Ice Age The Meltdown

Rating PG Formats DVD Genre animated Starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Will Arnett Directed by Carlos Saldanha Publisher 20th Century Fox External Links Official Ice Age The Meltdown Website Official 20th Century Fox Website

I am sure that there were plenty of children's movies made while I was a youngster, but my age group had Henson or Lucas puppets and those creepy animatronics a la Disney World. Now it seems that beautifully animated films with the voices of all of our favorite stars come out at the rate of twice a month. Ah, computers, is there anything they can't do?

Ice Age The Meltdown is visually amazing, and at times, creative within it's genre. It is rather difficult to promote or disparage a film without putting it in the proper context, and as such with Ice Age The Meltdown, it is a kid's movie pure and simple, but it is pretty good one. I don't know if it's DVD library worthy, unless of course you liked the first Ice Age. The story is a little hokey, and the script isn't uber-clever like a Shrek, but there is some amusing physical comedy throughout, funny enough to keep the parents entertained.

The same cast is back for number two, with Ray Romano as the wooly mammoth, Manny; Jon Leguizamo as Sid, a giant sloth, and Denis Leary reprising Diego, the saber toothed tiger. Joining the cast is Queen Latifah, who must make what like fifty movies a year now. She does a nice job as Ellie, a girl mammoth who is convinced she is a possum, due to being taken in by a family of the tree- and burrow-dwellers as a young calf, which does offer some cute moments (think a 9 ton mammoth hanging by her tail from a tree branch. Rounding out the cast is one of my favorite actors, Will Arnett, as a particularly gloomy vulture.

The thing about kid's movies is that there is always some kind of lesson involved with the character arc. Manny is depressed because he thinks he is the last mammoth, but then he meets Ellie, and the pressure of saving their species serves as the obstacle in their own romantic comedy. That is the main plotline, with smaller and less complex plots revolving around both Sid and Diego, that more or less serve as filler. However, as with the first Ice Age, there is the overall lesson of being good friends that act as a surrogate family and doing whatever it takes to help your friends in their time of need. This moral of the story is woven into the "herd's" situation of being trapped in a valley created by ice damn holding out a vast amount of water. When things start melting, everyone heads for a gigantic boat at the other end of the valley in order to avoid the flood. Hmm, that sounds vaguely familiar, a big boat, a flood, two of every animal...well, they say there are only 13 plots in all of filmdom.

When I first heard about Ice Age The Meltdown, I almost got excited, as I thought that maybe a kid's movie could impart a little politics to the young ones. Yes, the term "global warming" is mentioned within the first ten minutes, but that's all there is. No analogy to our current situation on this planet, but maybe that's because kid's movies shouldn't have politics. They'll have enough of that when they get older. The animals are aware of a change in the environment, but rather than an examination of the issue, when the ice dam breaks and floods the idyllic valley, another ice damn at the other end breaks and the flood waters flow out saving the valley's inhabitants. I have always tended to get annoyed when a last minute coincidence saves the day, but hey, I was a cynical kid too.

For children between the ages of 4 to 12, Ice Age The Meltdown is entertaining, in fact, I thought it was much more entertaining than the first movie. That little squirrel thing, Scrat, is back, and does offer a relief from Ray Romano's dreary sleep-inducing voice. The film cuts to the little acorn-obsessed mammal throughout the film, which is good for kids' short attention spans, and does help the movie's pacing. There are a couple of inventive dance pieces, which I didn't expect, but were quite charming, like the venue of vultures singing "Food, Glorious Food" complete with Busby Berkley-style choreography. If anything, Ice Age The Meltdown offers non-stop action and movement. It would be hard for kid's to lose interest, especially as the graphics are downright gorgeous. Ice Age The Meltdown is a nice little family film that will keep the tots and pre-teens entertained, and yes, it will even provide a chuckle or two for the adults. It's not Pixar, but at least there is no Ashton Kutcher.