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Ice Age: The
MeltDown
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha
Starring: Ray Romano (voice)
Genre:
Animated
Run Time: 91
min.
Release Date:
March 2006
On The Web:
Official
Site
Teaser:
Movie Trailer
Reviewed by
Byron Merritt |
Although nowhere near as
entertaining as its precursor, ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN has its
moments. It’s just unfortunate that those moments are spread too thin.
The animation is, of course, top-shelf. You can see every hair on Manny
the Mammoth, and can see excellent reflections from dangerous fish below
the ice. And although there are (thankfully) no human figures in this
story — as there were in the first — this one loses out by having a
lackluster story that goes nowhere.
The biggest plus for me, though, was its comedic mention of global
warming (something I’m glad Hollywood is exposing to our younger
generation so that they can become activists for the planet). When the
ice starts its rapid melting, the animals take notice and get on the
move (a message we can all take note of). But enough about science...
The story is that of Manny the Mammoth (Ray Romano, EVERYBODY LOVES
RAYMOND TV series), Diego the Sabertooth Tiger (Denis Leary, THE
REF), and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo, MOULIN ROUGE).
They’re a mismatched tribe that works dysfunctionally well together.
Once the ice starts melting, Manny and his buddies understand — thanks
to some nasty looking vultures — that they need to get a move-on out of
their valley or they’ll all drown. Convincing all the animals to
head-out, they begin trekking onward toward safety. But with them comes
Manny’s understanding that he is alone. There are no more mammoths and
this is pointed out to him by all of the parents who show their kids
“the last of his kind.”
But, as fate would have it, they run into another odd band of creatures
headed by a pair of mischievous possums named Eddie (Josh Peck) and
Crash (Sean William Scott). There’s a third creature with them, too, who
believes she is a possum. But her size and shape aren’t quite right.
That’s because she’s a mammoth. Perhaps the last female mammoth in
existence, and her name is Ellie (Queen Latifah,
STRANGER THAN
FICTION). With a serious identity problem, Manny tries to
convince Ellie that she’s not a possum. But Ellie’s having none of it
...until she sees a familiar glen and her mind kicks back to her youth.
Now she and Eddie and Crash join forces with Manny and his gang, hoping
to save themselves while, at the same time, trying not to kill one
another (in true dysfunctional animal-family ways).
The problem is that the script is so weak that it barely holds the story
together. The vultures (although they do a great musical number) help
the animals find a way out of the catastrophic flood-waters, but at the
same time hope that they all perish so that they’ll have
food/carnage/corpses. That didn’t make much sense. The relationship
between Manny and Ellie is stretched so thin as to be unlaughable. This
is truly unfortunate considering it takes up much of the film’s screen
time (perhaps far too much).
I always enjoy seeing Scrat the Sabertooth Squirrel and his
obsessive/compulsive behavior toward acorns. Usually one specific acorn
that he goes after with Wiley E. Coyote determination. His ending
sequence was worth the price of the DVD rental, something that’ll
probably bring tears of laughter to all viewers’ eyes. But when a
bit-part squirrel acts as the main catalyst of entertainment, there are
a few problems that needed fixing. Oh well...
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Image from Ice Age: The
Meltdown
DVD cost: $28.99
Purchase:
BestPrices.com
Film Review Stew
Favorite? No.
Stew Poo-Poo? No.
Newsworthy:
Improvements in fur
simulation made since the first film required subtle changes in the
original character models. Sid, in particular, looks fatter with the
more natural fur.
Movie Quote: "Oh
yeah. She's tons of fun and you're no fun at all. She completes you."
Other Actors/Actresses
from Ice Age: The Meltdown
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