Ice Age 2 is the story of a melting homeland and the quest to escape the impending flooding of the valley that Manny, Sid and Diego inhabit. Along the way the gang will have to overcome some communication problems, Queen Latifah's (who plays a mammoth named Ellie) strange fascination with Sid, and Manny's search for love. Everything is geared towards staying ahead of the rushing floodwaters. And of course the squirrel does his best to keep possession of his precious acorn.

I do wonder if perhaps a more lavish two-disc set is in the works as the one disc effort is sort of minimalist. Did they just have to get this on Christmas shelves? I don't know, but here are the features anyway.

All–New Short - "No Time for Nuts" puts the erstwhile Squirrel in a time machine in a quest for the elusive nut. Honestly the squirrel bit gets a little repetitve for my liking but I bet the kids will dig it.

Set Top Games - Factoid Meltdown, Scrat's Piranha Smackdown, Sid Soccer Game, Personality Match Game, Vivendi Universal Game Memory Challenge. The games aren't amazing as they share disc space with a full movie but they are a nice extra anyway. Clearly anything that gives the children another hour or so of entertainment is a big win. The only weird part was that if you are going to play this on a computer while traveling you'll have to download a product called HotLlama. C'mon Blue Sky, don't I have enough programs to clog up my machine? You couldn't have made it work with existing technology?

The Commentaries by Director Carlos Saldanha, Producer Lori Forte and the Production Team are better than you'd think but I can't imagine anyone actually listening to them. Do kids want to hear about the technical aspects of animation? I'm betting no. Maybe film students or animation fiends could find some use for it but I'm betting it won't get more than 100 listens worldwide.

I always enjoy an animated blooper reel and the Crash and Eddie Bloopers are no different. Even better you've got an angry Queen Latifah cursing up a storm at flubbing her lines. No, only kidding, it's the traditional blooper reel with some animated fakes ones and some voice-over miscues.

If you've got a kid under ten you're buying this. It's a lay-up. You've probably already seen it in theaters so it's a known entity. It's also a good (not great) film that everyone in the family can watch. The extras alone don't make this worthy buying, but there are a few hidden gems. This film serves as an ideal Christmas or Chanukah gift, the only downside is you might be on the hook for a 2 disc set later on.