Ice Age: Continental Drift

Ice Age: Continental Drift is funny, and i had fun watching it and looked forward to seeing what this weird herd is up to now.

It is the fourth installment of the Ice Age series and the seventh CG production of Blue Sky Studios and the first sequel not to be directed by Carlos Saldanha who will be directing RIO part 2.

What I love must about this flick is the introduction of a partner for Diego; a white tiger lady is added ladies and gentlemen. The movie also has the whole fun of the old clichés, which I seem not to be tired of seeing. It also showcases cool CG effect; I loved the water effect most.

The plot was educational (as long as you know it is bogus) due to Scrat's (Squirrel) hunt for acorns he triggers the break-up of the world continent into the continents as we know them today, which cause Manny to lose his family.

Manny, Diego, and Sid embark upon another adventure to find his family, after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they explore a new world, and learn why it is good to be part of a family herd, than being part of a group where one person leads and other follow.

Well, the new directors weren't that bad, as the movie did have some fun screenplays and events that you will be thrilled to see. As we watch this creatures move from the Ice Age to the present age the pictures tell stories that are kinda informative and entertaining.

Hey! I must have missed that geography class when they taught that Scrat the squirrel created the whole world.

Although this is not the best addition to the Ice Age series it was fun to watch. And the movie kinda opens doors to new additional sequels.

But I hope Blue Sky won't bother making any more.

Scrat is at it again. He falls to the center of the earth. As he chase the acorn, he starts rotating the core setting the continents to drift. Manny is overprotective of Peaches as she falls for Ethan. Sid's family accidentally runs into him and dumps Granny with him. Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny get separated from Ellie, Peaches, and Louis when the continents separate. Manny and the gang get captured by pirate Captain Gutt and his crew on his iceberg ship.

Sure it doesn't make sense but I love the addition of the pirates. This is not a franchise that needs to be scientifically correct. The pirates are a fun added bonus in what could have been just another Ice Age road trip. It's like the cast of Ice Age gets thrown into a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It's silly. It's rip roaring fun for the whole family.

"Two sloths, a mammoth and a saber... You guys are like a start of a bad joke."

I'm not sure if it is my current depression speaking, or maybe I'm just tired of this franchise, but it seems to me that it slowly recedes. Visually, the film is superbly done, it is interesting and cute and holds the attention, but every next sequel is less funny than the previous, and this time not once have I laughed out loud. Still, I can not point on any other flaws, so I'll rate it

7/10

Ice Age: Continental Drift is the fourth installment in the Ice Age series, which was started a decade ago by FOX when they tried their hand at animation again after Titan A.E. became a box office bomb. The series follows a group of quite different prehistoric animals and the plot that it follows has been so far a formulaic "go from point A to B" story.

As the title suggests, Ice Age 4's plot revolves around the separation of continents. The herd is separated and while the original trio goes into an adventure overseas, the "half opossum, half mammoth" family tries to reach a rock bridge to meet up there. The film's animation is fantastic (you could hardly say a mainstream animated movie doesn't have terrific CGI) and backgrounds and water effects are beautiful, but the movie's storytelling is too fast paced and there are too many characters for them to develop while the movie lasts.

If the series is too formulaic what is the appeal of this movie? For anyone who has seen the whole series, you'll be happy to know Diego meets a female saber-tooth on the way and Sid is reunited with his sloth family. Amongst the new characters are a crew of pirates that capture the trio while they explore the ocean and become the main antagonists of the film.

The movie is overall quite worth it to watch with your family, but even the third one (which I didn't like a lot) had a better paced storytelling. New characters, in my opinion, don't really display a lot of personality traits other than Granny Sloth, but it is quite the enjoyable flick I would watch a few times on theaters.

The 3D, by the way, is not really worth it and the movie doesn't make use of it correctly. There were some moments when the background looked it was over the characters and that almost gave me a head ache. If you're taking your family to watch the movie don't waste your money on 3D.

I have always liked the Ice Age series up to the third one. In fact, this is the first time that I thought I would watch it in theater rather than getting a DVD later. The 3D was spectacular in terms of visual appearance, but I would not rate it as good as the previous Ice Age movies.

The plot during this adventure is short and simple. There's no surprises, and everything is pretty much along the line of a typical friendship/family/hero type story. The whole story took place in 3, 4 "in-movie" days, much shorter than the previous ones which had a constant string of events. By the end of this movie, I couldn't believe the story's over. Not a lot happened before the villains are apprehended and the world returns to peace and harmony, as in any of the Ice Age movies. However, this probably means their target audience are younger than the ones before. I guess this is the biggest drag down for fans who have been watching since the first one.

They also did a sub-par job in the music. Despite having no improvement in quality, they recycled music from the second movie in the series, "the Meltdown". I bought the soundtracks after watching that movie thinking it was spectacular. After listening to it for years now, I could virtually name the tracks as they come up in the Continental Drift. From the title sequence to the Ending, pretty much everything without a vocal voice was identical to something I've heard before. It feels like they just copied and pasted from before - The soundtracks are awesome, but when it's used once too many, it just doesn't have the same impact anymore.

I still gave this movie a 6 because of, well, what Fox and Blue Sky has always been best at. The vivid colors and the "just right" graphical presentation is sure a feast on the eyes. And don't forget about Scrat, who's never involved but just somehow miraculously leads the story. This movie is definitely great for fun, there are many (supposedly deliberate) punch lines. Although some puns fail when I go "huh? that's lame", I can feel that they are trying to make it as funny as possible. I'd say that they are making this movie more like a feature-length, high quality TV cartoon special rather than a real theatrical movie. There's just not that much thrill to it.

The addition of the new characters seems only to provide a villain to the storyline. There doesn't seem to be much careful consideration - from what I see, it's perfectly fine to replace any of them with another animal or personality and the story stays valid. The characters' specialties just do not come together and contribute to the story, another reason why it feels like the story was written without the context of the movie. Not even the prolonged characters like Manny, Diego, Sid and Peaches.

Bottom line: This movie is mediocre. It could do as a really nice cartoon, but it lacks the punch in the planning.