But Science!

On Friday I watched Ice Age:  Continental Drift with Elli.  It is a cute and silly movie about a bunch of talking animals during an ice age that are unlikely friends.  I couldn't help but rage at the movie much of the time though for their heinous abuse of science.

I get that the animals need to talk.  I even get that sloths, mammoths, tigers, and squirrels need to be friendly towards one another even though apparently the tiger lives on ... air?

What made me crazy though was the other bits.  Ships made entirely of ice that cross oceans on a whim.  Said ships being steered by a tiller.  Note that these ice ships have no sails and hence cannot use a tiller in any way whatsoever!  They are just big blocks of ice that zoom across the ocean for no reason and can be easily steered around tight corners.  Arghlfarghl.

Also, the giant walls of ice that move across the landscape during an ice age do NOT move so fast that a running animal will be crushed beneath their relentless advance.  It took a long damn time for ice sheets to cover the world during the ice ages and running away from them at top speed was never a necessity.  Let's not even get started on the abuses of Newtonian mechanics when it comes to the velocity of large animals flying through the air...

Of course I did like the movie.  It was silly, and sappy, and fun.  I wish though that the makers of kids movies would differentiate between the obvious and necessary violations of science like talking animals, lions not needing to eat flesh once they decide to be friendly, etc. and the unnecessary ones.

Damn, I am going to be one hell of a curmudgeon when I get old.

Picture from:  http://hotbutterreviews.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ice-age-continental-drift-3d.html