So there I was, years older and grumpier still, settling into a theater full of little towheaded brats and their requisite parental guidance. Despite my most aggressive misgivings, despite the popcorn throwing and the nasal musings and cluckings of those less restrained than myself-it wasn't long before I realized that maybe my grandfather was onto something.
"Ice Age" is the latest CGI-driven feature to up the ante in the recent animation game. I must admit, I haven't seen anything like this since "Antz" and I generally haven't wanted to. The few months of previews I'd been exposed to had made me cringe-"A weasel? With a nut?" I'd say and go watch "The Royal Tenenbaums" for the 50th time as if it'd make up for any offensive rodents. Well, as it turns out, "Ice Age" is much more than that ugly weasel (imagine, a new movie to watch!).
The film started out a little slowly and I continued to cringe as I was shown the zany weasel ad nauseum along with a veritable parade of other equally offensive-looking primitive creatures who are all migrating south for the winter. Things thankfully came into focus and sped up a little as we happened upon a slumbering sloth (John Leguizamo) who was as hilarious verbally as he was visually. After a run-in with two vaguely homosexual rhinoceri (one of many odd homoerotic references) and their leafy greens, Sid the sloth is rescued by an enormous wooly mammoth (with an even more enormous chip on his shoulder), Manfred (Ray Romano). Thus begins the assemblance of the most ragtag team since the Bad News Bears. Complications ensue when the duo come upon a drowning human and her baby, torn from their settlement by a vicious attack by a pack of sabretooth tigers. Manfred and Sid, ever the good samaritans, rescue the baby from both the perilous waters and the clutches of Diego the tiger (Dennis Leary) and embark on a suspensful and twist-filled (Diego has other plans for the trio, naturally) journey to return the boy to his father.
Sounds predictable enough-doesn't it? Well, it sort of is. This is the stuff of an animator's dream. Loveable creatures backed by celebrity personalities and a storyline so full of dilemmas and moralizing crossroads that you're left expecting a cameo from Jiminey Cricket at any moment. It would have been easy to make this a bad movie-so unbelievably, unbearably easy! To Fox's credit, however, they left no stone unturned and in the process came up with a proverbial golden egg-a smart, witty, playful and touching glimpse into what it was like before men and their machines ruled the earth, before the deterioration of love and family and all that was good and fuzzy about life before reality. Ah, the simple things.
First and foremost, this movie was funny. Any sentiment or seriousness (and there were plenty of both tucked in between the folds of fur here and there) was prevented from becoming heavy-handed by a good balance of humor from the cast and the animators alike. The details of the characters and of the lansdcape, the motion, the inflections, everything was infinitely delightful. The script was packed with small quips and epic gags and I got so carried away during the scene in which a flock of Dodo birds look almost lecherous as they try to save their melon "stockpile" (of which there are only three) from Sid that I actually turned to the little boy beside me for further input. As the birds fell off cliffs and into sinkholes; "That's so great!" I thought and then aloud: "The Dodos," I said to him, "are now entirely extinct!" Nudge, nudge.
The irony, I'm afraid, was lost on him (and, as it turns out, his mother as well). I continued, however, to get my chuckles in at every moment possible-yes, even at the ugly weasel.
Sure, it's not particularly innovative to have a gathering of strange and disparate characters thrown together to serve the purpose of some 'higher good' while at the same time learning about themselves and each other (in an admittedly cheesy pop-psychology montage we learn that the reason why Manfred is such a cantankerous loner is because his family was killed by humans, making his underlying kindness and scarce displays of emotion more poignant and strangely tear-jerking by the end). There is, however, something classic and pleasing about the whole 'underdog' ethic and the notion that things can be straightened out if we all just pitch in and, well, little furry people running around saying funny things.
The dialogue was so thorough, so incisively modern, so good intentioned and fun that I was grinning like an idiot throughout the entire time I was in the theater (and for most of the following evening). I was still cracking up at dinner, where I proceeded to annoy my entire immediate family by recounting the moment in the film where Sid comments that it's hard to get fat on a vegan diet, as well as recounting Jack Black's brief appearance as a tiger. "We know," they'd grow, "we were there."
A small turn of events in scope-me being more interested in a cutesy little PG movie about mammoths, sloths and babies (oh my). But come on, how could you not love a movie that alternately entertains you, touches you, and breaks through conservative norms enough to poke fun at the gay male stereotype and promote the virtues of a non-nuclear family? Overall, aside from all its predictable puns and endearing wildlife, "Ice Age" just wants you to have fun, to love life and, ultimately, to do the right thing.
And why the hell not.