Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Movie review
From Time Out London
It might be because I grew up on a diet of Chuck Jones’s hilariously anarchic ‘Roadrunner’ cartoons, but I find the similarly styled computer-animated works coming out of Blue Sky Studio (‘Ice Age’, ‘Robots’) to be just as funny and brimming with imaginative characters and charismatic voiceovers. But I think I’ve been overruled on this one by the trio of kids who accompanied me to the screening. Simply put, all three felt it was too repetitive, overly splintered in terms of structure and simply not funny enough. I agree on the first two points, but not about the humour, which I thought was mostly spot on (one can only deduce that some of the Chuck Jones-style jokes flew over the kids’ heads).Once again, we’re back in an early evolutionary phase of a planet inhabited by a mishmash of supposedly semi-prehistoric creatures. Unfortunately, the ice age is drawing to a close and, in an overly obvious reference to global warming, the ice cliffs holding back the sea are beginning to melt. Unless the populace starts a mass migration, their utopia will turn turtle. In the thick of it are the film’s three intrepid leads: Manny, the soft-spoken mammoth (who thinks he’s the last of his species); Sid, the comical sloth; and Diego, the sabre-toothed tiger; while, somewhere on the periphery, is that squirrel-like creature with an acorn fixation (who provides the biggest laughs). Certainly, the storyline wanes towards the end and, from the kids’ point of view, the whole package lacks momentum. Which is why they’ve threatened me with violence if I give it more than three stars. So I won’t.
Author: Derek Adams
Time Out London Issue 1859: April 5-12 2006
Cast & crew
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Producer: Lori Forte
Genre(s): Children's, Comedy
Rated: U
Duration: 90 mins
UK Release: Apr 7 2006
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
A Farewell To Tartan Films
To mourn the loss of the great Tartan Films, Time Out remembers a few of the best films to emerge from their impressive canon
Jason Bateman: interview
Jason Bateman – star of ‘Hancock’, alongside Will Smith – talks to Time Out about his comic influences and how to pretend to throw a car
Ten Great Head Shots In The Movies
Lots of people get shot in the head in the new film 'Wanted'. Read our guide to some other great head shots on film
Set visit: 'The Damned United'
Dave Calhoun gets his training kit on as he visits the set of a new film about football legend Brian Clough’s torrid spell at Leeds United in the mid-1970s






What do you think?
Post your review now