Gone Nutty

He had enough acorns to last decades, but he had to force one more into his stash. This Ice Age star, saber toothed squirrel, goes overboard and pays the price. The animation is superb and the action sequences wonderful. The main character has so many expressions that are priceless. It's a really fun little cartoon.

Like many of it's animated colleagues, Ice Age starts off with a wonderful short film, this time one which was even better known than the rest of the film before it was released. You may remember seeing previews for Ice Age that were made up entirely of footage from Scrat's Missing Adventure, which is probably the most entertaining and amusing short animated film I've ever seen. There is something to be said when a movie like Drop Zone or even a James Bond film like Moonraker can so badly screw up the concept of skydiving, and then a short children's film like this makes the effort to portray it so accurately (with the obvious exception of all that nut gathering business, of course).

I have heard that Scrat was originally meant to play a much larger role in the film, which was to be centered around him as the main character, but other characters were brought in under the demand for a more large scale motion picture. Thankfully, Scrat makes several much-welcome appearances throughout the film, but this opening sequence still stands as probably the best four minutes of the entire film.

Just like MONSTERS, INC. which ICE AGE was released almost back-to-back with, this film just *has* to have a nice, little short film to accompany it's trip to VHS and DVD.

MONSTERS, INC. included two short films. Not one, but two. The okay, MIKE'S NEW CAR and the 2001 Academy Award winning feature FOR THE BIRDS (which I do not see how it is possible). ICE AGE also just *has* to include a tiny little short film. This one is called GONE NUTTY. It is also titled "Scrat's Missing Adventure" on the box cover, but either way...

Like the terribly unfunny FOR THE BIRDS, GONE NUTTY is somewhat mean-spirited and not very nice. Scrat sure does take an ass-whooping here in the short time this film runs (which is around 4 minutes, so its not like this film is wasting much time)...it is a nice appetizer to warm you up before you watch, ICE AGE, but it is just not great.

GONE NUTTY: 3/5.

This short animation is about Scrat and his nut collection that goes terribly wrong.

"Gone Nutty" shows that imagination has no limits. Scrat is somewhat a perfectionist, he wants his nut collection to be perfectly in order. Hence, when he forces a nut into the already tightly packed collection, his whole nut collection collapses and falls off a cliff. Terror! How Scrat reacts is so much fun. It is amazing how much humour and fun can be packed into just four minutes. I am not going to spoil the ending, but I will say I am impressed and entertained by the ending. And science of tectonic plates have to be re-written!

Despite his struggles in the film Ice Age, Scrat has managed to fill a hollow tree with his precious nuts. Ever the hoarder, Scrat tries to squeeze another nut into the tree but his greed soon becomes his undoing.

Scrat was the focus of the trailer I saw for this movie, and was a really good little running joke all the way through the film, so to have his own short was both a risk (can he do it himself) and a benefit (his stuff was funny!). Happily the plot simply sees an extension of his Ice Age role of chasing nuts etc. Here the action is expanded and is actually pretty funny.

The short running time is just right as the one basic joke can't be told repeatedly over a longer time without fatigue setting in. As it is, the film just manages to do enough stuff with the nuts to keep it funny without wearing out it's welcome. The final punchline is a real exaggeration but is also very funny!

Overall I doubt this will stand up to repeated viewings (unless you're one of the toddlers I watched it with), but it is still a funny addition to the film.