The story melted along with the ice - Ice Age: The Meltdown Reviews

Rarely does a movie cause me to lose respect for a company (the last time it happened was when Final Fantasy: Spirits Within came out, and I believe most of America felt the same effects), but I'm sorry to say that Ice Age 2 has managed to do just that. Where Ice Age excelled, The Meltdown faltered: Ice Age was a kids' movie, and it was meant to be from the start, but at the time, Blue Sky seemed to recognize that just because something is made for kids doesn't mean it can't be deep enough to thoroughly entertain adults. It had a simple but great storyline, perils and obstacles that were relevant to and stemmed from it (with the exception of the irreverent-but-inspired dodo bird scene), and character depth and development that kept it from feeling like a kids' movie. The Meltdown, however, seemed like a clone of every single animated Disney movie that's ever come out. The storyline was about the same as Ice Age (get object 1--the herd, in this case--from point A to point B), but it could have been condensed to a ten-minute movie and been just as entertaining; as it was, the entire movie consisted of a series of disjointed skits, and the only suspense was in waiting for the next one-liner: if Diego delivered it, he would be walking from one side of the screen to the other like he was going somewhere--obviously trying to duplicate his funniest moments from Ice Age; if Sid delivered it, the line was obvious and uninspired, devoid of any of John Leguizamo's usual creativity and playing off of Sid's phobias or dumb optimism; if Manny delivered it, it was overloaded with sarcasm and superficial anger, as though he hadn't changed at all since the last movie. In all, the main characters were reduced to their most prominent characteristics (Manny his grumpiness, Diego his cynicism, and Sid his idiocy), and the new characters were introduced in the same way. The perils and obstacles in the movie were unmotivated, and only served to make the movie longer. The only reason there were two predatory fish stalking the herd was to give the kids something to be scared of. But they were unsuccessful in that regard, barely achieving the status of minor nuisance and yet another unmotivated obstacle. But none of these complaints are why I lost respect for Blue Sky. I lost respect for Blue Sky because they didn't even try. They were banking on the success of Ice Age, hoping for a cash cow. They seemed to lose the focus that made Ice Age such a success: making a good movie, first a foremost, but a good movie that happens to be animated. They exchanged a good idea for a mediocre idea. They made an animation that happened to have a story. They sold out. Out of 5, I gave The Meltdown a 2. Just for comparison, Ice Age got a 5. Just add it to the myriad sequels that don't nearly live up to their prequels. Goodness knows we have enough of them.