So much average

Best movie of this year hands down!

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This description applies to the acorns in this 5-minute animated short film by Carlos Saldanha ("Rio"), but also to the movie in general. "Gone Nutty" came out directly after the first of so far 4 "Ice Age" films, but it's really not particularly memorable. The animation, of course, is top-notch. The ice, the central character, the acorns - everything well done. Unfortunately, this cannot make up for the lack of a real story or great comedy in these 5 minutes. The only sort-of funny moment was when they showed the creation of the continents near the end. But other than that, it's a fairly forgettable short film. Then again, I may be a bit biased because I have never been too big on Scrat. Also, where did he get all these acorns in his storage. I thought he always fails to keep them. Anyway, I do not recommend this short film and I am actually quite surprised it managed an Academy Award nomination. Glad to see the far superior "Harvie Krumpet" took the prize.

GONE NUTTY stars the cute little mouse-like thing from ICE AGE and consists of the many funny and painful things this guy does to try to break open this acorn. Clever writing take a very simple idea and milk the very most from it.How can anyone NOT like this cute little short that accompanied the release of ICE AGE?! This Fox short is amazingly good and quite comparable to products coming from Pixar and Dreamworks--in fact, I think it was much more enjoyable than the competition for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film from Pixar (BOUNDIN')--mostly because although BOUNDIN' was well animated, the story itself wasn't great. And that is where GONE NUTTY really excels. I remember the first time I saw it in the theater--lots of people were laughing out loud and that should be a good reason for considering this film for the Oscar. While it did lose to the very imaginative and weird HARVIE KRUMPET, the makers of this film have nothing to complain about--GONE NUTTY was a lovely short as was KRUMPET. Both are well worth your time.

This short is absolutely delightful and follows Scrat through a personal catastrophe to a rather dramatic (if improbable) conclusion with far-reaching consequences for life on our little mote in the eye of the universe. I wonder what my various geology teachers would have thought of this particular "explanation" for the cause of the Continental Drift Theory. I personally would love for it to be true! Or at least something equally slapstick in nature. Great little cartoon with excellent visual detail. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Like many of it's animated colleagues, Ice Age starts off with a wonderful short film, this time one which was even better known than the rest of the film before it was released. You may remember seeing previews for Ice Age that were made up entirely of footage from Scrat's Missing Adventure, which is probably the most entertaining and amusing short animated film I've ever seen. There is something to be said when a movie like Drop Zone or even a James Bond film like Moonraker can so badly screw up the concept of skydiving, and then a short children's film like this makes the effort to portray it so accurately (with the obvious exception of all that nut gathering business, of course).I have heard that Scrat was originally meant to play a much larger role in the film, which was to be centered around him as the main character, but other characters were brought in under the demand for a more large scale motion picture. Thankfully, Scrat makes several much-welcome appearances throughout the film, but this opening sequence still stands as probably the best four minutes of the entire film.