When the valley where they live is threatened by the melt of the surrounding ice, the mammoth Manny, the sloth Sid, and the saber-toothed tiger Diego advise the other animals to look for shelter outside the place.
While escaping, the trio meets Ellie, a female mammoth who believes she is an opossum like her two mischievous brothers. Meanwhile, the squirrel Scrat tries to retrieve his walnut in the most unusual situations.
Ice Age: The Meltdown Trailer
Movie Details
- Release Date: March 31, 2006
- Director: Carlos Saldanha
- Run Time: 1h 31min
- Writers: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow, Jim Hecht, Michael J. Wilson
Ice Age: The Meltdown Cast and Characters
- Ray Romano – Manny
- John Leguizamo – Sid
- Denis Leary – Diego
- Seanne William Scott – Crash
- Josh Peck – Eddie
- Queen Latifah – Ellie
- Will Arnett – Lone Gunslinger Vulture
- Jay Leno – Fast Tony
- Chris Wedge – Scrat
- Peter Ackerman – Dung Beetle Dad
- Caitlin Rose Anderson – Glypto Boy Billy, Beaver Girl
- Connor Anderson – Rhino Boy, Beaver Boy
- Joseph Bologna – Mr. Start
- Jack Crocicchia – Elk Boy
- Peter DeSéve – Condor Chick
- Nicole DeFelice – Start Girl
- Debi Derryberry – Diatryma Mom
- Marshall Efron – Start Dad
- Tom Fahn – Start Dad
- Jason Fricchione – Molehog Grandpa, Shovelmouth Male
- James Godwin – Traffic Vulture
- Geroge Jacobs – Beaver Dad
- Clea Lewis – Female Mini Sloth, Dung Beetle Mom
- Brian Scott McFadden – Glyptodan
- Jansen Panettiere – Shovelmouth Boy
Ice Age: The Meltdown Movie Posters
Ice Age: The Meltdown Movie Links
Ice Age: The Meltdown Quotes
“So, you think she’s the girl for me?”
“Oh, yeah, she’s tons of fun, and you’re no fun at all. She completes you.”
“Okay. Thanks to Sid, we’re now traveling together, and, like it or not, we’re gonna be one big, happy family. I’ll be the daddy, Ellie will be the mommy, and Diego will be the uncle who eats the kids who get on my nerves. Now let’s move it before the ground falls out from under our feet!”
“Manny, you’ve come a long way since we first met, and I’ll take the credit for that, but you need to let go of the past so you’ll have a future.”
Ice Age: The Meltdown Games & Apps
Ice Age Adventure App
Scrat’s nutty pursuit of the elusive acorn has had world-changing consequences! After the continents crack apart, Manny, Diego, and the rest of the herd are suddenly FLOATING OUT TO SEA! Left all alone, Sid needs your help to rescue his friends. Download from the Apple app store and Google Play store.
Ice Age: The Meltdown Plot Summary
The film begins with Scrat climbing a glacier and biting into the ice wall, only to be blasted away under a jet stream of water. As the title suggests, the ice age has started to thaw.
Rather than being worried about the impending flood, the creatures enjoy the fun of these new watery features; this includes Manny, Sid, and Diego.
Sid has started a children’s camp though no one takes his attempts seriously, discouraging him. He decides to prove himself by attempting a daring challenge and earning their respect.
Manny now has to look after all the energetic kids and tell them a story. One of the kids asks him where his “happy family” is? Which leads him to be silent as he remembers his sad past.
The valley’s local con artist, Fast Tony, is frightening everyone by claiming the Earth will flood at any moment, and only by buying his items of bark and reeds will they be able to survive.
Manny dismisses this ridiculous idea and then sees Sid high up on a waterfall about to dive in. The mammoth and the saber-tooth tiger rush up to stop him from doing this foolhardy stunt.
Up top, Manny can see that the inside of the glacier has melted away, and it’s only the outer icy shell of the glacier that’s stopping the whole valley from being flooded.
After the three of them have accidentally fallen down the waterfall, Manny tries to explain the danger everyone faces, but no one takes him seriously.
An aardvark even exclaims why they should take a mammoth seriously, about how to survive, when their whole species have gone extinct anyway!
But the arrival of an intimidating vulture quickly changes all their spirits as he confirms the news that a terrible flood is coming. The bird says they have three days before the whole valley is underwater.
The vulture mentions a large boat at the end of the valley that could save them. Comically, all the animals file off together two by two towards the ship, including three heroes and Scrat.
A part of the glacier breaks off as they leave and melts, releasing two aquatic villains from the Mesozoic era, Cretaceous and Maelstrom.
