Computer-generated animation doesn’t kill old-fashioned fun in this sequel about a band of mismatched but inseparable ice age survivors.
By: Bob Brown
The handwriting was finally on (or should we say off) the wall when Disney Studios announced recently that they would phase out drawn animation. That’s like saying Hershey would no longer make Kisses. Or Campbell’s would abandon Chunky soups.
But what lifted animation above its crude, early roots when mice sang and dinosaurs pranced across the screen was characterization. The more an audience could identify with the moving images, even though they were drawn, the more the picture would succeed. Disney developed character-based animation into an American art form.
Now there’s a new technology to contend with. We’ve become so used to digital animation crude at first but increasingly sophisticated we’re in danger of losing what’s most engaging about those moving images; life in all its messy variety. The animated characters often seem as plastic as their bodies look.
Blue Sky Studios has blazed new paths in digital animation. But they have not lost their way when it comes to concentrating on the most important element, the characters. That’s what made their first feature-length film, Ice Age (2002), such a delight. Chris Wedge and collaborator Carlos Saldanha came up with a band of intrepid ice age survivors who were mismatched but inseparable, and an awful lot like the rest of us. It’s perhaps no coincidence that their journey to return a lost infant to his parents is like Dorothy and her friends’ trip down the Yellow Brick Road. Everyone wants to go home, wherever that is.
In this sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown, our heroes return, but with a different problem: how to escape extinction in the impending flood that will end the ice age. Manny the mastodon (Ray Romano) wonders if he is the last of his kind, until he meets Ellie (Queen Latifah). All he has to do is convince her that she is not an opossum like her two "brothers," Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Meanwhile, Manny’s tribal mates have problems of their own. Diego the saber-toothed lion (Dennis Leary) is too afraid of the water to swim, and Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) finds that being mistaken for the Fire God of the Sloths could prove fatal.
These petty problems are framed by the much larger one of finding dry land when the huge ice dam breaks. The uncomplicated plot makes it easy for the story to progress through a series of episodic adventures and brief encounters with other creatures, some amusing and some menacing. In the rush to higher ground we see a family of dung beetles rolling its burden over the rocks. Naturally, there’s a one-liner waiting to happen, about pushing the same old crap.
One curious shift is the role hunger plays. In the first film, Diego’s ethical dilemma over his identity as a meat-eater is somehow gone. The only creatures who seem to have a continuous appetite are the non-anthropomorphic sea monsters and needle-toothed fish.
The best character from the first Ice Age returns with a starring role. Scrat (Chris Wedge), the squirrel/rat who chases an elusive acorn, is the funniest running-gag on screen today. His chase breaks into what are sometimes plodding moments in the film. Let’s face it; when a soft-spoken mastodon is leading the charge, you need some high-octane energy to counter-balance the laconic pace. The opossum brothers are one thing. Scrat is on a whole other level.
Although he’s not one of the central tribe, Scrat’s a central element in the hilarious climax. His pratfalls and his movements recall the glory days of Chuck Jones at Warner Brothers. Wile E. Coyote comes to mind. Mr. Wedge credits the antic humor of the performance-oriented Mr. Saldanha and a team of comedy writers with raising Scrat’s profile. "Carlos really stretched and pushed the character," comments producer Christopher Meledrandi in the film’s production notes. He also observes, "The (first) film’s success was largely due to the fact that audiences loved the characters."
Recognizing this strength, the team did not make the mistake that derailed their otherwise stunning animated feature, Robots. Overpopulated with hyper-energized characters and an unfocused plot, that movie had plenty to look at but not much to move viewers. Meltdown stays with the core and gives the story more focus and soul. Having great voice-actors behind the characters adds a lot.
So does having one of the best ray-tracing programs in the business, Blue Sky’s proprietary software CGI Studio. This ray-tracing technology allows animators to create natural lighting and shadows, so that even fur looks furry. When it’s wetted down, it looks like matted fur, not clumps of inanimate plastic.
Blue Sky will not let computer-generated animation kill the old-fashioned fun. There’s plenty to delight the whole family in Ice Age: The Meltdown, even a couple of show-stopping song-and-dance numbers that would make Busby Berkeley proud. The ending is one of the most inspired comic bits you’ll see. And if you enjoy great film scores, sit through the credits and let the music wash over you.
Rated PG. Contains some mild language and innuendo.

