…………………………………………………

Ice Age: The Meltdown Movie Review

Ice Age: The Meltdown is a 2006 animated adventure comedy film directed by Carlos Saldanha. It’s a passable, but tiresome sequel from Blue Sky Studios.

………………………………………………….

“Maybe we could rapidly

evolve into water creatures.

That’s genius, Sid.

Call me Squid“

…………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………..

Manny, Sid and Diego discover that the ice dam protecting the valley they were residing in was about to fall and eventually lead to floods. Soon after, they leave to find a safer habitat. The global warming angle was pretty interesting here, but unfortunately it was sidelined in favor of some very weak subplots.

And that’s where lies the biggest issue – the movie felt disconnected as it goes from one character and subplot to another, thus seeming like a series of barely connected shorts instead of a feature movie. And most of these subplots are mediocre or just serviceable.

The most prevailing storyline is the one with Manny. He meets another mammoth named Ellie, and the movie is mostly about the two building a romance as they are the last of their species. Their relationship was fine and most scenes with them were pretty good, but then again awfully sexual and mature for an otherwise very kid-friendly movie, thus seeming again not fitting.

Diego having to deal with the idea that he might be prey now instead of a predator was a cool idea, but he was shortchanged and getting only a handful scenes, which was unfortunate as he was great in the original.

Everything with Sid was fun, but too silly. Him meeting some crazy, aggressive mini-sloths again felt like an entirely different movie from the rest of the stories, and although these scenes were amusing, they weren’t anything special really, and I sorely missed the gang being together. Scrat himself continues to be hilarious with all of his scenes being the slapstick highlights of the picture.

…………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………..

Ice Age: The Meltdown has very strong animation with some terrific imagery at display. I liked the settings that were well explored and the world-building continues to be strong in this franchise. Some of the humor is pretty good here, but other times not so much. I liked the interactions between the team, but they were way too separated this time around. The pacing and the structure are horrendous. It’s thus an unnecessary, but suitably entertaining sequel.

Ice Age: The Meltdown was an entertaining, but thoroughly unnecessary sequel. Some characters got their moments to shine, some of the humor is pretty good and the animation is great, but the team was foolishly separated here and most of its subplots felt disconnected from one another, thus resulting in something resembling a series of shorts instead of a full feature film.

My Rating – 3

You can get Ice Age: The Meltdown on Amazon.