 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Ice Age
- PG
- Genre: Family and Kids
- 2002
Common Sense Media says
Clever, funny, touching; like a great road movie.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this animated feature aimed at young children seems to have more than its share of scary scenes and frightening creatures. A mother drowns while trying to save her infant. Fang-toothed tigers are continually shown in close-up while on the attack. Murderous rhinos chase the earth’s most vulnerable beings. Nature’s calamities (avalanches, erupting volcanoes) are overpowering and threaten everything in their paths. Animals are depicted as killers simply for the sake of evil, rather than as a means of survival.The human tribes featured are powerless in the face of a dangerous natural world.
What's the story?
ICE AGE is a clever, funny, and touching story of an unlikely trio of animals who band together to return a human baby to his family. The story is set when glaciers covered much of the earth, 20,000 years ago. As all of the other animals migrate south in search of food, three characters are moving in the opposite direction. They are a wooly mammoth named Manny (voice of Ray Romano), a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), and a saber tooth tiger named Diego (Denis Leary). In classic road movie fashion, they don't like or trust each other very much at the beginning and the journey becomes a psychological one as they share experiences and confidences that make them see each other and themselves very differently.
Is it any good?
Ice Age doesn't reach the level of Shrek for wit and there is no romance to keep the grown-ups happy, and the plot has no surprises. But it's told with terrific energy, imagination, visual invention, and humor and it moves along very quickly. Interestingly, the three lead voices are provided by performers who began as stand-up comics rather than actors. Their voices are edgy and distinctive, perfectly matched with their characters.
The computer animation is truly magnificent, from the majestic ice-covered mountains to the texture of the fur and feathers, the glint of the sun on ice, and soft sparkle of the snowflakes falling at night. The pristine settings convey a sense of vastness and promise that will make grown-up viewers pause to think about whether civilization has been all that civilized. All ages will enjoy the facial expressions, body language and -- I have to say it -- performances of the ice age mammals, so vivid and so true that you may forget that they are pixels, not people.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about what Manny says about members of a herd being willing to risk their lives for each other. Why was it so important for Manny to return the baby, even though the humans had hunted his herd? How did that help to heal some of Manny's sadness?
Why did Diego change his mind about Manny? Why did Manny change his mind about Sid? Was it because of something Sid did or because of something Manny learned about himself, or both?
What is different about the way that Diego and Manny react to human attacks?
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AGE
This is a great movie. The only problem is that there is some violence/action that may be frightening to young children. It's nothing too bad though.
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AGE
great movie
Love it but , there are some frightful scenes . so i recommend screening in advance by the individual parent .
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AGE
definitely for ages 8 and up
After watching snippets of "Ice Age 3" on a flight back to L.A., we thought our girls might like the first "Ice Age," not realizing how much violence there is in the movie. Should've checked Common Sense first! Definite moments of peril, a saber-tooth lion getting stabbed by falling ice, etc. make this a big NO for anyone younger than fourth grade, in my opinion. Too bad, because the squirrel is hilarious!
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AGE
need to be rated G because when there was giving the baby i was crying like a baby.
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AGE
A great start for the "Ice Age" movie series!!
I have talked with some of my friends and some think that this movie is the most boring one of the Ice Age series, but I disagree. It is such a heartwarming story that the whole family will love!!! It also contains great messages and it is very hilarious with some parts! I loved it!!!!
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AGE
I love this movie and the saber toothed tiger Diego is my favorite character. I think parents are alittle to sensitive with kids movies anymore. One wrong move and thats it. Parents need to give there kids alittle headway because you can't always protect them from iffy little stunts done in a kids movie.
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AGE
good movie! one of my favorites...
couple of sly comments....
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Kid, 12 years old
March 22, 2011
AGE
Funny!
It was the first movie I have ever seen, I love it and it is very funny! the funniest part was when the birds were getting watermelons for the ice age but the baby was hungry so they defeated the birds and got the watermelons. But in one scene, the baby has to take a crap and they make some potty jokes about it.
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AGE
Definitely NOT for 5 & under.
The scene where the mother places her baby on the shore and then disappears (drowning not shown but obvious even to small children) is too much for a four, or even a five year old.
Although animal parents are frequently killed off in many movies, seeing a human mother die and leave behind her baby is a different thing altogether. My son--who is not a particularly sensitive child--was extremely upset by this scene. I did not turn the movie off at this point because I knew Disney would reunite the baby with the father and have their traditional uplifting ending and I knew it would be better to watch the reunion than to leave my child to have nightmares of a baby lost in the wild without his mum.
Had I to do it over again, I would have given the film a miss, at least for another few years.
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| Topics: | adventures, friendship, misfits and underdogs, wild animals |
| Studio: | Twentieth Century Fox |
| Director: | Chris Wedge |
| Cast: | Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Ray Romano |
| Genre: | Family and Kids |
| Run time: | 85 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | March 15, 2002 |
| DVD release date: | November 26, 2002 |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | peril and mild potty humor |
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