The film is set against the end of the Ice Age. The three protagonists of the previous movie, the mammoth, the saber-toothed tiger, and the sloth, are still in charge, but compared to the first one about the theme of escorting human children back home, this second one is the story. The courage, belief, and spirit of mutual help that animals radiate when facing disasters are even more moving. Mammoth Manny has become more mature and has a more leadership style; the ferocious saber-toothed tiger completely got rid of self-interest, and even defeated his fear of water at the critical moment of the story, and rescued his partners in danger; some noisy sloths are still courageous It's a little scary, but it's really kind and lovely. What makes adults and children even more obsessed with is the old supporting squirrel and the new member-a female mammoth with a misplaced identity. One of them entices people to hold their stomachs with their excessive obsession with pine cones; the other uses the "social identity" of an opossum to inferiority to his huge body, and the weird actions such as hanging himself upside down on a branch to sleep with his tail are really uncontrollable.
Apart from these superficial phenomena, we must also note that although "Ice Age 2" is aimed at children as the main audience, it does seem to have many bright spots from the perspective of adults. In the eyes of children, the melting of the glacier may be just the background of the story. It only brought a catastrophe to the animals they love, but adults clearly see the serious consequences of the greenhouse effect. When the children laughed at the squirrel’s bad luck and their obsession with pine cones, adults immediately remembered that there are many such unlucky little supporting characters in western cartoons to set off the atmosphere, as in "Mulan" The little dragon's eye beard, Peng Peng and Ding Man in "The Lion King"... That may be a way for modern people to laugh at themselves. When children are excited about the dullness and weirdness of the mother mammoth, adults may think of how many people have such an "identity crisis", waiting for someone who knows their own kind to arouse our hearts? In addition, when the children raised their hearts in their throats because the animals could get to the boat in time to escape the catastrophe, the more thinking adults saw the mother of "The Great Flood" and "Noah's Ark". question.
Since the main audience appeal of cartoons is still children, the general themes must be positive, educational, lively and funny... However, it is the children’s parents who contribute to the box office of the movie. Therefore, it is suitable for both young and old from an artistic perspective. The commercial angle is undoubtedly the highest pursuit of cartoons. Neither can we give up the in-depth theme and have a lively format, so that children can only watch the lively and can not get any spiritual gains, and make adults feel that it is too pediatric; nor can it be too strong to strengthen the ideological connotation and ignore the characteristics of the cartoon. It is quite rewarding, and children will dislike it because they find it too difficult. And "Ice Age 2" just handled this contradiction quite well, which not only attracted the attention of children, but also met the needs of adults for in-depth thinking. Starting from the "small" and focusing on the "big", this is probably the biggest feature of "Ice Age 2".
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