Sid being Sid has been singing songs about Manny being the last mammoth, and this torments him a lot. At first, he flatly denies he is the last of his kind, but the realization slowly sinks in, and, feeling depressed, he goes for a walk.
On the way he meets, Ellie, a female mammoth, and Manny is overjoyed. But he soon realizes something very odd about her as she believes she is a possum, just like her brothers, Crash and Eddie.
Sid and Diego agree that this could be Manny’s last chance to save his species and invite Ellie and her brothers to join them on the journey, much to Manny’s annoyance.
He makes several unsuccessful attempts at convincing her she is a mammoth but gives up. Later, after they all survive an ordeal with the aquatic monsters Cretaceous and Maelstrom, Sid realizes that Diego is afraid of water, but the saber-tooth firmly denies this.
That night, after they make camp, Manny and Ellie walk into a Willow grove, restoring a lost memory for Ellie. She remembers being rescued by her opossum mother when she was just a mammoth calf.
Ellie finally remembers who she is. After a romantic interlude, Manny suggests they need to save their species which deters Elle and cools the moment.
Diego directs both Manny and Ellie to save the herd from the crumbling Misty Chasm, allowing Ellie to realize some chemistry between her and Manny.
During the night, Sid is kidnapped by a tribe of mini sloths who think he is a god and refer to him as Fire King. Sid creates fire for them and gains their worship, making him happy as he has finally earned respect.
However, he soon realizes they want to throw him into a volcano as a sacrifice to avert the flood. Sid manages to flee and return to the herd though no one believes his story, of course.
They all manage to get past a whole pack of vultures who are singing “food glorious food” as they hope to eat all of them. They finally reach the big boat, although they face a major problem.
A field of hot geysers is blocking the way between them and the boat. Manny wants to go through the geysers while Ellie wants to go around them. This leads to a heated argument, and they split up to head to the boat via different routes.
Manny reaches the boat first and then frantically tries to look for Ellie, but her brothers reveal her fate. As they were making their way around the geysers, the mountainside collapsed, and it created a boulder cave around her with no exit large enough for her to escape.
Manny, Sid, and Diego rush to her aid, but the floodwaters have already begun to pour inside the cave. Manny dives in to save Ellie while Diego overcomes his fear of water and saves his friend, Sid, who is now unconscious.
Manny then has to face off with Cretaceous and Maelstrom and, with quick thinking, dispatches them by making a slab of rockfall on them. By making this slab fall, he can free Ellie, but the cave is now completely submerged.
Ellie is reunited with everyone and shares a tender moment with Manny. They are all trapped inside the rising waters and await their demise. All the animals are shocked on the boat at the rapid waters that are now surging.
Meanwhile, Scrat has been climbing the nearby glacier with his acorn. As he climbs, he leaves indentations in the ice. At the top, he puts the acorn in the top of the glacier.
This causes a crack to appear, and the crack follows the line of indentions beginning to widen into a large crevice. The gap diverts the water from the animals making Scrat the unlikely hero and saving everyone from inevitable disaster. In the draining waters, Scrat has washed away and presumed lost.
The mini sloths show up and ask Sid to join them as they believe he has averted the flood. However, Diego steps in and tells them that Sid can’t leave them as he was the one who created their herd, and he is the glue that keeps them together. Sid is so happy by this that he hugs a very embarrassed Diego.
To everyone’s amazement, breaking through the glacier rift is a whole herd of mammoths. Manny is thrilled, at first, but then realizing that he no longer has the excuse to save his species with Ellie, he loses his confidence, and old fears return to the surface linked to his lost family.
Ellie tries to hint to him that she wants to be with him but, due to his inability to show his feelings, she decides to leave with the mammoth herd. Diego and Sid encourage Manny to go after her, which he does.
Then, hanging from a tree, like an opossum, he tells her that he wants to be with her, not just because he had to. They lock trunks and embrace while the watching mammoths trumpet their support for them.
Her brothers cry together while Sid and Diego walk off dejectedly as they know they will be on their own now. But, to their surprise, Manny and Ellie announce they want to stay with their herd.
Ice Age Movies List
- Ice Age (2002)
- Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
- Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
- Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
- Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022)
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022)
Ice Age: Collision Course (2016)
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
Ice Age (2002)
Check out our Blue Sky movies list for more films built by their animators. In 2021 Blue Sky was purchased by Disney movies as part of their 20th Century Animation acquisition.
Brandon Crombar
Editor In Chief / FounderBrandon is an animation enthusiast and animated film critic. He has been writing about animation since 2013 to celebrate animated movies, characters, and songs. His favorite animated movies include Finding Nemo, Aladdin, and The Lion King.