Coolness Beyond The Animation

Here's a cartoon that came out in the aftermath of 9/11, when the world was suddenly in flux and people wondered about their future. One way to weather the storm was to emphasize family (Finding Nemo). Another was to say, "Folks, we've been here before."

Ice Age is a story about characters in transition. The world they knew is coming to an end. Survival requires action, courage, persistence - all those traditional family values we might have chuckled about a decade before. Not surprisingly, Ice Age was the 9th most successful movie of 2002 - and the highest grossing cartoon of the year.

The plot of this film is a little reminiscent of Casablanca (1942) in the sense that a terrible disaster (in that case, the bombing of Pearl Harbor) has forced an unlikely lot to become the heroes they never thought they'd be. And why, because the future of the world is at stake - and if not that, then because "humanity" requires as much.

The lead characters in Ice Age are a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), a wooly mammoth named Manny (Ray Romano), a saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Dennis Leary) and an accorn-obsessive squirrel named Scrat. As the world is cooling, all the animals are moving south for survival. In the process, tigers attack a human camp and a human baby, whose mother has drowned trying to save it, is rescued by Manny and Sid, who never set out to be heroes but find themselves playing the part as they risk trouble to return the child to its kind.

The problem with being a hero is that it puts you into opposition with two groups: The bad guys (all those tigers who see mankind as the enemy) and the lead guys (those in charge who see no point to such endeavors. Our newfound heroes will have their hands full, just trying to do the right thing.

What makes Ice Age a cool flick is only partly the cutting-edge animation that fills the screen. Arguably, this stuff speaks for itself. But what really makes the story is the kinesthetic quality of the storyline. Things are always happening. Surprises pop out with a minimum of talky, story-stopping nostalgia.

That's not to say this cartoon is without its slow moments, or a certain degree of predictability. During the third act, things get a little mushy as the whole thing goes into autopilot. It's the ride up to that point that stands apart from the vast majority of animated flicks. This film dares to be a little subversive, a little quick on the take, and to put the flash back into animation - where it belonged all along.

Those familiar with Disney animation will see some interesting correlations between this film and Jungle Book, another story about animals protecting a vulnerable human child from other, predatory, animals. Both films involve the idea that there are animals out there worth trusting, animals that make us feel loved. They differ, not merely in the environment (high latitude versus tropical rainforest) but in the setting. In The Jungle Book, it's a case of humans living on the edge of the wild (with vestiges of the colonialism reflected throughout Rudyard Kiplings writings on life in India). In Ice Age, the theme is one of survival in a world whose rules have changed, and the "humanity" reflected in one creatures efforts to save another - regardless of the risk.

That's a lesson worth teaching our chidren, and ourselves.