The Diva's review of
Ice Age 2: Meltdown (2006)

Manny the Woolly Mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo), and Diego the Sabertooth Tiger (Denis Leary) are happily enjoying life in their mixed and matched tribe. Sid has started a day camp for the young children and I’m not quite sure what the other two are up to except for hanging around and heckling Sid.

Within a blink of an eye this changes as the animals start to notice the ice is melting and when it does it will cause a flood. Thus all of them head for higher ground tosave themselves.

Along the way, Manny, Sid, and Diego meet Ellie the Mammoth and her "brothers," possums Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). Manny, having thought to be the last of his kind, quickly realizes that Ellie may be his chance to repopulate, but first he has to convince Ellie that she is a Mammoth. They don’t have much time, the ice is melting faster and in it are some once frozen prehistoric nasties that are very hungry. .

Can they make it to higher ground in time? Will Manny and Ellie fall in love?

Oh boy. Well regardless of how I feel about it, it’s likely to clean up at the box office. Speaking of which, I got robbed at the theater. I knew it was expensive to get in, but how expensive I just didn’t know. I expect to pay anywhere from $7-10 bucks for myself, but I did not expect to pay $6 for each of the girls for a matinee. The girls are ages 3,5,7, and 9. Since when is $6 the matinee price for children under 12? After getting us in and paying for concessions, I was out $58 hard earned clams – for a matinee. The studios are delusional if they think box office sales are down because of DVDs. They are down because no one can afford the $40-50 it takes to fill up your tank and spend an additional $50-60 to see a movie with the family, a movie that quite frankly isn’t that good.

Families are forced to wait until movies come out on DVD so the entire family can see it and I tell you what, count us as one of those families. I’ll have to start saving up now, putting aside $10 a week, if we want to watch any movies this summer. This just makes me sad as some of my favorite memories as a child are going to the movies as a family and my mother says that we didn’t go broke to do it. I’ll just have to pick out 1 or 2 must sees and the rest I’m getting from On Demand or renting the DVD.

The above paragraph rant is made even worse by the fact that the movie wasn’t that good. With an insipid plot that wasn’t fleshed out, it pales in comparison to the first one. The only thing that saves the outing is that silly little squirrel that is still struggling to get and keep a nut. He is just hilarious and most of the laughs came when he was doing battle with mother nature and other animals to keep his stash.

Honestly, the only person who sounded like they weren’t there just to collect a paycheck is John Leguizamo. Everyone else just sounded more than bored. There is enough silly humor to keep the kids interested and enough color to keep the toddlers occupied, but mom and dad will most likely find themselves trying hard to stay awake.

Really and truly wait for the DVD.

 3BC Ratings

 

 

meltdown, indeed.