Genre: Animation, Comedy and Family
Duration: 1 hr. 31 min.
Cast: Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Ray Romano
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: March 31, 2006

Well kids, as your teachers preach to you each and every day, global warming is the world’s biggest worry. In ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN, we learn that they were concerned about that way back in the Ice Age. Once again, the wacky characters from the original ICE AGE are back with the fear this time being the flood that is coming since the warm climate means their ice dam will soon break. The plot, however, is basically unimportant, and this is no message movie. The whole purpose of the thin narrative is to let the characters ham it up as much as possible.

As before, the scene-stealing character is Scrat, a squirrel who doesn’t talk as he pursues his elusive goal, an acorn, much as Wile E. Coyote is forever chasing but not catching the Road Runner. Big chunks of ice and other obstacles keep preventing Scrat from hanging onto his acorn. And just when half of the audience has gotten up to leave, thinking that the movie is over, Scrat starts his longest and most ambitious hunt of all, as he goes after a super-sized, golden acorn in the heavenly beyond. Whenever Scrat is on the screen, the movie consistently delights young and old.

The sequences without Scrat are more hit and miss. The best of these has Sid (voiced by John Leguizamo) standing in front of a hundred animals who are pint-sized versions of himself. They are planning on sacrificing him to the fire god. In this incident, which may or may not be a dream sequence, the belief is that his death will appease the god and make the earth stop heating up. The humor comes from his mistaken belief, at first, that they are actually worshipping him as some sort of god. He mugs for the crowd, which mimics his every gesture.

Queen Latifah voices a wooly mammoth named Ellie, who thinks she’s a possum. The mammoth named Manfred (voiced by Ray Romano) thought that, except for himself, his species was extinct, so he is really excited to meet Ellie. The visual of her hanging upside-down in the tree with her possum “brothers” is a treat. Suffice it to say that romance will soon be in the air.

The movie’s sound, full of the low rumble from the falling and cracking ice, is quite impressive. And the songs aren’t bad either, especially the “Food, Glorious Food” ditty which you’ll recognize from another movie. I could have done without the bathroom humor, such as the crap balls that some animals were taking with them in their journey to flee the coming flood. But the youngsters in the audience obviously liked these types of jokes.

Most of the film’s enjoyment comes from the sight gags, but there are a few bits of good dialog. My favorite came in the advice from the buzzards who were circling over the long line of escaping animals. “Do not leave your children unattended,” the buzzards warned ominously. “Unattended children will be eaten.”

Watch ICE AGE 2: THE MELTDOWN trailer!