Be happy with who you are and all else will follow. "Envy eats nothing but its own heart."...
Be happy with who you are and all else will follow. "Envy eats nothing but its own heart." ~ proverb
I'm a Gemini with Pisces rising... that's about as definite as I get.
wishing you laughter!
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Diego the cynical saber-tooth tiger, Manny the urbane mammoth and Sid, the most annoyingly cheerful sloth ever, return in this prehistoric sequel. The Ice Age is over, and just when everyone is beginning to have a really good time, they realize that this is bad news for everyone in the valley. Everything is melting, and if they can't get to a safely situated area before the glacial dam bursts, everyone's lives will be destroyed by the Meltdown!
Manny (Ray Romano) is the only mammoth any of these creatures have ever seen, and parents pause in the great exodus to point him out to their kids. "Say buddy, not to cast aspersions on your survival instincts or nothin' but haven't mammoths pretty much gone extinct?" Sid's (John Leguizamo ) many misguided attempts to help Manny feel better about going extinct, and amuse himself during the long walk, do Not help Manny's worry over the fate of his people.
Then they meet the 'Possum brothers, Eddie and Crash (Josh Peck and Sean William Scott), and their adopted sister, Ellie (Queen Latifah). Ellie is quite clearly, much to Manny's initial excitement, a mammoth, but she is firmly convinced that she is a opossum just like her brothers. While Manny tries to get on good terms with this exasperating 9 ton possum, Sid encounters a race of mini-sloths who believe he is the Fire King and sacrificing him will stop the meltdown!
Sid: "Oh, no, no, no. Me fire-king. Why kill fire-king? A thousand years bad juju for killing
fire-king."
Female Mini-sloth: "Superheated rock from the earth's core is surging into the crust, melting ice built up over thousands of years." Sid: "You are a very advanced race. Together we can look for a solution." Female: "We have one! Sacrifice the fire-king." Sid: "That's not very advanced." Female: [pause] "Worth a shot!"
All of which won't matter in the slightest if Diego's worst fears are realized and the water makes all of them its prey! Will Manny and Ellie fall in love and save each other from extinction? Will Sid survive his reign as Fire King? Will Diego get over his fear of water? Will all of them find a safe haven from the coming flood? Will Scrat ever catch that elusive acorn?! One thing is sure, the whole family will have fun finding out!
My Thoughts:
A truly enjoyable sequel, Meltdown has plenty to entertain any viewer. I actually watched this with three other adults, and all of us were highly entertained. We ooohed over the animation, laughed at most of the jokes, and wondered how it would all end. The dialog was free-flowing, lively and full of so many amusing moments that you can't really catch all the lines in the first viewing. Here's a few I missed!
Traffic Vulture: "Parents- Please do not leave your children unattended. All unattended children will be eaten."
Sid: "I just did something involuntary... and messy."
Manny: "Okay. Thanks to Sid, we're now traveling together, and, like it or not, we're gonna be one big, happy family. I'll be the daddy, Ellie will be the mommy, and Diego will be the uncle who eats the kids who get on my nerves."
Ellie: "You ain't savin' the species TONIGHT, or any OTHER night."
The Meltdown is a film with a large cast built around central characters. Manny's concern over being alone is a familiar theme to viewers no matter what their age, background or even culture! Likewise, Diego's fear of water is a common enough fear, especially given these circumstances, that all viewers can empathize. And Sid, well he's just that sticky gooey something that holds them all together. Kinda irritating but generally optimistic and caring enough that you don't always want to squash him.
This core group is the center around which all the other figures are, for the most part, transient and brief amusements along the course of this tale. Ellie and her adopted brothers stand out in this film because they are joining the tribe already formed by these core figures. There is one other character who carries over from the first film, and in both films this character stands rather remarkably apart from all the others.
Scrat, a virtually silent character, has been a highly effective diversion for viewers in both films. Here, he allows us to continue checking in with the status of the glacial dam while everyone else hightails it for the other end of the valley. Typical Scrat, he's so single-minded in his pursuit of the coveted nut that he doesn't even realize he's in mortal danger!
I have to say that I have been truly impressed with how well Scrat's creators have been able to focus key attention on this small, silent, relatively unimpressive character so humorously throughout a feature length film, not only once, but twice! Young viewers really notice Scrat and find him laugh out loud funny! In a society that glorifies constant noise and ostentatious appearances, I really appreciate Scrat.
He is a cartoon Charlie Chaplin amusing us with his antics while warning us of disaster. A true "every man", he lives, like so many of us in our real-life society, struggling day to day to obtain our elusive dreams. Like Scrat, many of us are often so focused on our immediate lives and concerns, narrowly dodging each crisis we find ourselves tumbling into, that we aren't seeing the bigger picture!
Seen in this light, Scrat becomes more than an amusing or even effective device, and takes on the role of moral messenger in true suirrely fashion. ( http://www.epinions.com/content_4993687684 ) All that, and he still makes me laugh! Yep, Scrat alone makes Meltdown well-worth watching.
I was also highly amused by Ellie though, and she quickly became my favorite of the new additions. You simply have not lived until you've watched a 9 ton mammoth try to hide and generally react as if she were a opossum! The animation, which only took an amazing eight months, has greater definition in Meltdown.
This really adds to the sense of reality for viewers, and gives the whole tale a feel of living vitality and movement. The voice work is seamless, and it's always fun trying to guess who's behind the animated characters. Keep an ear out for Jay Leno! I also found it interesting that John Leguizamo originally got ready to play Sid by learning everything he could about sloths. He hit upon the right voice for his character after learning that sloths store food in their cheeks. That explains a lot about Sid!
Obviously, I found Ice Age 2: The Meltdown to be an enjoyable and well-delivered family film. I can't recall when I last enjoyed a sequel this much, actually. And we watched it all without a single kid of any age in sight!
Fun, witty, entertaining, with lots of lively animation. Even if you missed the first one, you can still enjoy the characters and story found in The Meltdown.
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Great review and you're very correct about not being able to catch all in the dialogues! I thought IA II wasn't all bad, but honestly I liked the first one much more. Radka
Your favorite sub-zero heroes are back for another incredible adventure in the super-cool ... more
sequel to the global hit comedy Ice Age!The action heats up - and so does the temperature - for Manny, Sid, Diego, and Scrat. Trying to escape the valley to avoid...
![Ice Age 2 : The Meltdown [2006] [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78482100.jpg "Ice Age 2 : The Meltdown [2006] [DVD]")
![Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2 Disc) [2006] Limited Edition [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78373264.jpg "Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2 Disc) [2006] Limited Edition [DVD]")
May 5th, 2008
very helpful by (100%):
