Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)

All your favourite characters from the first movie of the series are back again (well, most of them anyway) for yet another hilarious adventure.

The ice that covers the entire earth is beginning to melt, meaning that all the animals need to move from where they are, or they will drown.

And so Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the sabre-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) begin slowly migrating.

Manny is feeling a little depressed, feeling that he is the last mammoth alive, and that his species is close to extinction.

Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) during one of their frequent
disagreements.

But as the migration moves along, the three of them discover another mammoth - a female - named Ellie (Queen Latifah).

The only problem is, Ellie thinks she's a possum, like her 'brothers' Crash (Seann William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck).

So before Manny can share his feelings with Ellie - if indeed he will - he must first convince her that she is in fact a mammoth.

The screenplay for this film, written by Peter Gaulke & Gerry Swallow & Jim Hecht, is very funny, making the most of the comedic possibilities that come from these ridiculously mismatched characters. The three protagonists we met first in Ice Age are just as funny as ever in this sequel. And by introducing several new characters - who have their own foibles and shortcomings - the writers create some great comedy; I would even go so far as to say that the screenplay is even funnier than that of the original.

One of audiences' favourite characters, Scrat too returns in this instalment.

Computer animation has even come a long way between the first film and this film, with even greater definition of things like fur and water, both of which feature greatly in the environment of the film.

The cast are all fabulous, especially our three protagonists. I know I say this a lot when reviewing animated movies, but when one considers that voice actors tend to record their dialogue separately from each other, the fact that these characters seem to have such a great banter and relationship between themselves is testament to the skill of the actors involved. A fair amount of the humour in the film does indeed come from the interrelationships of the characters, and the back-and-forth nature of their many arguments.

The score of the film, composed by Will Edwards & John Powell, is quite an achievement. Almost the entire film is underscored by wonderfully written music which, while not uncommon in animated films, would certainly be quite jarring in a live-action film. For some reason, with animated movies, scoring from beginning to end - or so-called wall-to-wall music - seems to work well. And in this film, it works incredibly well, with the music following the on-screen action at every turn, and highlighting the more intense moments of the plot.

Manny (Ray Romano) trying to convince Ellie (Queen Latifah) that she is indeed
a mammoth and not a possum.

Director Carlos Saldanha has outdone even himself with this film, a film that as I have already mentioned, I believe to be slightly better than its predecessor. There are three more sequels - so far - in the series, which I will be reviewing in due course, but this is certainly my favourite of the series to this point.

7 1/2 out of 10.