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Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
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  Ice Age 2: The Meltdown Production NotesTagline: The chill is gone.
In Ice Age: The Meltdown, the sub-zero heroes from the worldwide blockbuster CGI film "Ice Age" are back - Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, and the hapless prehistoric squirrel/rat known as Scrat. In the new film, from director Carlos Saldanha and the Academy Award winning creators of "Ice Age" and "Robots," the Ice Age is coming to an end, and the animals are delighting in the melting paradise that is their new world.
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary return to voice our three heroes: Manny, Sid, and Diego. New cast members include Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah ("Chicago"), Seann William Scott (the "American Pie" trilogy), late night talk show king Jay Leno, Will Arnett ("Arrested Development") and Josh Peck ("Drake and Josh").
Our trio is still together and enjoying the perks of their now melting world. Manny may be ready to start a family, but nobody has seen another mammoth for a long time; Manny thinks he may be the last one. That is, until he miraculously finds Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah), the only female mammoth left in the world. Their only problems: They can't stand each other - and Ellie somehow thinks she's a possum!
Ellie comes with some excess baggage in the form of her two possum "brothers"...Crash and Eddie (voiced by Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), a couple of daredevil pranksters and cocky, loud-mouthed troublemakers. Manny, Sid, and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: A huge glacial dam holding off oceans of water is about to break, threatening the entire valley.
The only chance of survival lies at the other end of the valley. So our three heroes, along with Ellie, Crash and Eddie, form the most unlikely family - in any "Age" - as they embark on a mission across an ever-changing, increasingly dangerous landscape towards their salvation. The film also presents the continuing adventures, or misadventures, of Scrat, who has an even larger role this time.
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.
For Ice Age: The Meltdown, the filmmakers were determined to explore new facets of Scrat. His singular focus remains on getting his cursed acorn, even as he continues to run into an endless series of obstacles. Saldanha, producer Lori Forte and some of today's top comedy writers add new twists so Scrat remains as funny and fresh as he was in the first film.
"Carlos really stretched and pushed the character," says Meledandri. "Scrat is still going after the nut, but his attitudes and expressions of frustration change. He becomes more integrated into the story - a big step forward for him."
Meledandri says Saldanha's abilities with physical humor are critical to the film. "His sense of humor extends beyond the verbal," says Meledandri, "and animation is often at its best when it's non-verbal. Carlos communicates so much through performance and physicality. He really understands the language of performance." Adds executive producer Chris Wedge, who collaborated closely with Saldanha on "Ice Age" and "Robots": "Carlos knows every aspect of this story and of these characters. He's been at my side at Blue Sky Studios for ten years."
Once the character perspectives were established, the filmmakers began to explore the story's brave new world: the melting Ice Age. Says Chris Wedge: "With `Ice Age,' we made the environment a major character. And the same thing happens in Ice Age: The Meltdown, but on an even bigger scale."
Much of "Ice Age" was set against a backdrop of ice and snow. In the new film's melting world, there's room for other environmental dynamics and a warmer-looking landscape. "It was important that the visual experience be reflective of the first film, while also being distinct and fresh," says Lori Forte. "The melting world is a big step forward in creating a new experience for the audience. It gave us a changing environment that becomes increasingly perilous for our characters. It really propels the action."
Besides the "meltdown," the film presents several environments new to the "Ice Age" universe, including trees, grass and mountains. The ever-changing landscape itself becomes a character - a kind of ticking-clock that counts down the peril as the characters try to flee to safety before the dam breaks and the valley floods.
To create Ice Age: The Meltdown's new environments, the filmmakers utilized twice as many effects as they did for its predecessor. Since "Ice Age," huge strides have been made at Blue Sky Studios in rendering fur and water. "The technology helps bring audiences into the story's own `reality' and transport them to this world," says Meledandri. "They may not notice specific technical advances, but they will feel them - it will seem like you can reach out and touch the characters."
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