Little guy brings mammoth laughs to ‘Meltdown’

The characters from the 2002 cartoon hit ‘Ice Age’ are coping with global warming in ‘The Meltdown.’

By Soren Andersen, for the Northwest Guardian

Meanwhile, back at the acorn …

Scrat, the needle-nosed, bug-eyed furry whatsis with the little teeny fangs and the great big acorn fetish (it’s the fetish that’s big, not the acorn), is hijacking another “Ice Age” movie with his hopeless, hapless and far from harmless, to him at least, attempts to find a safe burial place for his favorite food.

Things fall on him in “Ice Age: The Sequel,” er, “The Meltdown,” just as they did in the 2002 ’toon hit “Ice Age.” And he falls from things. High things. Making for long, screaming falls.

In a picture where almost all the animals talk, the one who doesn’t, who suffers endless indignities and near-death experiences with grunts, gasps, squeaks, eeks and sometimes shrieks is the funniest furball of all.

His antics are the comic relief within what is a decent though somewhat labored comedy. Whenever he’s onscreen, appreciative hee-hees turn to howls of hilarity.

While the other critters are gabbing about global warming, fretting over assorted fears and foibles or hashing out issues of identity – see, there’s this mammoth who thinks she’s a possum, and oh, it’s complicated – the jittery, chittering ratlike Scrat just wants to hang onto his acorn. And Mother Nature does everything she can to separate the two.

It’s simple. It’s like Lucy forever whipping the football away from Charlie Brown or Wile E. Coyote coming a-cropper every time he tries to catch the Road Runner. It’s fated failure. It’s funny as can be.

And it comes in compact doses. Chris Wedge, the executive producer of “Meltdown,” the director of “Ice Age” and the voice of Scrat, and the behind-the-camera team of director Carlos Saldanha and writers Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow and Jim Hecht give him greater prominence this time around, but they were smart enough to parcel out the wee one’s antics in small portions. A steady diet of the same old scenario would get boring. But then they went and overloaded “Meltdown” with so many plots and subplots that the picture feels positively cluttered.

Manny the mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano, frets that he might be the last creature of his kind. Newcomer Ellie the mammoth, voiced by Queen Latifah, is on hand to prove that he’s not. But she believes she’s a possum – she climbs trees, she plays dead – so mating might not be in the cards.

Diego the sabertooth, voiced by Denis Leary, another “Ice Age” holdover, suffers from a paralyzing fear of water. Sid the sloth, voiced again by John Leguizamo, suffers from an acute case of the stupids.

And there’s a huge ice dam about to melt away as global warming defrosts the ice age, unleashing a flood of epic proportions. Prehistoric monster fish stalk our heroes. Buzzards circle overhead.

Among the talking beasts, Leguizamo’s loquacious Sid gets the funniest lines. But it’s incoherent Scrat who gets the biggest laughs.

Ice Age: The Meltdown

Director: Carlos Saldanha

Cast: Featuring the voices of Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Queen Latifah (Ellie) and Seann William Scott (Crash)

Running Time: 1:30

Rating: PG for scenes of animals in peril, mild innuendo