Ice Age in reverse is how S described it. And that is pretty much how it was.

Manny, Diego and Sid are back. The ice is melting and the lives of all animals who live in the bowl surrounded by the ice are under threat: something we could all be facing in the near future but for now we get to see it on screen.

This could have been a vehicle for the film makers to hammer home the dangers of global warming but of course they didn’t because they could hardly paint a picture of too much doom and gloom in this supposed to be entertaining kids movie. Instead, we follow Manny, Diego and Sid as they make their way to Ice Age’s version of The Ark. In fact, there are surprisingly quite a few biblical references in the movie including a near final scene where Scrat, the acorn-chasing squirrel rat who was so popular in the first movie, is shown the pearly gates and a golden acorn. Speaking of Scrat – he certainly makes his contribution to this movie and to some even manages to steal the show. I guess he is a good lesson in never giving up on what you really want.

We are also introduced to a few new characters in a family of “possums” composed of two actual possums, Crash and Eddie, and a female mammoth, Ellie (voiced by Queen Latifah), who thinks she’s a possum. (For me, the standout character though the development of Sid did grow on me.)

This sequel is as cute as the original but laughs during the first half were not easy to come by. It did improve in the second half but was in no way as entertaining as the first Ice Age. Overall, the movie was good but not great.