"Ice Age: The Meltdown" seems like one of those straight-to-DVD animation sequels the studios love to churn out, and not just because of the colon in its title.
This follow-up distills the content of the 2002 hit "Ice Age" into a perfect child-pacifying formula of Looney Tunes-style action combined with innocent romance. But director Carlos Saldanha's crisp visuals and a talented voice cast justify the film's debut in theaters instead of in Wal-Marts.
The evolutionary-minded humor of the first film mostly goes missing, replaced by flatulence jokes and many, many scenes of Scrat, a single-minded squirrel-rat creature flying into walls of ice in his hunt for acorns. His story line, if you can call it that, exists alongside the story line involving the main characters from "Ice Age," Manny the mammoth (lent soothingly mopey tones by Ray Romano), Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber-tooth tiger (Denis Leary).
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The trio's quest is simpler this time out. Instead of traversing dangerously icy landscapes to return a human baby to his father, they only have to traverse the icy landscape. But because of global warming, that landscape keeps shifting, with encroaching walls of ice foretelling a massive flood.
Scenes of peril are plentiful but less scary than they were in "Ice Age." The creepiest involve creatures long encased in ice who spark to life at the sight of Manny and the gang, suggesting a very early form of cryogenics.
Though never preserved in ice, Manny seems to have outlived all other mammoths. Sid teases Manny about becoming extinct, with Leguizamo's lisping obnoxiousness and his character's overly confident bearing combining to craft a sloth version of Ed Norton from "The Honeymooners."
Whereas Diego was a potentially treacherous Gollum-like character in the first film, he's pure good guy here. But Leary lends him enough of an edge so that he's no cream puff, especially during the tiger's exchanges with Sid.
But there's not much time for repartee in "Meltdown," since Scrat is not the only small critter engaging in misadventures. Opossum brothers Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck) enjoy a nice game of possum slingshot, among other activities.
The movie implies a kind of reverse "looksism" in the evolutionary order. The strapping saber-tooth tiger, for example, went extinct, yet some of the world's ugliest creatures —the possum, the sloth and the anteater — made their way to the present day.
The possums are accompanied by a mammoth named Ellie (Queen Latifah) who thinks that she's a possum and that Crash and Eddie are her brothers. You can see the attraction on both sides of this blended family: The possum clan offered a new family for the orphaned Ellie, and the possum brothers get to seem speedy next to their sister.
When Manny sees Ellie, his thoughts turn to reviving their species, to which she responds with not-if-you-were-the-last-mammoth-on-Earth sauciness. Romano and Latifah make an adorable screen couple, at least in mammoth form. They are as sweet and cuddly as giant animals with 5-foot tusks can be.
Review
Ice Age: The Meltdown
**1/2
Rated: PG for some mild language and innuendo
Voice cast: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah
Director: Carlos Saldanha
Family call: Fine for families
Running time: 90 minutes
Opens Friday at: Park Place, El Con, Century Park, Foothills, DeAnza, Desert Sky, Cinemark
