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Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) DVD Review
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) DVD Credits:
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) Directed by:
Carlos Saldanha
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) Written by:
Jon Vitti
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) Cast:
Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Jay Leno, Drea de Matteo, Josh Peck, Ray Romano, Seann William Scott
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) DVD Release Date:
21st November 2006
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Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) Synopsis:

In ICE AGE 2 THE MELTDOWN, our sub-zero heroes from the worldwide blockbuster CGI film ICE AGE are back – Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger and the hapless saber-toothed squirrel known as Scrat. In the new film, from the Academy Award®- winning creators of ICE AGE and ROBOTS, the Ice Age is coming to an end, and the animals are delighting in the melting paradise that is their new world. Manny, Sid, and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: a huge glacial dam 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 a mammoth named Ellie (Queen Latifah) and her two “brothers” – possums Crash and Eddie – embark on a mission across an increasingly dangerous landscape towards their salvation.

Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) DVD Review:

The problem that I had with the first Ice Age remains dominant in the sequel as well. The language alone in just the first twenty minutes is somewhat disappointing. Many of the times that language is used it is in the context of a pun, so that they are not technically swearing, but kids watching the movie are going to imitate the dialogue and even if they do understand the difference between “dam” and “damn” or know that an ass is an animal, it is the sort of immature humor that is too obvious for adults and not needed in children’s film anyways. There is a certain sense of responsibility to what is being shown to children, and the filmmakers of the Ice Age films seem more preoccupied with their own tastes. Even in the scene where a mammoth’s beauty is complimented, the butt is what is praised. There are several unsavory implications by this and it is the double connotation that makes the Ice Age films leave a bad taste in your mouth.

The ice is melting and flood threatens the existence of all these creatures who miraculously survived the Ice Age in the first place. Since water will be their downfall this time, it is appropriate that the villains are water creatures, creeping after them below the surface. Our friends from the first film are back with additional characters. Manny (Ray Romano) begins to think that he is the last Mammoth alive, and soon to be extinct, when he meets Ellie (Queen Latifa), but the focus is awkwardly on the fact that they need to procreate for the rest of the film, another subject matter that children will have plenty of questions about. Sid (John Leguizamo) also finds more of his kind when he is proclaimed to be a king Sloth when he is able to make fire, and Diego (Ray Romano) has his own difficulty since he is a cat of sorts and doesn’t like the water.

The Meltdown does well to occasionally return to the completely unrelated sub-plot of Scrat trying to get his acorn back in a series of obstacles. The DVD has an extra short starring Scrat, because this wordless creature is the most appealing a film filled with obnoxious characters that talk too much. The short, “No Time For Nuts,” takes Scrat’s endless pursuit of nuts to a whole new level, actually allowing him to travel through time after a nut when he finds a nut shaped time machine. It begins to feel more like an exercise in animation when Scrat swordfights in Medieval times and participates in chariot races in Roman times.

There is no shortage of special features, with a lot of fluff. There are two commentary tracks; one with director Carlos Saldanha and another with a large assortment of other technical crew members. There are a few deleted scenes of Crash and Eddie stunts as well as a promotional featurette about these added characters in which everyone uses the same three adjectives to describe the one-dimensional characters as if they were groundbreaking. There is also a featurette for Ellie with the same purpose. The Animation Director’s Chair shows the animation in the separate stages, and there are faux documentaries about the animals in the film narrated by the characters representing them. There are plenty of other featurettes, bloopers and such, but the marketing section is particularly fascinating. The fact that the film was marketed on The Family Guy tells you something about the views towards what is appropriate for children.


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Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

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