Like so many of the better children's movies, this one is funny, cute, and has enough sophisticated humor to keep parents satisified. A major difference between this, and most other cartoon Movies is that none of these characters strive to be heroic. These are ordinary "guys" trying to survive the game of life. Along the way they commit accidental heroics, but eventually gel as a group and start to truly look out for one another. There are wonderful themes of team work ("That's what herds do...they look out for one another."), forgiveness (Diego's confession scene), and the pain of letting go.

Bottom-line: What raises this movie above the average is realistic attitudes and personalities of the characters. They are grumpy, irritating, conniving, stressed, and yet full of hidden goodness. This is a sweet, well-grounded, yet optimistic Movie, well worth viewing for all but the youngest family members.
Watch this movie in great picture and sound quality.

The love life of a woolly mammoth--handled with G-rated delicacy--drives this sequel to the first computer-animated romp in the age of prehistoric mammals. While the first Ice Age took a delightful premise and suffocated it with a formulaic plot--in which a mammoth named Manfred (voiced by Ray Romano, Everyone Loves Raymond), a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo, Moulin Rouge!), and a sabre-tooth tiger named Diego (Denis Leary, Rescue Me) helped an abandoned human infant return to its tribe (basically, Three Mammals and a Baby)--the sequel takes the now-familiar setting, gives it a shapeless, episodic storyline, and yet somehow becomes pretty darn entertaining. Faced with the threat of a flood from melting ice, our heroic trio are on the run to escape from their blossoming valley. On the way, they meet a female mammoth (Queen Latifah, Bringing Down the House) who thinks she's an opossum and get menaced by some freshly defrosted carnivo! rous fish. Add into the mix a herd of lava-worshipping mini-sloths, some Busby Berkeley-style vultures, and more ingenious slapstick featuring the acorn-crazed Scrat, and Ice Age: The Meltdown will amuse even jaded adults