ice age: the meltdown
A single-minded Scrat, the comedy relief squirrel, chases around his acorn as a watery Armageddon threatens the Ice Age. The UK release can quack about its marvelous “Kiss Your Nuts Goodbye” tagline, but everyone everywhere else will have to do with losing their “Ice.”
Sure, it’s a naughty turn-of-phrase by the marketing department, but there’s another side to it as well. “Ice Age: The Meltdown” is more similar to a cut-down and abrasively-edited Terry Gilliam production than any G-rated Hollywood animation should allow itself to be. With the abundance of Biblical analogies, with animals uniting before the end of the world and boarding something close to a Noah’s Ark, with their denial of the obvious turned to acceptance of their fate, the film dares say things, a whole bunch of things. It simply cannot not be trying to tell us something. But the asinine marketing department saves the day once again and all of those deep references turn out so bleak that they simply fade away, giving pure, senseless entertainment the room it needs to grow.
The contents of the kiddie party bag hasn’t changed from last time. We still have the same animal buddy trio of Manny, Sid and Diego. We still have a character-that-raises-conflict-just-by-being-there, only this time it’s a maniacal woolly Mammoth rather than a cuddly Neanderthal baby. Tests of friendship and cooperation have all worked before, and they’re all here, too. It is to be expected, predicted from a mile away, and yet everything’s in its right place and you couldn’t label the children’s film anything other than enjoyable. Illicit references have their own place in the world, and you won’t find that place caught dead sharing a map with “Ice Age: The Meltdown.” feedback
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