"Ice Age: The Meltdown" is aimed more for children, but it does have appeal for older audience members and in its own way, it's just as enjoyable as the first film

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2009)

In the further adventures of Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth, and Diego the tiger, the ice age is over and upcoming is, as the title says, "the meltdown." The plot: global warming is causing all the ice in the valley where Manny, Sid, Diego, and a great many others are residing. The rising water levels is causing an ice dam to weaken and threaten the animals with a flash flood. While travelling to the other end of the valley where a mysterious ark is supposed to be waiting for them, Manny and his chums run into a female mammoth (voice by Queen Latifah) who has been raised by possums and has thus grown up under the idea that she's a possum herself. And while they travel in hopes of escaping the flood, we follow the further and more interesting adventures of Scrat the squirrel and his strive to rescue his acorn.
As with the first film, Scrat is the most interesting thing in the movie. And this time around, the audience wants a little more of Scrat and a little less of the main characters. Every moment with Scrat is a little gem that never fails to raise an uproar of laughter. But nevertheless, when we do follow the main characters and the new ones, we are kept generally interested because things keep moving along. The romantic interest between Manny and Ellie the species-confused mammoth is worked to the point where we want it to, without it becoming too sappy or time-consuming, but playing its part as well. The two daredevil possums voiced by Josh Peck and Seann William Scott are a great addition to the cast, including their fantastic opening where they outwit Diego and Sid, leaving Diego to say "If anybody asksthere were fifty of them!" There's also a great new supporting character, a vulture with the manner of an Old West gunslinger who glides over the characters as they travel for the ark that could save their lives. There is only one question I have concerning the plot: Diego, even though he's left his pack, what exactly does he eat now that he'd been accepted into the herd? Go vegetarian? Good a guess as any, I suppose.
Now if there is one thing that I do miss from the first "Ice Age", it's that wonderful heart-warming feeling that literally brought tears to my eyes in the first film. This time around, the movie's more or less about jokes than moving moments. It's focused a little more for the younger generation, but is not too kiddy to make it unappealing to older viewers. In its own way, it's just as enjoyable as the first film and a lot more so the third.