Dir. Carlos Saldanha, 2006, US, 90 mins
Cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Chris Wedge, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Jay Leno
Review by Hemanth Kissoon
Manfred: “You really think she's the girl for me?”
Sid: “Sure. She's tons of fun, you're no fun. She completes you.”
The one-liners are back. Manny, Diego, Sid and Scrat are back. Wisely, as with Pixar’s Toy Story 2 and PDI’s Shrek 2, the powers-that-be at Blue Sky Studios stayed with the original voices. Unlike those two great movies they have added the irritating Latifah and Scott, whose shtick once funny, is now proven to be one note. (Latifah can be great in a serious role – see Living Out Loud, and hopefully Scott will extend his range in Richard “Donnie Darko” Kelly’s new one Southland Tales).
Romano’s sad sack mammoth Manny, Leary’s short-tempered sabretooth Diego, Leguizamo’s hyper-active sloth Sid and Wedge’s ridiculously determined prehistoric-squirrel-thing Scrat may not have yet reached pop-culture status like Woody, Buzz, Shrek and Donkey, but are all fine animation creations.
Since we last encountered our heroes there is now a multi-species herd living relatively happily together. The good times stall abruptly though as the Ice Age era is coming to an end. Like The Day After Tomorrow climate change is rapidly speeded up for tension building. The ice is melting, hence the title. Some vultures randomly warn the herd that they must reach the end of their valley to get to a boat before the ice melts and drowns everyone. The journey for survival then begins. Like The Odyssey, whose timeless themes have been updated to the Second World War (Saving Private Ryan), the American South (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and the US Civil War (Cold Mountain), the film is episodic in nature as Manny, Diego and Sid encounter numerous dangers and meet Ellie (Latifah) and her adopted brothers Crash and Eddie (Scott and Josh Peck) along the way.
After four years since the original there has been a real step up in the animation – the fur is impressive, as when you first see Sully’s in Monsters, Inc. It seems to move with the wind and body movement and is especially good when wet (how often do you get to say that in a review!). There are also some great visual gags and touches – e.g. the vultures breaking into an impromptu Oliver! song (about food, glorious food), and an iceberg slowly turning around to reveal a dragon-like frozen dinosaur. The makers also realized what a great creation Scrat and his search for acorns is and extended his time. He is still a fab Itchy & Scratchy-style running gag. Adults should be sated with jokes aimed at them, with references to hip-hop gang signs and Manny being labelled a pervert - when was the last time you heard that in a cartoon?
The Meltdown is ambitious in its cinematic choices (e.g. a huge pull out shot) and sound effects, but it sometimes feels tokenistic due to their infrequency. The music score is not the traditionally animation cutesy, which is a relief.
The plot however is nothing special and borrows on the cartoon feature film prehistoric staple of trying to find a new land to survive (see Dinosaur and The Land Before Time). Writers and directors need to look at Pixar/Shrek for original and tight plotting. Also, if there’s going to be a moral try and make it convincing and relevant. Ice Age was about forgiveness and compassion. A half thought out message appears to have been shoehorned into the end of the sequel.
The Meltdown is at least more enjoyable than the mediocre crop of recent CGI animations – Shark Tale, The Polar Express, Robots, Madagascar and Chicken Little. Little time and effort seems to have been given to those stories, which is also a good guess as to why old-school cell animation has been under-performing critically and commercially. This year will be the test for CGI, the novelty is wearing off and instead of the handful of releases there will be about a dozen, including: Hoodwinked from The Weinstein Company, Over the Hedge from PDI, Dreamworks Animation and Aardman Animations’ Flushed Away, The Wild from Disney, Luc Besson’s Arthur and the Minimoys and Cars from Pixar. If writers and directors rest on their laurels the new technology will not be enough to save them from box-office disappointment. It is no good reinventing the wheel if there is nothing to attach it to.
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