Ice Age: The Meltdown

.. Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown ( original English title: Ice Age: The Meltdown ) is an American computer animation film from 2006, he is the sequel to Ice Age from 2002 directed the commercially highly successful film comedy again led Carlos Saldanha, wrote the screenplay Jon Vitti. The film was produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox. Was continued for the 2009 Series with Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs and 2012 Ice Age 4 - Continental Drift.

Action

In the film play with the mammoth Manny, a saber -toothed tiger Diego and sloth Sid same characters as in the first part with, and there are still Ellie, a female mammoth, the two possums Crash and Eddie, as well as the fleet Tony, an armadillo added.

The Ice Age is over and the valley in which they live, will be flooded soon with meltwater. A glacier has formed at one end of the valley and prevents the flow of water.

Diego, Manfred and Sid, all inhabitants of the valley warning and flee with them from home. As a vulture tells the group of an ark on the other end of the valley, the group makes their way to reach the ark to escape with her from the valley.

The rat squirrel Scrat has other problems: A vulture stole his penis and she hides in its nest.

Meanwhile, Manfred is plagued by depression, because he thinks to be the last mammoth on earth - until he meets the female mammoth Ellie. Ellie but feels like a possum, because they grew up with possums and knows only their practices. Ellie tries, for example, to sleep on a branch, which is doomed to failure, given their mass. So Manny has a lot of hard work to do to convince Ellie to the contrary.

Furthermore, Sid learns also know Diego's secret: he is afraid of water. But in the water masses are dangers such as Deinosuchus Cretaceous ( a prehistoric crocodile ) or the huge Dunkleosteus Maelstrom ( an armored fish). These two actually extinct prehistoric animals have been released from the thawing ice.

Only when Sid and the possums are in danger, Diego can overcome his fear of water and save them. Shortly before reaching her way from a life-threatening geyser field is truncated. Ellie and Manfred got into a fight, and then disconnects her way. While Manfred, Sid and Diego cross the field and reach the other animals, Ellie is trapped in a cave and threatens to drown. Crash and Eddie Manfred ask for help, which can liberate Ellie after a dramatic underwater battle with Maelstrom and Cretaceous.

Scrat can now steal the acorn from the nest of vultures. When he buries on the glacier, the ice splits. The dam is broken so that water masses flow out of the valley and all the inhabitants are saved. Here Manfred and Ellie also meet other mammoths. For a brief moment it seems that now the paths of the two separate, but eventually they still find each other.

Scrat in turn falls into the gap and is overwhelmed by the flood waters. In heaven, he comes back to himself, where he is surrounded by countless acorns. However, when he a giant acorn (symbolized God, a scene reminiscent of The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo ) wants to touch, he is captured by a suction and brought back to Earth: Sid saved him from drowning. Because Sid has brought him out of the sky, Scrat shows its used already with the piranhas karate skills.

Reception and financial success

The premiere took place on 31 March 2006. The German theatrical release was on April 6, 2006. At the subsequent theater tour traveled Otto Waalkes, spokesman for the character Sid, a week by numerous German cities, in each case before and after the movie of the " ice age " song for mood ensure (amongst others with Stefan Raab on TV Total).

The feuilleton reputable German newspapers are full of praise for the character of Scrat and report of enthusiastic reactions in cinemas when it appears on the screen. In the Süddeutsche even philosophy is troubled: "If the existence worry - as Heidegger remarked - is the ultimate existential of all living beings, then this concern increases when Scrat to panic. Scrat's popularity certainly has to do with the fact that he embodies a startled panic feeling of disasters until the quivering tips of his claws. " ( Rainer Gansera: A monument to Scrat, April 6, 2006! )

The lexicon of international film wrote: "Complete computer-generated animation film, the content can be difficult to connect to the predecessor, the level visually but screwed up. As in the first part mainly offers the prehistoric squirrel Scrat extended pleasure. "

In the U.S. the film grossed in its opening weekend, a 68 million U.S. dollars at the box office. This is the highest grossing in March in U.S. cinemas. The first part had recorded "only" $ 46 million in the same period. Worldwide Ice Age 2 has now recorded more than $ 651 million. Thus, the film is number 34 in the ranking of the world's most successful films.

In Germany the film saw 440,000 visitors on launch day. This was the best start for an animated film in German cinemas. After only seven days of film, the Golden Screen for 3.3 million and after 14 days received the Golden Screen with Star for over 6 million viewers. As a result Ice Age was 2: The Meltdown 2006 with 8.7 million visitors, the most successful animated film in Germany and became the most successful film in Germany in 2006.

In Austria Ice Age 2 opened with 284 793 viewers and thus the best opening weekend so far. With 1.185 million, the movie was the only Diamond ticket in 2006 and became the most successful film in Austria this year.

Background

The event represented the deflating through melting glaciers in a catastrophic flood Eisstausees is geologically often prove especially to the Americas and explored scientifically since the 19th century. Here mention the Missoulasee (Missoula Floods ) and the Lake Agassiz. The sudden outflow of Agassiz probably had a significant impact on climate.

The vultures sing the song Food, Glorious Food, after Sid wondered what they might be thinking. The song comes from the musical Oliver.

The official novel of the same name the film was released in March 2006, Xenos, titled Ice Age 2 - The book of the film. Authors were Jennifer Frantz and Peter Clarke. In February 2006 an anthology was published with the novel and the novel for the first part. The time was written by Glenn Dakin and appeared on German in the Dorling Kindersley - Verlag.

Synchronization

The German synchronization was created by a dialogue book by Michael Nowka under its dialogue director on behalf of the Berliner Synchron AG.