Ice Age (2002)

Released in March 2002, Ice Age arrived at an interesting moment for computer-animated family films. Pixar had already raised the bar considerably with Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., and DreamWorks had just put out Shrek to enormous success. Into that rather crowded field stepped Blue Sky Studios, a visual effects house that had been around since the mid-1980s but had never made a feature film before. Ice Age was their debut, produced with 20th Century Fox, and it carried with it all the pressure of a studio trying to prove it belonged at the top table. The premise is straightforward enough: a woolly mammoth, a motor-mouthed sloth, and a sabre-toothed tiger form an unlikely trio on a cross-country mission to return a lost human infant to his tribe, all while the world around them is cooling rapidly toward the great freeze. It is, at heart, a road-trip comedy with prehistoric dressing, and it runs a trim 82 minutes, which is about the right length for what it is.

The director is Chris Wedge, who had previously won an Academy Award for the short animated film Bunny (1998) but was stepping into feature territory for the first time here. The production leaned heavily on its voice cast to carry the warmth that the animation, polished but unremarkable by today's standards, could only partially provide. Ray Romano, then at the height of his fame from television, voices Manny the mammoth with a weary, deadpan quality that suits the character well. John Leguizamo brings considerable physical energy to Sid the sloth, even working entirely in audio, and Denis Leary voices Diego the tiger with a dry edge that stops the character from being a simple villain. Goran Višnjić and Jack Black also appear in supporting roles. The combination of Romano's dry delivery and Leguizamo's manic enthusiasm gives the central trio a decent comic rhythm, the kind that tends to hold up across repeated viewings (which, as any parent will tell you, is the real test of a family film).

The film was a considerable commercial success on release and launched what would become a long-running franchise, with sequels following in 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2016. If you want to see how the series holds up across those follow-ups, I have covered Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Ice Age: Continental Drift elsewhere on the site, all of which also feature Romano returning as Manny. For now, though, this is where it all started.

Not a classic in the traditional sense, but a solid, family-friendly adventure that’s definitely above average for the genre. It’s charming, funny in places, and visually impressive for its time, especially for an early 2000s animated film. The real winner is that my kid absolutely loves this series, so I’ve seen it more times than I can count. And you know what? It’s grown on me. It’s not going to blow your mind or redefine animation, but it’s got heart, some decent gags, and Ray Romano’s mammoth is way more likable than he has any right to be. It’s not high art, but it’s a fun ride with some memorable characters (Sid, come on), and honestly, that’s enough for a good kids' movie.

I suppose that is the honest metric for a film like this: does it do what it sets out to do, and does it hold up when a small person demands to watch it again on a Saturday morning? On both counts, Ice Age passes without much fuss. Sid alone is worth the runtime, and there is something quietly good about a film that does not overstay its welcome or mistake noise for entertainment. It will never sit alongside the films I think about for days afterwards, in the way something like The Hunchback of Notre Dame can linger, but then again it was never trying to. Sometimes a fun ride is enough. And sometimes, after the fourth viewing in a week, you realise it actually is.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2002  | Watched: 2025-07-21

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Ice Age (2002) on YouTube

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca

More with Ray Romano: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) · Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) · Ice Age: Collision Course (2016) · Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)