Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The next part of the cute and comical series finds addition of more members in the herd family. Manny after a brief period of grief thinking he is the last Mammoth finds love in Ellie who thinks of herself as a Possum like her little brothers. A cute story wherein Ellie lives, acts and sleeps like a Possum just like her brothers. It is later that she realizes that she is actually a Mammoth. Sid is as always the glue of the herd but is not respected by others. He finds respect is a group of little Sloths who consider him as the fire Lord. He finally find respect but is sacrificed...huh...not killed....killing Sid is not that easy. The encounters of Manny and the two Possum brothers (as protector of their sister) was interesting and amusing. The meltdown, an effect of the global warming was the deeper thought of the movie in relation to the current situation. Scrat is as always after the fruit. He plays an important part in the end when he saves the life of the herd by dividing the flooding water through cracking of the snow. A cute story.......good for a quality time

Manny, Sid, and Diego discover that the ice age is coming to an end, and join everybody for a journey to higher ground. On the trip, they discover that Manny, in fact, is not the last of the woolly mammoths. Ice Age: The Meltdown is the perfect example of how to make a great 2nd film especially since it brings new faces and new villains to the table. For example i love Ellie's backstory and her character as a whole she's sweet and funny also i love those 2 little fellas Crash and Eddie and the new villains the Vulture and the 2 sea creatures were great and quite dangerous to begin with. The film is heavily invested upon friendship and family as well which is a good message for the kids and the overall animation is terrific. In the end Ice Age 2 is a fun, light hearted and above all fun sequel that expands the universe that the first film made and once again Scrat steals the show especially the Karate moments were entertaining as hell. (A+)

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown*** (out of 4)91 mins/ UCast: (voice) Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Queen Latifah, Will Arnett, Jay Leno, Chris WedgeDirector: Carlos SaldanhaPlot: Manny, Sid and Diego discover the world is melting and travel to find safety. JJ's Verdict: Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is everything the sequel to Ice Age should be. It improved its weaknesses (better animation, characters looking more alive and emotional), kept its best parts (scrat running after all his acorns, great jokes between 3 mains) and added its own 'extras' (new characters, threatening situations, interesting sub-plots).Ice Age 2 returns us to Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth and Diego the sabre-tooth tiger who have now become firm friends. Their relationship's start to become strained when they discover that the ice is melting and begin a evacuation process, helping other animals get away. Although in the previous film Sid was portrayed as the weak character, the other two animals face their demons in a much more mature sequel. Diego is frightened of water and, more importantly, Manny believes he is the last of his species and is trying to come to terms with this. However, when Manny does discover a female mammoth (Queen Latifah) she thinks she is not a mammoth but a possum like her two younger 'brothers'. Although her ignorance can be incredibly annoying, it is used to good effect and becomes resolved fairly quickly. Of course the brilliant Scrat the squirrel returns to find more acorns and once again fails to come out with any. He encounters piranhas and actually causes the original meltdown early on in the film. Apart from the female mammal and her two possums, there are some fun new characters. We have Jay Leno's Fast Tony who tries to capitalise on the meltdown by selling survival equipment that obviously will never work and a 'lone ranger' vulture voiced by Arrested Development's Will Arnett who constantly reminds the group he will eat them if they don't escape the meltdown. There are also two ancient crocodile type characters that are constantly chasing the group and put them in fun and exciting action sequences and threatening situations.Ice Age 2: The Meltdown is a near-complete sequel. It may be predictable throughout but not for its target audience. It ends on a heroic and bold note and what everyone wanted; Scrat having one more acorn adventure.

Back at 2002, Blue Sky Studios released their very first feature film Ice Age about three animals in the paleolithic era trying to take a human baby back to it's own kind. It became a big hit and a sequel was inevitable before it got released four years later. So, they made "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown". It shows the three animals meeting another mammoth named Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah) and two of her possum brothers Crash and Eddie (voiced by Sean William Scott and Josh Peck) while discovering the ice is melting and will cause a flow of water to kill all of the creatures. So, it's up to them to find a boat, the only place that they will be safe.I saw this in theaters back at 2006 when it was released and I thought it was very good. Sure, it's not as excellent as the original which became an epic classic, but it's still entertaining to those who still love it. The story feels like Noah's ark and it might be a bit clichéd, but it's well executed thanks to it's decent enough premise when it comes to sequels. It also has some nice moments like how we got to know Ellie's past and how she met her two possum brothers which makes it completely original. What I also liked about the story was it's relationship between Ellie and Manny which was so enjoyable and cute.There are some nice bits of dialog, but some of them lacked the wit and irrelevance that made the first Ice Age such a classic. But that doesn't mean the characters aren't likable enough to entertain us. Manny is still his anti-social self, but isn't that bad, Diego is a tough, but friendly saber tooth tiger who doesn't get along with the possums, and Sid never makes me stop laughing at his comedic antics as did the audience who had seen this in theaters as well. The new characters like Ellie, the beautiful female mammoth and her two hilarious possum brothers Crash and Eddie are likable as are the new villains in the movie the vultures who determined to eat the flesh of any fallen animal, but the only character who steals the show the most goes to Scrat, whose attempts at getting his acorn remains timeless since the original film. The strongest aspect that makes them likable is the voice cast from the likes of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Sean William Scott, Josh Peck, & others who did great with what they were given to their roles.There are other redeeming qualities for this sequel and that includes it's nice pacing, it's brilliant character animation with some nice detail on some of the creatures' furs, and it's great music from John Powell, but the strongest aspect goes to it's beautiful visuals with a brilliant look on the ice, it's landscape mountains and it's water which is one of the coolest highlights of the animation.Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I think that despite it's lukewarm reception it had when it came out in theaters, I think that this is a very good, if not excellent, sequel to a classic from Blue Sky Studios. I understand that some had called it the worst of the franchise, but for me, I'm recommending this to those who have not seen it yet.