A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Ice Age: The Meltdown

Date Viewed: 4/8/06

Details:

Voice talent: Ray Romano (Manny)

John Leguizamo (Sid)

Denis Leary (Diego)

Seann William Scott (Crash the possum)

Josh Peck (Eddie the possum)

Queen Latifah (Ellie the possum adoptee)

Will Arnett (Lone Gunslinger Vulture)

Jay Leno (Fast Tony the apocalyptic armadillo)

Chris Wedge (Scrat)

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Score: +

The Review: In the spirit of Ice Age, which illustrated the "true" cause of the onset of glaciation, Meltdown would show you the "true" nature of its termination and species preservation. Curiously, the Scrat seems central to this story, too.

Somehow, the crew of Ice Age have managed to get themselves located in a thawing Pleistocene valley completely surrounded by precipitously high ice walls: dams that hold back the inevitable flood as the ice age winds down and melting starts the build-up of lakes and small inland seas. So instead of contending against glacial winter to repatriate a human infant, the family must contend against mass extinction and the end of the world as they know it. Motivational, that.

Putting aside the quirks of geography, the vagaries of fluid dynamics, glacial geometry, and the cryonic preservation of intact life forms -- suspension of disbelief is supposed to be easier in cartoon form -- this is a fun romp. The familiar character list is augmented by two bratty little possums (voiced by Scott and Peck) and Ellie (Latifah), a critter who looks remarkably like a female mammoth but who was adopted and raised as a possum, so has a certain limited worldview as well as a predilection to sleep hanging by her tail from tree branches, to predictably comic results. To add to the antagonists -- as if impending flood and drowning were not enough -- there are some critters preserved from a previous cycle that are understandably hungry. And of course, what Ice Age would be complete without the omnipresent Scrat, contending still for his -- "his" -- acorn, and catalyzing climatic and biological change wherever he goes (as before: although in this case, it's not beginnings that you should look for, but endings: deus ex scratina).

As ever, subtle one-liners and mutated song lyrics abound: how many ways can you think of to remind someone that he's extinct? This is just as much a kid's movie as the original Ice Age, which is to say, not at all. And what would an animated film be without at least one homage to Busby Berkeley, diving swans and all? Well, we'll probably have to wait for the next time to find out, since we were given a treat here, and a riff on an old Oliver (musical) song. I hope the audience in your theatre comes better prepared, because I was the only one in ours rolling in the aisle when "Food..." started up.

(9-Apr-06)

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