Movie Reviews: Ice Age (2) The Meltdown and Cheaper by the Dozen 2

So yesterday was a day of sequels (besides other dramatic personal episodes). What a day yaar!
First of all I woke up at 8am, an hour earlier than intended, delighted that I would have time to oil and wash it, and be ready in time for the 10:30 Inox show of Ice Age 2. I got out of the shower around 9:30, ready to do my breathing and everything before eating junk food for breakfast at the theatre. Alas, this was not to be. I found out then that the show was at 10:05 am, and by the time we had got there, the movie had started a few minutes ago and we had no time to buy anything.

The movie was cute! I find animated films these days SO much more intelligent, with far more sparkling dialogues than the bullshit romantic comedies these days that focus far more on fashion and other aspects of style! Animated movies, especially those featuring animals, dont have to have characters that are particularly good looking, so you can concentrate on the actual plot for once, simplistic though it may be. And they have such adorable caricatured characters, crafted with the precision and control that impossible to do so with humans - unless one is a superlative actor - so that they're never inconsistent and hence a delight to watch! They stick to a particular thematic characterisation throughout. And, whats more, they can spoof actual actors!!! Wheee!!! Hehehe.

So the story of this one continues from the first (which people say was better but which I dont remember very well), as the weasel, Sid, the sabre-toothed tiger, Diego and Manny the mammoth are continuing on their journey to escape the ice. Mammoth is scared he is the last one on the planet, till he finds a female one, Ellie, voiced to perfection by Queen Latifah which that singular black inflection that defines 'attitude', who thinks she is a possum! He tries to convince her and she annoys him. What follows are scenes with really cute banter between them, and my favourite is the possum brothers, Crash and Eddie, doing the "Im watching you" thing that Robert de Niro does in Meet the Parents! Of course they stumble along doing their thing, mired in misunderstandings and friendship and crises and revelations and psychobabble by Sid the matchmaker, till of course, like any cartoon, all's well that ends well.

Scrat, too, shines, in his hapless quest to salvage his last acorn as he chases it over lakes and mountains and nests. Superb in the end... I love his sound effects and definitely empathise with his frustration!!!!!

I had a chutney sandwich in the interval and my friend had tortilla chipswith salsa. It was too big for breakfast. I also had nutties which werent as yummy as I remember them from school. I missed teekha chatpata potato chips and softy so badly, and their softy machinese werent working!!!

But I was in luck when i returned in the evening for Cheaper by the Dozen 2. I git a softy yay yay yay I needed it after the sevpuri which was unsettling in my stomach. I think this Art of Living has cleansed my body and now doesn't let it enjoy junk. (Well it lets my tongue, not my digestive system. Sigh. More's the pity. They will have to get used to taking turns to suffer.)

I liked the sequel better than the first one!!! The entire family, with a pregnant Nora, college grad Jake and an internship headed whatever the character played by Hilary Duff is, who seems stricken by anorexia and trying - TOO HARD - to look like Carrie Fisher (Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City - terrible terrible. Just see the difference between a few years ago and now - she must be how old? 20 now?

She looked real then. Now, she looks like an android. So thin - all the softness and curvature and spark from her face has gone. What's the point of being skinny if you will look washed out and haggard?) decide to ave a family summer vacation at Lake Winnetka, after they come across an album and reminisce about their competitive acquaintance there, who defeated them at the last Family Cup games at the resort.

They reach teh lake to found out that their rival has made it big with a swanky new house while theres looks older and positively decrepit. Competition begins between the two men (teastosterone, I tell you) as to who is bigger and better in terms of raising kids and having a good time. Some crushes and other assorted events occue between the two families, peppered with family drama, kids wanting to follow their dreams, a first date, makeup hassles, camping, firecrackers, an excited dog and other family fun, of course, climaxing with the family cup in which people learn the importance of family and letting your kids be and being open and honest with tham blah blah. The usual all-American family values that look so squeaky clean on one hand. Actually, it would be nice if some of them could be translated over here.

Conclusion: Family fun. Ice Age is great to see with a buddy or two, (because Indian parents who tend to take themselves a bit seriously don't readily take to animated pictures unless they have conspicuous moral values like the Lion King) and Cheaper by the Dozen with your slapstick-lovin' dad.