THE ICE AGE 2 - THE THAW

The long awaited CGI animated film (computer genereted imagery) is out Ice Age 2 - the thaw, the sequel to the lucky one The ice Age made by Blue Sky of 20th Century Fox (the same as Robots). The protagonists of the film and the Italian voice actors are always the same: Manny the Mammuth (voiced by Leo Gullotta), Diego the Siberian tiger (voiced by Pino Insegno), Sid the logorroic sloth (voiced by Claudio Bisio). To these were added two new entries such as Elly the female Mammuth (voiced by Roberta Lanfranchi) and the oppussum Eddie (voiced by Lee Rayan, the former English singer of the Blue). The film has already hit the American box office and in the first weekend of screening alone, it has already grossed 68 million dollars, against the 80 spent on its production.

The story is set in the period of the end of the ice age, when the ice begins to melt and reveal immense and beautiful prairies, threatened rivers that are preparing to overwhelm everything in their path. Manny, Diego and Sid must therefore leave their valley and on their way, warn the other animals of the arrival of a terrible flood, due to the melting of the ice dam that protected them until some time ago. The protagonists of the film are distinguished by their strong personality and their "human" fears: Sid is a sloth who with his tireless gab, tries to compensate for his inferiority complexes, Diego is an imposing saber-toothed tiger, but who is obsessed with fear of water and Manny who is almost resigned to believing he is the last mammoth on earth. In addition to the adventures (and misadventures) of the fantastic trio, the amusing gags of Scrat, the prehistoric squirrel grappling with the capture of the elusive acorn, which reminds us of the adventures of the mythical Willy Coyote. During the spring they meet Elly, a Mammoth female who has been raised from oppossums and believes she is the sister of the lively Eddie and Crash, but is convinced she belongs to their breed. It will be the mammoth Manny, who fell in love with her, to make her understand how things are and that being among the few remaining specimens on earth, they will have to think about starting a family quickly. But the danger for this ramshackle company does not come only from the water, in fact the melting of the glaciers brings back to life Creataceous and Maelstrom two terrible specimens of dinosaur, which will hunt down our heroes. In addition to the succession of funny jokes and roccamboesque situations we could listen to some beautiful music, with the songs of the oppossums (sung by Lee Ryan) and the vultures in the head. As far as the graphic aspect is concerned, this film is definitely much more accurate than the previous one, both as regards the construction of the fur of the animals (every single hair is a 3d object) and for the effect of the brightness of the glaciers and the fluidity water. For this reason the number of animators has been doubled to the advantage of a film that is a candidate as one of the best of its kind. The screenplay also uses highly respected artists such as Jon Vitti, who many will have appreciated in several Simpsons stories. In addition to the merits of a technical nature, the film also meets the didactic needs, such as the setting in the ice age characterized by its bizarre animals, which really existed and the moral ones where the values ​​of coexistence, respect for diversity and creative optimism that seeks solutions in order to improve the world.

	Original title:	Ice age 2: the meltdown
	Country:	USA
	Year:	2006
	Gender:	3D animation
	Duration:	94 '
	Directed by:	Carlos Saldanha
	performers:	Claudio Bisio, Leo Gullotta, Pino Insegno, Roberta Lanfranchi, Lee Ryan
	Film script:	Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow and Jim Hecht
	Official site:	www.iceagemovie.com
	Production:	Lori Forte
	Distribution:	20th Century Fox
	Exit :	April 21, 2006 (cinema)

<