Music Composed by John Powell
Rating: *** 1/2

There are only so many ways of saying that John Powell’s career is going up-up-up, that he gets better with each score, and that 2006 is his biggest year yet, so let’s just pretend that I already found a fresh way of making that observation and move on. The fact that his grand-scale comedic romp for Ice Age The Meltdown is destined to be his least significant work this year only emphasizes how far the man’s come from his early days as one of Hans Zimmer’s many lackeys.

For those of you with short attention spans (the genre’s ideal audience), this is Powell’s second score for one of Fox’s CGI animated productions. I enjoyed his score for the first, last year’s Robots, but with severe reservations. I loved the jubilant inspiration in the first act, but the by-the-book cartoon formula of the second act tended to put me to sleep. Ice Age The Meltdown doesn’t reach the same levels of quirky ecstasy, but it’s far more consistently entertaining and distinct than Robots. In fact, it’s ultimately the strongest piece of cartoon tomfoolery to come from Fox’s CGI animation division (David Newman’s score for the original Ice Age is a fan favorite, but I’ve never quite understood what differentiates it from all the other countless generic animated blusters of the past 10 years).

John Powell

It helps that the score’s melodic core is so strong, very possibly the strongest that a non-Pixar-CGI-animated-movie has received since the original Shrek (it may seem like a pretty narrow niche, but quite a few awful films of the past six years fall into that category). Indeed, the themes here are probably closer to his Shrek style of writing then anything he’s done since, which is certainly not a bad thing. The main theme is a delight, infectiously catchy and instantly identifiable as a signature Powell melody (though for some reason it also really reminds of me the song “How I Love My Hippie Life” from Hair; a coincidence, I’m sure, but one I can’t shake every time the theme appears). Powell introduces the theme in full form right from the get-go (”The Waterpark”), and then proceeds to pepper just enough of it to throughout the rest of the score – we never feel its absence for too long, but it never wears out its welcome either. There are also numerous secondary themes floating around, all of which probably have clearer significance in the film than I can indicate here (irresponsible critic that I am, I did not make the effort to actually see Ice Age The Meltdown before writing this review). One appears to be for Sid the Sloth, a clumsily, carefree and generally oboe-driven melody (again, introduced in “The Waterpark). It gets its fullest rendition by what sounds like a choir of chipmunks in “Sid’s Sing Along,” a wonderfully insane free-for-all that seems to have been inspired by Danny Elfman’s Oompa-Loompa music from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (not be confused with Danny Elfman’s Oompa-Loompa music from Good Will Hunting). And of course, there’s at least one requisite sentimental theme (”Log Moving,” “The Water Recedes”), but it’s genuinely moving and nowhere near as sappy as it might have been in a lesser composer’s hands. That last theme tends to dominate the score more and more as the album progresses, until it finally sings through in full glory for the triumphant “Into the Sunset”audio clip.

Indeed, one of the music’s greatest assets is that it actually builds and develops into something greater throughout the album’s mammoth running time (it’s rare for a score like this to be any more structured than a Carl Stalling cartoon). I’ll grant that more than an hour of this stuff is still a bit excessive, but there’s enough variety in pacing, tone, and dynamics to keep the album from turning into an hour-long headache of hyperactive mayhem. Certainly, the score has more than it’s fare share of animated antics (”Sad Manny and the Possums” and “Manny to the Rescue” are buoyant delights), but the music has an unusually wide emotional range. Powell’s subtle choral effects in “The Vulture of Doom” and “Ellie Gets Trapped” actually manage to generate traces of genuine sadness without souring the overall lighthearted tone, while his penchant for off-kilter instrumental choices (including shakahuchi, dulcimer, ukulele, and mandolin ala Thomas Newman) brings an unsettling edginess to cues like “Call of the Mammoth” and “Scrat to the Rescue.” Add to this a few hilarious new arrangements of concert warhorses like Aram Khatchaturian’s Adagio from “Spartacus” in “Pearly Gates,” and several passages of thrilling action writing (”Attack from Below the Ice,” “Rescues all Around”audio clip), and we have so many different ideas developing that the score nearly earns its gargantuan length.

The score isn’t a classic, but runs with Powell’s now-distinct voice from start to finish, and shames the generic John Debney fluff that usually dominates the genre. Set against Powell’s higher profile/prestige work for the more recent Flight 93 and X-Men: The Last Stand, this one may seem like a low-priority Powell purchase, but for sheer animated exuberance that actually has, god-forbid, a little bit of organic structure, the CD is more than worth your while. If Powell continues his relationship with the Fox’s animation division, he’ll likely find himself attached to the studio’s upcoming ill-advised adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who. I can’t think of a project I’d be more horrified to see the studio destroy, but based on the merit of Powell’s Ice Age The Meltdown, I can think of few composers I’d rather see let loose on the good doctor.

Ice Age The Meltdown; Music Composed, Arranged and Produced by John Powell; Orchestrated by John Ashton Thomas, Brad Dechter, Bruce Fowler, Mark McKenzie and Randy Kerber; Conducted by Pete Anthony; Recorded and Mixed by Shawn Murphy; Label: Varese Sarabande, (302 066 725 2); Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: March 28, 2006

01. The Waterpark (2′24)
02. The Vulture Of Doom (1′18)
03. Migration (3′32)
04. Call Of The Mammoth (1′53)
05. Sad Manny And The Possums (1′44)
06. Manny And Ellie Meet (3′44)
07. Traveling With Possums (2′00)
08. 12 Ton Mammoth & A 10 Ton Possum (1′55)
09. Attack From Below The Ice (2′05)
10. Extreme Possum (1′50)
11. Who Will Join Me On the Dung Heap? (0′44)
12. Log Moving (0′59)
13. Ellie Remembers (2′41)
14. Foggy Balance (3′53)
15. Goodnight Sweet Possums (0′48)
16. Kidnapped (0′56)
17. Sid’s Sing-A-Long (2′09)
Composed and Produced by John Powell
18. Food Glorious Food (1′34)
Written by Lionel Bart
19. The Boat and the Geysers (2′40)
20. The Dam Breaks (1′54)
21. Ellie Gets Trapped (0′32)
22. Manny to the Rescue (2′08)
23. Rescues All Round (3′05) audio clip
24. Scrat to the Rescue (1′28)
25. The Water Recedes (1′52)
26. Mammoths (1′24)
27. With the Herd (0′25)
28. Into the Sunset (3′01) audio clip
29. The Pearly Gates (1′32)
(”Adagio” from Spartacus) Written by Aram Khatchaturian
30. CPR (0′14)
31. Mini-Sloths Sing-a-Long (2′13)
32. The Meltdown (4′25)

Total Playing Time: 63′02