More importantly, Ice Age is an emotional movie. Manny, Sid, and Diego are brought to life by spot-on voice casting, and unlike some of its bloated sequels, Ice Age's straightforward plot is a virtue, leaving plenty of room to establish the characters and jokes (the cast were encouraged to improvise their lines to increase the humor). Similar to other early computer-animated movies, the film's age is sometimes telling, but its rough-around-the-edges look is part of its charm, and Peter de Sève's appealing character designs fit the stylized animation perfectly. It was deservedly nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar (though didn't stand a chance against Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away). The original Ice Age movie is still the franchise's best. The film does take a while to get going and doesn't really know what to do with Diego (an issue that repeats itself throughout the sequels), but overall, Ice Age: The Meltdown is a fun family movie and a worthy follow-up to the first film. Composer John Powell joins the series (his first of three Ice Age scores) and gives the movie a warm and exciting soundtrack.

The increased budget compared to the first movie provides the characters and the world with a digital makeover, and the animation is really engaging. Scrat continues to be the movies' most valuable asset though, with his Looney Tunes-style antics stealing the show. Having to escape from a valley before an ice dam bursts, the ticking clock element gives the film some urgency despite its bizarre movie logic (in particular, the internally melting ice). Manny is given a love interest in the form of Queen Latifah's Ellie, who brings along her adoptive opossum brothers Crash and Eddie. Ice Age: The Meltdown started the series tradition of adding new characters to the herd.

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