RANGELEY – Madcap comedy ruled 100 yards of downhill racing at a slopeside “matinee” at Saddleback ski mountain Saturday.

Movie themes featured on homemade sleds at the fifth annual Cardboard Box Race ran the gamut from “Deliverance” to “Dumbo,” with a few “Wall-E” robots, Yellow Submarines, Harry Potters and “Star Wars” ensembles sprinkled in.

“We are so dead,” said more than a few young contestants as they eyed the crowd-lined course from atop the starting hill.

That feeling of impending doom, however, simply didn’t pan out for most competitors due to the warm, sunny day as sled after sled either failed to go very far or came to an abrupt stop, spilling riders every which way.

Saddleback Maine marketing director Joanne Taylor said the course failed to freeze up, unlike last year.

While most of the 62 entries could have used FedEx or UPS trucks to get their packages down the hill faster, others had all the right stuff.

They cruised like they were shot out of a cannon, rifling down the course and punching bright orange netting around a banked-up, speed-stopping mound of snow at the end.

One such craft was Dumbo the circus elephant, complete with big floppy ears and bright pink toenails. Riders Cora and Megan Flynn and Jack and Sam Kidder drew wild applause.

“Go, Dumbo!” shouted many in the crowd of more than 300 people of all ages, most of whom took a break from skiing or snowboarding to take in the show.

A perennial favorite at Saddleback, the event is more show than race: Entries are judged for creativity rather than speed.

Taylor said Saturday’s race marked the first time contestants had a theme on which to base their sleds, which could only be crafted from cardboard and duct tape.

Nowhere was that more evident than on “Deliverance,” a huge raft made from large sheets of cardboard, nine sauna tubes and 16 rolls of duct tape.

“My wife was glad to get it out of the living room,” rider Pete Chaput of Scarborough said.

The favorite-movie theme “really brought out the creativity,” Taylor said.

Many wore their best Halloween duds, while others simply donned ski outfits or duct-tape accessories such as shark fins, popcorn boxes and bags of popped popcorn atop helmets.

Chris Morris and Luke Wenzel put together a last-minute “Star Wars” star destroyer spaceship on Saturday morning. Then one donned his helmet, to which was attached a cardboard Tie fighter spaceship, and down they went.

Hilary Patenaude dressed as Dracula, headed down the slope inside a black-painted cardboard coffin topped with long-stemmed red roses. Manning the sled’s rear was her brother, Robert Patenaude, who was dressed as the pope.

Their sled was exorcised by potholes about a third of the way down the course.

Nick Colmaria and Mya Vickerson in the age 6 and under category dragged their adult musher down the course after she became caught in the “Snakes on a Plane” sled. After jettisoning her unceremoniously, the two continued on in reverse to the bottom.

Lauren Farmer’s “Wall-E” sled zoomed down the course despite losing one of its treads; “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” ran in reverse for driver Casco Haley; and teens Melissa Rudberg, Haley Snyder and Maddy Fenderson screamed all the way down on their wildly corkscrewing Aladdin magic carpet.

Three senior citizens dressed to fit their “Showboat”-theme sled, had so much speed they nearly took down the netting at the bottom as the crowd sang “Old Man River.”

While waiting for winners to be announced, Taylor summed up the contest.

“It’s a fun event,” she said. “People love it, and then we recycle the cardboard.”