A Whole New World
Ice Age may not have the most original premise but what it does do is take this concept and add some visual flair to it, making for a really beautiful episode. With strong themes around humanity’s end and our possible future, Love, Death & Robots keeps its consistency running throughout this episode. In many ways, Ice Age isn’t like a lot of the other episodes here. Almost all of the content occurs in real-time but the story revolves around a young couple moving into their new apartment. An old fridge lies dormant in the kitchen and when they open it, they reveal a whole civilization at work. Through time-lapse animation, we see the progression from the Ice Age through to modern cities and a subsequent nuclear explosion that engulfs the world in flames. From the ashes rises a new, futuristic city which eventually explodes into a blast of colours and lights that swarm and surround the couple. As everything inside the fridge seems to disappear, the couple shut the fridge, switch it off at the wall and go to bed. When they awaken in the morning, they open the fridge to find a Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing after a pack of monkeys across a lush, open field. The episode then ends with one final roar and an end to this episode. For anyone who’s followed The Simpsons since its early 90s run the tale told here is really quite familiar. In The Simpsons, Lisa accidentally creates a new civilization in a petri dish and watches it grow before descending into war. Ice Age is much the same concept. The difference here comes in the form of the camera movements which takes us deep inside the fridge itself, zooming and weaving around buildings and creatures as we see our beautiful planet recreated in all its most iconic stages. The acting between the couple is suitably cheesy though and the dialogue really only serves as exposition for the visual treat which lies inside the fridge. Thematically the episode does well, reinforcing the dangers of our own greed and a nod toward an appreciation for our natural world. It’s a subtle message and one that thankfully isn’t too overbearing. Ice Age is one of the better episodes here and the story, combined with the visual delight of seeing our world recreated inside a fridge, helps to elevate this one over some of the more average episodes on offer. It may not be the most original concept but there is something remarkably satisfying with seeing our world recreated from the ground up.
