Ice Age: The Meltdown is a 2006 American computer-animated adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is the sequel to Ice Age (2002) and the second installment in the Ice Age film series. The film was directed by Carlos Saldanha (in his feature directorial debut). Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, and Chris Wedge reprise their roles from the first Ice Age film, with newcomers Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, and Queen Latifah joining the cast. In the film, Manny, Sid, and Diego attempt to escape an impending flood, during which Manny finds love.
The film premiered in Belgium on March 1, 2006, and in the United States on March 31. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, it grossed $660.9 million worldwide, marking it the third highest-grossing film of 2006 and the highest-grossing animated film of 2006. Three more sequels were released: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009, Ice Age: Continental Drift in 2012, and Ice Age: Collision Course in 2016.
Manny, Sid, and Diego are currently living in a large valley surrounded by an enormously high ice wall on all sides. However, the trio subsequently discovers that the ice wall is actually a dam that is barely holding a massive reservoir that could flood the valley to nearly a mile underwater if it fails. A vulture tells them that there is a boat at the other end of the valley that may save them all, but they only have three days to reach it or die. Shortly after, a huge chunk of ice breaks off from the top of the dam, initiating their immediate evacuation.
Meanwhile, one of the glacier fragments that fell earlier actually contains two sea reptiles from the Mesozoic era; Cretaceous, a Cymbospondylus and Maelstrom, a Pliosauroidea which later frees themselves and devours a turtle named Stu. When Manny is briefly separated from them, Diego and Sid encounter two mischievous opossums named Crash and Eddie who drive them nuts by playing Whac-A-Mole with them. Manny is still worried about being the last mammoth alive and his family, who had been killed by humans, but is surprised when he encounters Ellie, a female woolly mammoth who believes she is an opossum and Crash and Eddie's adoptive sister. Sid invites her to tag along with the group to escape the flood, and she brings her brothers. After a dangerous encounter with Cretaceous and Maelstrom while crossing a pond, Sid prompts Diego to encourage him to admit and face his fears - Diego insists that "fear is for prey", so Sid points out that Diego is behaving as if HE is the water's prey. They discover an area which Ellie recalls as the place where she was adopted. She finally realizes she is a mammoth and also expresses her suspicions about how different she was from other opossums. Despite this bonding moment with Manny, she distances herself from him when he suggests "saving their species". Ellie and Manny ultimately reconcile when they must co-operate to save the group when the ground cracks under their feet. Sid is kidnapped by a tribe of mini-sloths who believe Sid to be a god. Sid lights a fire for them, and believes that he has finally found respect, but they plan to sacrifice him by tossing him into a volcano; Sid narrowly escapes. The next morning, Sid tells the others about his experience but none are convinced. After being harassed by vultures, the group finds the boat behind a field of hot geysers, which separates Manny, Sid and Diego from Ellie and her brothers when they argue about which way's safest to go through.
Just as the group bypasses the geysers, the ice dam subsequently fails, unleashing a devastating flood upon the valley. Manny is forced to go back to save Ellie after the latter gets trapped inside a cave. Cretaceous and Maelstorm later ambushes Manny underwater but he manages to kill the two by tricking them to dislodge a boulder, allowing Manny to save Ellie from drowning at the same time. He and Ellie reunites with the others atop a boulder but their joy is short-lived as the water is still rising. Meanwhile, Scrat climbs the adjacent glacial wall beside them and inadvertedly creates a long crack when he punctures the ice with his acorn. The crack then widens into a gigantic fissure which splits opens the wall and drains the floodwaters but in the process, Scrat falls within the fissure and gets washed away.
Shortly after, Sid encounters the Mini-Sloth tribe once again. Their leader suggest that Sid joins them but Diego replies that he is a "vital part" in their herd, which makes Sid happy. A group of mammoths later appear from the fissure, proving to everyone that mammoths aren't really extinct. Manny initially lets Ellie go with the mammoth herd, but after some encouragement from his friends, he catches up to her admits to her that he loves her and proposes to her while hanging on a tree like an opossum. The Herd, alongside the opossum brothers then proceeds to venture out of the valley through the fissure as the screen fades to white.
The epilogue shows Scrat having a near death experience after falling into the fissure. He enters a heaven full of acorns. Suddenly, he finds himself being "sucked back" just as he is about to reach a gigantic acorn. Scrat then discovers that he has been resuscitated by Sid, which throws him into a fit of rage. The movie ends with Scrat viciously assaulting Sid for "saving" him.
After the release of Ice Age in March 2002, executive producer Chris Meledandri commented on the potential Ice Age sequel: "The success of Ice Age is something that gives us additional momentum. It's too early to say, but it's certainly something we'll explore."[3] By June 2002, Blue Sky Studios was already working on the sequel.[4] In 2003, Lori Forte, the producer of the first film, signed a multi-year deal with Fox Feature Films to develop and produce animated films, including a potential Ice Age sequel.[5] During an interview with Denis Leary in July 2003, he said that he had expressed hope to reprise his role as Diego in the sequel: "I think there's a story – the people at Fox are working on one right now. I think they're talking about going back into the studios something around late Fall."[6] In that same year, 2006 was reported as the planned release year,[7] and by August 2004, its final release date, March 31, 2006, had been set.[8]
Initially developed under the working title of Ice Age 2,[8] it was renamed by June 2005 to Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,[9] but for the film's final release in March 2006, the creators decided to remove the number 2, calling it Ice Age: The Meltdown. However, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Mexico, and Australia, its title is promoted as Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Also, most of the sponsors of the film had the 2 in their packaging after the name change (they however did edit the 2 out of their TV ads).
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Carlos Saldanha, the director of the film, strove to make the characters eyes appear alive and not mechanical. “You want the facial expressions to work. I wanted it to be so that if you looked into their eyes, you would know what they were thinking.” in his own words. The characters, despite being from the last movie, were remodeled for the sequel.[10]