Decent and colourful sequel, with some hit and miss moments

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2010)

I personally really enjoyed the first Ice Age, it was well animated and funny. While a notch below the first, this is still a colourful and lively sequel, that was better than I thought it would be. The animation is excellent, there is clear evidence that a lot of time went into making the characters detailed and the backgrounds pretty. The visual with Queen Latifah's character Ellie, who believes she's a possum, hanging upside down with her "brothers" was a treat. Also pretty good was the soundtrack, bright and sunny and I think memorable as well and the sound particularly the rumbling of the falling/cracking ice. The voice acting from John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Queen Latifah and Dennis Leary is top notch. Out of the characters, Scrat I think is the scene-stealer, the scene with the huge acorn in the heavenly beyond with Khatchaturian's Spartacus was hilarious. The scene with pint-size animals planning to sacrifice Sid to the fire god is funny as well. However, for a 90 minute or so movie, the plot is disappointingly thin and in terms of action there are parts where not so much happens. While there are some nice bits of dialogue such as "Do not leave your children unattended. Unattended children will be eaten", but overall there are parts where the dialogue is lacking in wit and irreverence. And while Scrat has some priceless moments, other parts of the film are hit and miss, the parts with Ellie thinking she was a possum did get a tad too silly at times. Overall though, this is not at all bad, actually quite enjoyable. 7/10 Bethany Cox