 Tagline: Kiss Your Ice Goodbye Your favorite sub-zero heroes are back for another incredible adventure in the super-cool animated comedy Ice Age: The Meltdown! The action heats up - and so does the temperature - for Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. Trying to escape the valley to avoid a flood of trouble, the comical creatures embark on a hilarious journey across the thawing landscape and meet Ellie, a female woolly mammoth who melts Manny's heart. With its dazzling animation, unforgettable characters and new Scrat short, Ice Age: The Meltdown is laugh-out-loud fun for the whole family! Storyline: Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, and the hapless prehistoric squirrel/rat known as Scrat are still together and enjoying the perks of their now melting world. Manny may be ready to start a family, but nobody has seen another mammoth for a long time; Manny thinks he may be the last one. That is, until he miraculously finds Ellie, the only female mammoth left in the world. Their only problems: They can't stand each other--and Ellie somehow thinks she's a possum! Ellie comes with some excess baggage in the form of her two possum "brothers"-- Crash and Eddie, a couple of daredevil pranksters and cocky, loud-mouthed troublemakers. Manny, Sid and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: A huge glacial dam holding off oceans of water is about to break, threatening the entire valley. The only chance of survival lies at the other end of the valley. So our three heroes, along with Ellie, Crash and Eddie, form the most unlikely ... Written by gavin (gunmasterM@hotmail.com) Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman on March 20, 2008 -- Let go of the past so you can have a future. What would the world be without sequels to movies starring cute animated characters? We're up to about ten zillion Land Before Time movies and several Shrek flicks, so it comes as no surprise that the success of Fox's lovable, all digital smash hit Ice Age has spawned a sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown, with a third movie in the franchise (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) planned for 2009. While this second film in the series returns to us four of the most memorable and cherished characters of recent memory (and introduces us to a few more), Meltdown fails to provide the same charm, wit, action, and laugh-a-minute jokes that populated the first. Make no mistake, Meltdown is a worthy successor, but like so many sequels, this one just can't quite manage to re-capture the magic of the first. Manny (Ray Romano, Welcome to Mooseport), Sid (John Leguizamo, Land of the Dead), and Diego (Denis Leary, Rescue Me) are back, this time trying to escape a new crisis--global warming. Despite the warnings of "Fast Tony" (Al Gore, er, Jay Leno, Cars) that global warming is here, our trio of misfit heroes doesn't believe it until they see the melting ice for themselves. Once again migrating towards safety, this hodgepodge of heroes must deal with their individual struggles. Sid tries to find acceptance, Diego must face his fear of water, and Manny comes to terms with the fact that he may be the only Wooly Mammoth left alive-- until he meets a female mammoth named Ellie (Queen Latifah, Hairspray, perhaps so named as an homage to E.L.E. from Deep Impact, an acronym for "Extinction Level Event," certainly an appropriate monicker here). Unfortunately for Manny, however, Ellie has been raised by possums, and she believes herself to be one. As Manny tries to convince her otherwise, the group marches onward, in search of the migrating pack that they hope will lead them away from the end of the world. They'll face more comical trials and tribulations along the way, each character learning a little something about themselves, their world, and the importance of friendship and sticking together. Ice Age: The Meltdown definitely offers up fewer laughs than its predecessor as the film takes on a slightly more serious tone. The action is also toned down, the enemy this time a pair of alligator-fish type creatures who dwell underwater, obviously putting our group in imminent danger as the ice melts and more water covers the Earth. A companion for Manny was a given in this film, and Queen Latifah provides an excellent and amusing foil to the character of Manny, especially while she believes herself to be a possum. Sid, of course, remains as lovable and foolhardy as ever, while Diego maintains his aura of toughness over a soft, well-mannered interior. Scrat also returns, getting himself into more misadventures in mere minutes than the entire cast of Ice Age has managed over two full-length films, and his presence solidifies both the film and the laughs. While Ice Age: The Meltdown is a slower, slightly less magical film than the first, it's a good, worthwhile film in its own right, one that should please most fans of the first movie. Though a bit slower paced and not quite as entertaining as the first film in the franchise, Ice Age: The Meltdown nevertheless sees the return of the same fantastic character set, each maturing before our eyes throughout the film. The laugh factor remains high, mostly thanks to Scrat and Sid, and the rest of the characters, both old and new, fill out the roster and together make a worthwhile sequel that's better than a lot of similar animated sequels. Fans of the movie and of the series should be ecstatic about adding this disc to their collection. It offers up a superior video and audio quality, as well as a heaping helping of extras that are fun and informative. Highly recommended! Cast Notes: Ray Romano (Manny [voice]), John Leguizamo (Sid [voice]), Denis Leary (Diego [voice]), Seann William Scott (Crash [voice]), Josh Peck (Eddie [voice]), Queen Latifah (Ellie [voice]), Will Arnett (Lone Gunslinger Vulture [voice]), Jay Leno (Fast Tony [voice]), Chris Wedge (Scrat [voice]), Peter Ackerman (Dung Beetle Dad [voice]), Caitlin Rose Anderson (Glypto Boy Billy/Beaver Girl [voice]), Connor Anderson (Rhino Boy/Beaver Boy [voice]), Joseph Bologna (Mr. Start [voice]), Jack Crocicchia (Elk Boy [voice]), Peter DeSève (Condor Chick [voice]). IMDb Rating (05/19/13): 6.8/10 from 111,067 users
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
