Ice Age

This topic contains:

• details about Ice Age’s classification and consumer advice lines
• extract from the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) decision about classification.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

Extract from the OFLC decision about classification

Synopsis

An animated feature.

As creatures begin their annual migration, Sid the Sloth teams up with Manfred the, Mammoth for protection. Sid and Manfred find a baby cast up on the banks of a river, and when the mother, exhausted, falls back into the water the two animals take care of the child. They intend to return him to the human tribe as soon as they can.

A band of sabre toothed tigers has designs on the child and the tiger leader sends his second in command, Diego, to bring back the prize. Diego decides to go even further, and lure the trio of the child, the sloth and the mammoth into an ambush. The mammoth flesh would feed the entire sabre toothed pack throughout winter.

Along the way friendships develop between the small band of oddly assorted species. When Manfred saves Diego from a collapsing ice bridge over a raging volcano the tiger experiences a crisis of conscience. At the last moment, as the ambush is about to be sprung, Diego warns his companions. Sid provides a decoy and the plan is almost thwarted, The child is safely hidden but the tigers attack the mammoth. Diego throws himself into the battle to protect his new friends. The tiger pack retreats, but Diego is wounded.

Sid and Manfred return the child to the overjoyed father, then set off together into the wilderness after they are joined once again by Diego who has made a recovery.

Reasons for the decision

The Board notes that a previous version of this film was originally classified at a higher level. This current version includes considerably more animated detail, colour and movement and therefore, in the Board’s majority view, these factors alter the treatment of the classifiable elements when compared with the previous version.

In the Board’s majority opinion, this film warrants a G classification in accordance with Part 7 in the Films Table of the National Classification Code. It is considered suitable for all viewers and contains no material which would be harmful or disturbing to most children. The treatment of themes and other classifiable elements is careful and discreet. The violence is very discreetly implied with a light tone and very low sense of threat or menace. Furthermore the humorous tone and stylised nature of the animation serve to lessen the impact of those scenes which contain violence.

Notwithstanding the above, the majority of the Board also consider that the following consumer advice is warranted “Some scenes may frighten young children”,

Some of the stronger scenes include:

Minutes 15, 18 & 19 The mother, having escaped the tiger attack, throws herself and baby off a high precipice and into the water below. After clinging on to a branch in the water, she pushes the baby towards the mammoth and the sloth in order to save her child. She is seen to smile in relief when the animals take the baby. A post action visual suggests that the mother has disappeared into the water. The lack of character development in the mother role, together with the absence of grief on the part of the infant, serves to significantly mitigate the impact of this sequence. Furthermore, the loss of the mother forms the basis for the baby’s journey and development of the narrative.

Minute 54 The ice breaks up and forms a large volcano with flowing rivers of molten lava which we see from Diego’s point of view as he dangles precariously off the edge of an ice floe. Just as the ice breaks Manny saves him but falls into the fiery abyss himself, however he is saved by a burst of hot gas which propels him back up to safety. Although this scene contains some impact because of the danger implied through the use of strong colourisation of the lava, the musical cues have been well established up to this point, and therefore, the viewer is not given the impression that Manny has died.

Minutes 66–67 Following an attack on the group by the evil tigers, a camera angle establishes a suspended cluster of ice shards which are implied to have fallen and stabbed Diego. The action occurs off screen. The following shot shows Diego lying, apparently injured, in the snow, no blood is visible, He tells the others to go on without him. Diego’s fate remains ambiguous for a short time until he is again seen at minute 72 limping towards Manny and Sid who have successfully delivered the baby safely to its father. Having positively resolved the situation, the three oddly assorted friends walk away together and into the distance.

In the Board’s minority view, this film warrants a PG classification in accordance with part 6 of the Films Table of the National Classification Code. It contains material which could be confusing or upsetting to children without adult guidance. The violence is considered to be not very discreetly implied, nor does it have a light tone or low sense of threat or menace. A further minority of the, Board also considered that the consumer advice of “low level coarse language” was warranted for a scene at 32 minutes where, when Scat jumps upon Syd, the latter was heard to mumble indistinctly “Holy shit!”

In the Board’s minority opinion, the following scenes warranted PG classifications:

The scene already outlined above at minute 15 when sabre toothed tigers attack the mother and child; minute 50 cave paintings come to life, there are shadow silhouettes of men hunting mammoth with spears. On seeing this, Manny appears saddened and has tears in his eyes; minute 67 as outlined above when Diego is wounded.