Good, but not quite as good as the original

Rating: 7/10 (2 April 2006)

While not being anywhere on par with its predecessor, this sequel tries its best at being a separate entity from the original film, while still remaining true to its original roots.
Whereas the original was about 3 unconventional prehistoric animals teamed up to bring a little girl back to her family safely, this film is about those same animals fighting to survive during global warming, along with a few new characters. While the political agenda is almost blatant (global warming is bad!), the film still does not reek of being all about politics. The jokes are amusing in small doses, and some of the more adult fare does hit the mark pretty high, but a lot of the material included within the film is geared right at kids.
The storyline is pretty good, albeit not as good as the original. Both do not pack anything but an entirely simple storyline, but here they added a lot of things going on in the background, from a fear of swimming, to a love story, to just random things Scrat is doing, that all of it ends up not flowing together in many sequences. The scenes are just kinda, there, and have zero substance to start, and only have a bit after it becomes more clearer why that scene is in it. The way-too-short run time affects this, in that all of it gets tied up in less than 90 minutes, and you just do not feel as satisfied as you could be with the final product. It's not a bad movie, but it's one that could have been better developed.
The original voice talent of Ramano, Leary and Leguizamo are back, and while Leary gets very little screen time, they all still have the chemistry that worked 4 years ago, and its enjoyable to see them redoing their roles again, and still being the same. The new talent, from Seann William Scott and Josh Peck as two wise-ass possums, to Jay Leno as a crazy panhandling turtle-thing, to Queen Latifah as a female mammoth, they all come off as pretty well-done. I'm getting a little sick of all the films Latifah has been in lately, but here's something where her obnoxious attitude and physical demeanor do not shine through into the role.
The CGI animation is clearly the standout of the film. While some scenes look hand-drawn (whether for effect, or just as crappy CGI), others are fantastic. Watching Manny in the water, and then seeing his soaked fur is a visual amazement for the eyes. And with all the trouble that Scrat (the trailer/poster boy of both films) gets into, it all turns into a visual feast. As said however, there are scenes that looked pretty horrible, and others that just did not seem quite as picture-esquire as the rest of the film. Another month or so in the animation department at Blue Sky probably could have fixed this.
A key problem I had was the fact that Scrat takes up about 15 minutes of the less than 90 minute movie, and most of his scenes are in the trailers. Like I understand that movies are given away in the trailers, but whole sequences? Isn't that just overdoing it a tiny bit? I realize the character's purpose and his design, but it just takes away even more from the final product.
Like so many sequels these days, Ice Age: The Meltdown is not perfect. While not being anywhere near as horribly half-baked as some recent sequels, this film does make a valiant attempt at being different and/or even better than the original film. It just does not to come to live to its fullest manageable potential by the end of the film.
But for a light laugh, I can't see why anyone wouldn't be able to enjoy it.
7.5/10.