And, In Conclusion -- Ice Age 3
Pete Holland Jr.
The Clones," it is misleading (it should have been "Counterattack Of
The Clones"). It's more like, "Evening Of The Dinosaurs," since the
characters comment they should already be extinct at this point. But
let's face it -- that's not as catchy a title.
Full disclosure right up front: I love Scrat. Scrat is one of my
favorite recent character creations. The Ice Age movies tend to be a
bit uneven and sometimes vary wildly in quality (I simply could not
buy the second movie's central conceit, that Ellie had no idea she
wasn't a possum). But I will gladly put up with that as long as that
Sisyphus Of Modern Cinema is still struggling to get that nut. Borne
purely on accident, he was created simply to intro the first movie.
But test audiences loved the little guy so much, the filmmakers tried
to figure out ways to incorporate more scenes with him. In a case of
serendipity, it was too late to rewrite the script and incorporate him
into the A plot, so they just threw together little scenes and
sprinkled them in the film. And thank Elvis for that. Existing in
his own little separate realm, Scrat does his Buster Keaton-ish best,
starting the movies with a bang and sending the audience out on a high
note, as well as starring in two shorts, one good, the other a riot
with the funniest Statue Of David gag I have ever seen. Repeat
viewings of Ice Age in the theaters will find me hitting the snack bar
or whatever only after a Scrat subroutine has been called and executed
and flow has returned to MAIN.
As a result, reviewing an Ice Age movie requires splitting the review
into two: one section covering the film's A story with the Manny,
Sid, and Diego trio, and a second section covering Scrat. I admit it
seems odd to go to the theater and pay full price for what amounts to
a five minute cartoon stretched out over an hour and a half, but I
spend more money seeing bad movies every month (I saw Battlefield
Earth twice in the theater), so this isn't such a stretch for me.
Ice Age 3 does have its wobbly bits, but the A story actually works
well enough, certainly better than 2's did. There aren't as many
scenes that defy reason, like Manny and Ellie's argument on top of the
spinning rocks. It does rush into setting up its character conflicts,
like Diego thinking he needs to go off on his own and Manny acting
like a jerk about it, happening so rapidly and feeling so manufactured
you can almost hear the screenwriters saying, "Ah, it's Friday, let's
hit the bar." Sid, as usual, refuses to look outside his self-centric
delusions and finds three eggs that hatch into little dinosaurs,
giving him a family he feels Manny is denying him (Ellie's pregnant
when the movie opens -- you know, the Miracle Of Life is factoring
into a lot of movies this summer. Star Trek, Up, even Wolverine when
he gets his skeleton). When the dino's real mother shows up to take
them back, she grabs Sid along with them, and the rest of the crew
treks off to rescue him.
Manny is pretty much reduced to bumbling, worry-wart father-to-be in
this one, although there are times when his sardonic detachment does
surface. He tries to give Sid a pep talk -- "Someday you'll meet a
girl with low standards and no real options...." Diego is still given
a pretty singular character arc like in 2, only this time, it's the
notion that he's losing his edge (at least they address that some of
the creatures are carnivores this time around). Ellie is actually
quite likable this time around, as are Crash and Eddie. It would just
be nicer if their changes were more in balance with the central trio's
character flaws, which played so well off each other in the first
film.
Stealing a few scenes is Buck, a weasel voiced by Simon Pegg. Buck is
in the subterranean world of the dinosaurs, and become the group's
source of survival in the foreign environment. Acting like an
unhinged special forces guy (complete with Moby Dick riffs and a "cut
the red wire, or the blue" gag), he can be fun to watch. A little
rough around the edges at times, but still some fun to be had.
The computer animation seems to be Blue Sky trying to show that their
software can run with the big dogs at Pixar, Dreamworks, and Square.
Lots of little details if you look close enough. The fur looks a lot
fuzzier and free moving this time around. The water looks and moves
like water (when the dam broke in the third act of 2, it looked
incredible, but didn't seem to move quite right). And a lot of set
pieces seem geared either as the set-up for a video game or to show
off, like an admittedly dazzling flight scene with other dinos in
pursuit and Sid in danger of going over a lava fall. From a demo reel
perspective, it's pretty impressive.
Thankfully, they actually do some stuff with it. There's the flight
bit that turns into a dogfight. A scene where the characters are in a
cloud that combines the effects of helium and laughing gas gets a lot
of mileage (when Diego's laugh gets squeaky, Crash and Eddie say,
"That is SO disturbing!"). My only real complaint is that the
character models, while nice and detailed, don't really seem to
"act". The reactions, poses, and expressions convey and emote, but
don't really sell what they are going through.
With one, or in this case, two notable exceptions.
As anyone who has seen the trailer knows, Scrat has a love interest/
rival this time around, a flying squirrel rat who is just as
exploitative and opportunistic (and nut-obsessed) as he is. While
Scrat is channeling Wile E. Coyote and Daffy Duck, she is channeling
Pepe Le Pew (one bit, where she's caught in a tar bubble, has her
moving with short, confident, deliberate hops to propel herself
around). The best scene is also a tribute to the skill of John
Powell, who is becoming one of my favorite movie scorers. Her first
appearance is punctuated with Lou Rawls crooning "You'll Never Find A
Better Love Than Mine." Powell incorporates the song into many of the
bits, including a hilarious tango as the duo battles over the nut.
Like Scrat, she doesn't speak, and is reduced to expressing herself
through body language and crude vocalizations. As a result, she has
far more spark than the other characters in the film and holds her own
in the scenes with Scrat. I don't want to say more, as the
characters' relationship is great to watch and I don't want to spoil
it. But, as every Scrat fan knows, he will never get that nut.
Powell's score for the rest of the movie is also excellent. He
incorporates some of the stuff he did for 2 to provide a familiar
base, but also makes it stand on its own. The subterranean world will
take you back to the B movie days of Last Dinosaur and such, complete
with the underground world somehow having a sunrise and sunset. It's
not as labored as 2, and in a summer full of movies clocking in at two
hours or more, it's 94 minute running time is a blessing as it doesn't
overstay its welcome. Always worth it for the Scrat bits, but the
rest of the movie is more worthwhile this time around.