Ice Age: The Meltdown

If you're a regular reader of my Blog, you'll probably have noticed by now that I'm a big fan of animated movies, whether they're Stop-Motion, Claymation or purely CGI. So when my brother asked me on Thursday, after I arrived at my parents' house, if I would like to go and see Ice Age: The Meltdown (aka Ice Age 2) with him on Saturday, I didn't hesitate to accept his invitation.

In Ice Age: The Meltdown Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, and the hapless prehistoric squirrel/rat known as Scrat are reunited. The Ice Age is coming to an end, and the animals are forced to move out of the frozen valley in which they've been living, and in which Sid has, somewhat surprisingly, set up a camp/playground for the children of his fellow residents.

Manny is worried because nobody has seen another mammoth for a long time; he thinks he may be the last one until he miraculously meets Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah), the only female mammoth left in the world. Their only problems are that they can't stand each other – and Ellie believes she's a possum ! Also, Ellie comes with some excess baggage in the form of her two possum "brothers": Crash and Eddie (voiced by Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), who are a couple of cocky, loud-mouthed pranksters who love daredevil tricks.

Manny, Sid, and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: a huge glacial dam which is holding back oceans of water is about to break, threatening to flood the entire valley and drown its population. The only chance of survival lies at the other end of the valley. So our three heroes, along with Ellie, Crash and Eddie, form the most unlikely family of any "Age", as they embark on a mission across an ever-changing, increasingly dangerous landscape towards their salvation.

The film also presents the continuing adventures, or misadventures, of Scrat, who has an even larger role this time; my brother swears Scrat stole the show !