Ice Age 2

I think I wanted to hate this movie and for that reason alone I pick on the story. Because the movie was really funny. I laughed several times. But the whole premise of the movie is much thinner than the first one, which makes this an OK sequel, not a great one like Toy Story 2.

The core original cast returns, including Blue Sky director/aficionado Chris Wedge as Scrat (easily the funniest part in the entire movie) with the addition of Queen Latifah (a mammoth raised by possums), Seann William Scott (one of her possum brothers) and Jay Leno as a fast-talking car-salesman character who “would sell his own mother for a grape. Are you making an offer?” Their story is one of migration as the nearby glacier begins to melt, unveiling the threat of a ginormous tidal wave crashing down on the community our heroes have carved out for themselves (Campo de Sid: day care camp/water park). And somehow the community is in a glacier “bowl” with no way out of it, which means that the flood would wipe everybody out…unless they get to a “boat” on the far side of the bowl. Our heroes don’t make it onto the boat in time, and the water’s rising fast and suddenly…death happens. Everybody dies and the movie ends. Unfortunately, they’re saved at the last minute by something Scrat did in the first movie….splitting a glacier in two (the edge of the bowl) with his little acorn. Random actions never improbably work together for the good of the story. And if a movie is trying to make me take it seriously (are they warning about global warming?) at some level, you have to go all the way or you screw it up. But this is all mincing over the story. As I said before, the movie is a lot of fun. I just want to pick it apart and leave it for those vultures. “Food glorious food!” Now THAT’S comedy.

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