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Movie Review by:
Jim "Good Old JR" Rutkowski
Directed by: Carlos Saldanha
Written by: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, Jim Hecht (II)
Starring the Voices of: Ray Romano, Chris Wedge, Peter Ackerman
Running time: 90 minutes,
Released: 03/31/06.
Rated PG
for some mild language and innuendo |
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 Despite
its popularity with children, Ice Age represented, at the
time, a nadir for digital animation. Although entertaining,
the film couldn't stand toe-to-toe with its Pixar and
Dreamworks competitors. Ice Age: The Meltdown represents a
further step backwards. Although the animation has improved,
the regression is keenly felt in other areas - particularly
the story. This is a lackluster film that exists exclusively
because its predecessor made money.
Thankfully, the best character from the original Ice Age,
the sabertooth squirrel, is back. This time, his role is
expanded to give him an extra four or five minutes of screen
time. The producers, recognizing his popularity, have
accorded him a half-dozen comedic episodes in his
never-ending quest to capture an elusive acorn. Not since
Wiley Coyote has a character been so brutalized in his
foiled attempts to obtain dinner. It's through these
interludes that one feels the animators channeling the
spirit of Chuck Jones. The character deserves to star in his
own series of shorts rather than be lumped in with the
unremarkable entities populating Ice Age: The Meltdown.
The three principals have returned from Ice Age - Manny the
Woolly Mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (John
Leguizamo), and Diego the Sabertooth Tiger (Denis Leary) -
although they're trapped in a movie with almost no plot. For
this installment, they are joined by Ellie the Mammoth
(Queen Latifa), who might represent Manny's chance to
repopulate his species if she can be convinced that she's
not a possum. Also along for the ride are Ellie's
"brothers," possums Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie
(Josh Peck). They're all on a pilgrimage to high ground,
since global warming is about to cause the collapse of an
ice dam that will result in a massive flood.
Ice Age: The Meltdown has its share of humorous moments, but
most of these involve the squirrel. The main plot involving
the exodus and the Mammoth romance is more often dull than
amusing. This is a problem, because no motion picture can be
entirely successful when secondary characters and storylines
trump the primary ones. However, the reality is that when
people think of the Ice Age movies, the squirrel comes to
mind. We need more of him and less of the laconic Manny and
his uninspired sidekicks.
The film's director is Carlos Saldanha, who co-directed two
other Fox animated features: Ice Age and Robots. One
improvement he makes to this sequel is to improve its look.
The characters and settings are still a little blocky and
lack the visual grace of efforts like Finding Nemo and Shrek,
but they are improved. Technically, Ice Age is adequate,
although that's an improvement over most of the digitally
animated films of the past year. Kids - the distributor's
target market - don't care much about this, however. Ice
Age: The Meltdown delivers the kind of cinematic package
they expect: cute animals, funny moments, and cartoonish
action sequences. With the bar set so high by Pixar and
Dreamworks, adults have come to expect more from animated
films than Ice Age: The Meltdown delivers. |
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ICE AGE 2:
THE MELTDOWN ©
2006 20th Century Fox.
All Rights Reserved
Review © 2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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