"Ice Age 2: The Meltdown” is about three prehistoric animals—Manny the Mammoth (Ray Romano), Diego the Saber tooth tiger (Denis Leary) and Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo)— narrowly escaping a melting paradise of water parks, geysers and tar pits. The world as they know it is coming to an end. The animals must run for their lives and fight other critters that threaten their existence.

For an animated adventure, Ice Age 2 is riveting and intense. The movie is pure "fight or flight,” a term equated with stress response. (Often stress causes people to fight back or run away, rather than responding in a cool, calm and collected manner)

Personally, I found Ice Age 2 to be more stressful than entertaining. I couldn't laugh when vultures swooped down from the sky, screeching, "All unattended children will be eaten.” Fortunately, such comments flew right over my children's heads. The kids laughed themselves silly as Scrat the Saber tooth squirrel (Chris Wedge) fumbled to gather acorns—a feat of mental gymnastics and Twister (minus the board game.)

My kids also laughed at the tribe of dancing mini-sloths who crown Sid the "Fire King.” Their silly songs, copycat chanting and dancing are kind of

cute. (I glanced at my kids, and noticed they were dancing along in their seats) It's one of the brightest spots in the movie. It is also funny watching Ellie (Queen Latifah,) a mammoth who thinks she is a possum. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, Ellie cannot be persuaded to face reality. Fueling the fantasy are Ellie's two wisecracking possum brothers, Crash and Eddie (Josh Peck & Seann William Scott.)

Towards the end of the movie, Manny the Mammoth suggests, "Let go of the past, so you can have a future.” It's a beautiful sentiment, but my child misunderstood what it meant. His take: "Speaking of the future, what's for lunch?” Bottom line: Ice Age 2 is a great kid's movie, if you don't take it too seriously.

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