Global warming may still be just a theory to some clueless politicians, but the threat is very real in the latest CG-animated feature film from Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios. Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger and Scrat, the acorn-chasing saber-toothed squirrel are back to kick off spring with the big thaw in Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, arriving in theaters across North America today.
In Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, the Ice Age is coming to an end and the animals are delighting in their new world of water parks, geysers and tar pits. But when our heroes discover that the miles of melted ice will flood their valley, they must warn everyone and somehow figure out a way to escape the coming deluge. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Dennis Leary return to lend their voices to Manny, Sid and Diego, respectively. Joining the cast this time around is Queen Latifah as the voice of Ellie, a female mammoth who steals Manny’s heart.
Animation for the sequel was again handled by Blue Sky Studios, Fox Animation’s feature toon partner. Carlos Saldanha, who co-directed the original Ice Age and Robots with Chris Wedge, returned to the helm, working from a script by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow. Wedge served as exec producer and Lori Forte again pulled producer duty.
The first Ice Age movie enjoyed a record-setting $46 million March opening in North America in 2002, and went on to earn $381 million at theaters worldwide. Judging by the film’s big marketing push and its whopping 3,963-theater rollout, 20th Century Fox seems to have high hopes that this latest installment will do even better, establishing a solid franchise on par with DreamWorks’ Shrek series. When the dust settles, we’ll see if audiences were fired up for the flick or if the recent box office slump makes for a chilly reception.
While there’s no new competition in the family film category, Ice Age 2 may lose a good chunk of its young adult audience to Universal’s Slither, a tongue-in-cheek, old-school B horror flick that is getting high marks form genre fans. Also opening in wide release today are Warner Bros.’ gangland drama, ATL, and Sony Pictures’ curiously belated follow-up, Basic Instinct 2, which sheepishly enters the ring in just over 1,400 theaters.
See more information about Ice Age 2: The Meltdown at www.iceage2.com and read our cover story on the film in the April issue of Animation Magazine, available on newsstands including Barnes & Noble locations.
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