Artistic Curation: Jennifer Villagomez-Lopez
When thinking about this project I wanted to take a dierent approach to the types of films that talk about the theory of the Anthropocene. There are many documentaries and movies that bring this topic upon people but there is always a targeted audience. Only people who want to know more about how climate change has aected people all around the world watch these types of films. I thought about movies that aren’t necessarily “pushing” climate change onto people and would still bring attention to this important subject regardless of what stance people take. Then I thought about children’s movies, are there any movies for kids to learn about this and how it’s only getting worse as the years go on. The movie I chose for this project was “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown”. A sequence from the original Ice Age movie created by Blue Sky Studios.
The story starts o by having the three main characters: Manny (wooly mammoth), Sid (sloth), and Diego (saber tooth tiger), who are living in a big valley surrounded by an enormously high ice wall on all sides. Nevertheless the trio subsequently discovers that the ice walls are melting and the dam that is barely holding a massive reservoir could flood the valley to almost a mile underwater if it fails. A vulture tells them that there are boats at the other end of the valley that could potentially protect them all and save them, but they only have three days to arrive or they will all die. Shortly after, a vast chunk of ice splits o from the top of the dam, commencing their instant evacuation.
The ice melting is a clear indication of climate change and how ice that has been solid for years is starting to melt and flood habitats. It’s important for these animals to escape the dangers of dying due to the dam not being able to hold the large amounts of water created by their chunks of ice. There is also potential for extinction in these animals if they are truly the last of their kind and which we have seen is a huge issue today and animals are becoming extinct. As the story goes on Manny the wooly mammoth is worried that he is the only mammoth alive due to the humans killing them o for their own gain. We see this often nowadays where humans are killing elephants for their trucks and are now becoming close to extinction. Luckily they all made it out alive and helped their community move away from their home, even though they were all hesitant about the glaciers melting being real. This also makes a connection with people who don’t believe in climate change until they see it right before themselves.
Though this isn’t the typical movie to compare such an impactful subject but it’s a start. I find it interesting that they were able to bring this subject in a subtle way and not become a controversial movie because that’s what usually tends to happen when movies talk about climate change especially to those who don’t believe in it.