDavid Newman and performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony. The song "Send Me on My Way" byRusted Root is also featured in the film but is absent from the album.[19] The Swedish groupBubbles released the song "Somewhere" (on their 2002 album "Inbetween") to promote the movie, outside of the United States. The Japanese version has a theme song called "A Single Drop of Tears" byZONE.[20][21][22]
The film was released on 2-discDVD,VHS andD-Theater in November 26, 2002, which contained sneak previews ofLike Mike andDaredevil in all three of its original home media releases.[26] The DVD release of it wasTHX certified and gave the viewer the option of viewing the film in either widescreen orpan and scan fullscreen.[27] Its initial home video release forIce Age was accompanied by an $85 million marketing campaign involving promotional partnerships with 14 different companies,[28] includingMicrosoft,Pizza Hut,Carl's Jr.,Dole, Langer's,Valpak,Cold Stone Creamery, and theNational Hockey League.[29] All three releases includedGone Nutty, a short film starring Scrat and detailing his further antics as he tries to bury his acorn.[30]
Another single disc release was released in February 2005 to promote both the announcement of thefilm's sequel andRobots, as well as trailers forFat Albert,Because of Winn-Dixie,Millions,Garfield: The Movie,Like Mike,The Sandlot 2,Anastasia,Home Alone,Cheaper by the Dozen, and many others.[31] At the same time, the film received a two-disc "Extreme Cool Edition" exclusively in international territories such as the UK,[32] Australia, and Germany.[33], as well as other countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America. This release retains all of the bonus features missing on original international releases, such as games and theBunny short film, aDTS audio track, a higher bitrate and a sneak preview toRobots. The release also comes with a trading card featuring the latter film's protagonist, Rodney Copperbottom (most releases like this lack both the trading cards and the sneak peek, though others that promoteRobots include trading cards with more of the characters, such as Piper, Ratchet and Fender), and a new feature called "Extreme Cool View" where throughout the film, facts about the film and the Ice Age would be shown, along with interviews from the cast and crew and featurettes on how they make the movie. A similar version would be released in the US in March 2006, around the same time as the theatrical release of its sequel (then re-entitled asIce Age: The Meltdown), titled the "Super Cool Edition"[34] albeit not including the DTS track. The film was then released onBlu-ray in March 2008, and besideGone Nutty, it included 9 minutes of deleted scenes.[35]
On October 2022, it was announced that the film would receive a nationwide limited theatrical re-release across 175 theatres from theCinemark,Marcus Theatres andCinépolis chains, lasting from October 21-28 of that year. The re-release coincided with a brief period ofIce Age-themed festivities organized by Disney, celebrating the franchise's 20th anniversary and National Nut Day. The theatres that ran the re-release also ran sweepstakes for licensed products from the franchise, including plushes, figures, aPhidal book about the characters and a redeemable code for theIce Age-themedMinecraftDLC, introduced in June of that year.[37]
Reception
Box office
The film had a $46.3 million opening weekend, a large number not usually seen until the summer season, and way ahead of Fox's most optimistic projection of about $30 million. It ranked number one at the box office during its first weekend, beating outResident Evil andShowtime.[38]Ice Age brokeLiar Liar's record for a March opening (later surpassed in 2006 by its sequel,Ice Age: The Meltdown) and at the time was the third-best opening ever for an animated feature—afterMonsters, Inc. ($62.6 million) andToy Story 2 ($57.4 million).[39]
Ice Age finished its domestic box office run with $176,387,405 and grossed $383,257,136 worldwide, being the 9th highest gross of 2002 in North America and the 8th best worldwide at the time.[1] It was one of the two animated films of that year to make over $100 million domestically, with the other one beingLilo & Stitch.[40]
Critical response
Ice Age holds a 77% approval rating onRotten Tomatoes based on 166 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. The site's consensus reads: "Even thoughIce Age is treading over the same grounds asMonsters, Inc. andShrek, it has enough wit and laughs to stand on its own."[41] Similar siteMetacritic had a score of 61% out of 34 reviews, meaning "generally favorable" reviews.[42]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote "I came to scoff and stayed to smile".[43] Elvis Mitchell ofThe New York Times called the film a "blandly likeable computer-animation extravaganza", comparing the film's plot to the 1948Western film3 Godfathers.[44]
According toCinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gaveIce Age an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[45]
With the release ofCollision Course, theIce Age series became the first computer-animated movie franchise to house five theatrical installments, not including spinoffs.[53]
^The Making of Ice Age (DVD).20th Century Fox. November 26, 2002. Event occurs at 0:35.At the very beginning, I wanted for at least the look of the film to be as authentic as it could, so we did a lot of research early on and we took trips to theMuseum of Natural History.
^The Making of Ice Age (DVD).20th Century Fox. November 26, 2002. Event occurs at 1:00.What we ended up doing was stylizing quite a bit- we took what we had learned in our research, and we just kinda styled it up to suit our story.
^J. Wilson, Michael (November 20, 2009)."Ice Age: The Story Behind the Story". News from the Soo Theatre Project, Inc.Archived from the original on October 20, 2017. RetrievedApril 14, 2021.
^The Making of Ice Age: Acting in Animation (DVD).20th Century Fox. November 26, 2002. Event occurs at 6:03.Our actors were encouraged to do as much writing as they wanted to- a lot of that stuff is in the movie.
^Saldanha, Carlos; Wedge, Chris (March 14, 2006),Ice Age - Super Cool Edition, 20th Century Fox,archived from the original on April 18, 2021, retrievedDecember 7, 2017
^"Ice Age (Blu-ray)".High-Def Digest. March 14, 2008.Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. RetrievedDecember 27, 2013.
^"AFI's 10 Top 10 Nominees"(PDF). Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. RetrievedAugust 19, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
_poster.jpg)
