Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)

ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN has everything you loved about the first movie with even more comedy, action, and spectacular visuals. Our three heroes’ unyielding friendship lives on with some memorable new characters thrown into the mix. The result will thaw hearts of all ages.

When the smart, character-based comedy “Ice Age” hit theaters in March 2002, critics and audiences immediately responded to its action, adventure, humor and heart. They fell in love with the four principal characters – three of whom unexpectedly come together to form a family, while the fourth begins his lifelong struggle to get his nut.

“The film’s success was largely due to the fact that audiences loved the characters,” says executive producer Christopher Meledandri, who also serves as president of Twentieth Century Fox Animation. “They bonded with Manny, Sid and Diego and laughed at Scrat.”

The film’s broad-based appeal was also aided by the starring voice cast – Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary – whose inherent edginess helped attract adults and teens.

Even before “Ice Age’s” global theatrical and DVD successes, Meledandri, Carlos Saldanha, Chris Wedge (the first film’s director), and producer Lori Forte, knew there were more stories to tell for these characters. Unwilling to rest on their laurels, the filmmakers wanted to make the new film even funnier, richer, and a bigger visual experience than “Ice Age.” The new film’s big idea – the animals interacting with a melting world – would be made possible by specific technological advances from Blue Sky Studios, which made “Ice Age,” “Robots” and ICE AGE: THE MELTDOWN.

Again starting from a character base, the filmmakers, including Carlos Saldanha who had moved into the director’s chair (with “Ice Age” helmer Chris Wedge now an executive producer), considered the question, Where could the characters go from where we left them in the first film? They decided that each character would experience significant individual growth, helped along the way by their friends.

In “Ice Age,” Manny is dealing with the pain of having lost his family years earlier. In the new story, he wonders if he will ever find a family – or love – again. When he meets a female woolly mammoth, Ellie, he has hopes for something special to happen; alas, there are complications.

While Manny pursues romance, Sid, who in the first film was the target of everyone’s jokes and was never taken seriously, yearns for respect – and he just might get it. “Sid’s very insightful, especially about Diego,” says Saldanha. “He can see inside Diego’s head, somehow.” Diego, a once-fierce saber-toothed tiger, discovers he has a fear that gives him more than a little trouble in their new rapidly-melting world: he’s afraid of water. “Diego, a predator in ‘Ice Age’ is now part of this oddball family,” adds Saldanha. “He has that huge issue – his fear of the water – that Sid discovers.”

Perhaps the most challenging character for which to create a new story was Scrat, the prehistoric squirrel/rat who spent the first film chasing after a perpetually elusive acorn. Initially envisioned as having a small part in “Ice Age,” the character’s explosive popularity in the film’s first teaser trailer led the filmmakers to significantly expand his role.

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