AT THE MOVIES WITH DILLON KIMMEL
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Much to the delight of the prehistoric animals left over from the first Ice Age movie, the cold is finally starting to dissipate. With it, trees, grass, and water are springing up throughout the landscape. All is well in the valley. Sid the sloth (Jon Leguizamo) is running a day camp for kids (well, the kids are running all over him, actually), Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) is as stubborn as ever, and Diego the tiger (Dennis Leary) is quickly learning of his distaste for water. Everyone is happy.
But it isn’t long before Sid, Manny, and Diego learn there is something very wrong with their basin. The area they live in used to be a lake, and now that the ice is melting, it is only a matter of time before their home is flooded and they all drown. At any moment the massive glacial dam could collapse and immediately submerge all of its inhabitants.
Manny, Sid, and Diego lead the herd on a three day march to the other side of the basin, where a “boat” awaits to keep them safe (actually, it’s an unnaturally large piece of bark).
Meanwhile, Manny is feeling depressed as usual. He refuses to believe he is the last of the mammoths left on earth, but he has gone years without seeing another, so he is beginning to doubt. That all changes when the group stumbles across Ellie (Queen Latifah). At first, Manny is thrilled to finally see another mammoth, but his joy soon turns into confusion. Ellie, having been raised by possums since she was a baby, thinks she is the same species as her brothers, Crash (Sean Williams Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Manny does his best to prove to Ellie that she is a mammoth, although it soon turns out that Ellie is as stubborn as Manny.
Manny begrudgingly invites Ellie, Crash, and Eddie to join the herd on their march to the other side of the basin. To make matters worse, the ice is melting faster and faster each hour. It soon becomes a race against time as the dam bursts and the water begins to rise. Manny is soon forced into a difficult decision: Should he save his own skin or risk his life to save Ellie, who may be the only other of his kind left alive?
Most sequels fall far short of their predecessors, especially when dealing with cartoons. Although Ice Age: The Meltdown is not as good as the original, it definitely lives up to the hype because of its witty humor and likeable characters.
Meltdown is filled with humor for kids and adults alike. I think I was actually laughing more than the kids were because a lot of the funny moments are geared towards adults, where small kids are not old enough to understand its significance. At times, it was laugh-out-loud funny. Sid steals the show with his witty one-liners and klutzy personality. Ellie also generates plenty of laughter with her youthful personality.
The characters in Meltdown are all very likable. Every person in the theater can relate to Manny in some way because of his longing for companionship. He is just lonely, and we all have felt that same way in our lives. It is easy to root for him. Diego is also very relatable. Although he pretends to be this fearless creature, he is mortally terrified of water. Ellie and Sid are also likable because of the carelessness and naïveté.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Ice Age: The Meltdown. It is clever and extremely funny and is perfect for viewers of all ages. Although the adventure sequences are less than admirable, it is hard to expect much from a PG movie geared towards kids. Other than that, Meltdown is a perfect family film and measures up well with the original. It deserves a solid 4 stars.
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