Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

Now firm friends, mammoth "Manny", sloth "Sid", sabre-toothed "Diego" and mongrelly "Scrat" discover that their carefree days amidst the snow and ice are numbered... Things are getting distinctly slushy and they conclude that higher ground is a good bet before they find themselves needing galoshes. Their trek to dryness offers "Manny" a long-awaited opportunity when he meets "Ellie" - a girl mammoth who takes an instant dislike to him, indeed for some reason she thinks he's a possum! Clearly not the sharpest tusk in the drawer, but off we now go on a cheerful if predictable series of animated adventures with their irritating new buddies "Crash" and "Eddie" to mix things up and generally get on everyone nerves. Sadly, the latter two also began to get on mine after a while, and the narrative really does struggle to maintain the enjoyably mischievous storytelling of the first film. There are some fun scenes with a flock of vultures while "Scrat" and his acrobatic acorn antics still mange to raise a smile but this isn't a franchise that can easily evolve I think. The "Ice Age" (2002) film was too stand-alone; this one builds on characters and introduces new ones but unfortunately the underlying story just isn't as good. It's still an easy to watch example of some fine animator's art, and the script contains enough to engage folks of all ages for a decently paced ninety minutes of quite watchable, if maybe not memorable, prehistoric fun.