Ice Age: The Meltdown

It wasn't love at first sight, but maybe that's why "Obleva" is now my favorite episode. Sid impresses with every dumb word he says, I find myself humming the Bugging Song suspiciously often, and Scrat is definitely the king of the supporting animated characters. As I got used to the much greater emphasis on family values during subsequent viewings, I can't help but smile while writing this comment. (04/27/2006)

This movie was quite a disappointment. I was expecting at least a somewhat balanced sequel to the first movie, but unfortunately, I got a weaker sequel that failed mainly due to the screenplay, and a proper plot. So that – especially with a big project like the sequel to Ice Age – is a somewhat bigger problem. The one thing that is great about this movie is the mammoth-possum Ellie, whose "performance" (can you even call it that?) is destroyed by a pair of annoying possums. So, I am leniently awarding this movie three stars with a wink. (07/24/2008)

It's hard to live up to the huge expectations that came from the great first film. Ice Age 2 still has a bunch of likeable eccentric protagonists whose absurd hand-in-hand coexistence with a life-threatening situation works, but the jokes are largely tired and the only speed-up factor remains the gourmet squirrel with his "escaping" acorn. The short runtime is OK, the voice acting is brilliant, and the little possums quickly gain sympathy, but the gap from the first episode is simply too deep, and the mammoth Ellie is a real handful :) 65% (04/18/2011)

They screwed a slightly different, inoffensive story that is entertaining and makes you laugh. The wisecracks and dialogs are as amusing as last time, plus Scrat is put to much greater use and more interestingly and at the end he is unbeatable. A respectable little brother to part one which definitely is nothing to be ashamed of. (06/13/2006)

The lack of a denser and more spirited plot could be excused by the fact that this is a film for children. But when a little boy of about six, who was sitting behind me in the movie theater, asked his mother questions like "Why are they going there?" and "What are they doing there?", it was clear to me that the second installment of Ice Age was nothing more than a safe bet. It’s a safe bet that throws in one gag after another, interspersed with more "action-oriented" scenes, mammoth (literally) prodding, and very (and I mean very!) poor and awkward attempts at a few little quotes from other films (M:I-II, Saving Private Ryan). Ice Age: The Meltdown is a terrible film that hasn't changed a single pixel, let alone the plot, so the adage that you can only make a single tea out of one tea bag is more than spot on here. (05/19/2006)