Be forewarned... I discuss the plot to the Ice Age: The Meltdown, so don’t continue if you plan to see the film.

My family and I (along with the rest of the planet’s children) went to the advance screening of the movie last night, which even at a kid-friendly 90 minutes, was too long. The plot was just a little thin to cover that much time and the filler felt like...well, filler. It’s also living proof that pratfall is the basest form of humor, appealing to all age levels. I suspect Scrat (that spastic prehistoric squirrel) is going to get his own cartoon somewhere down the line.

Anyway, the story involves a precarious journey out of a valley that will flood in three-day’s time because of its unfortunate proximity to a gi-normous wall of ice holding back the result of several years worth of global warming.

Their only hope is to flee the valley in time to reach “the boat” (which is actually a piece of bark presumably from the prehistoric age’s most gi-normous tree). Add a romantic side story between two mammoths, one of whom thinks she’s a possum, a saber-tooth tiger afraid of water, several doses of Scrat sprinkled between scenes (thereby advancing a more sinister form of ADD in children), and you’ve pretty much got the whole movie.

And my complete inability to suspend total disbelief reared it’s ugly head again…in addition to the improbability of there being a piece of bark so large that it can hold every single living creature in the valley, the lead character, a wooly mammoth, displays incredible underwater maneuverability while fighting a couple of sea creatures, and again when swimming off to save the other mammoth. A sample snippet of conversation:

Me: (leaning over, whispering) That could never happen.
Him: Hon, it’s a kid’s movie…
Me: No, I know, but seriously, that’s not realistic…
Him: It’s an animated film…
Me: (shrugging) I’m just saying…

It’s probably not worth knocking yourself out to go see unless you have kids, but it’s still a cute, funny movie (I laughed out loud several times) and what I loved most of all was seeing all our kids have a great time.

Speaking of agreat time, what a bonus to have semi-sunny weather on a day that I already happened to take a half day off from work…woo!!