Ice Age: Continental Drift
Rating:
Cast: Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah,
Jennifer Lopez, Peter Dinklage, Wanda Sykes
Director: Steve Martino, Mike Thurmeier
Once more unto the Ice Age, my friends, once more.
In this fourth outing for Diego the Sabretooth tiger, Manny the
Mammoth and Sid the Sloth, as well as Scrat, the acorn lover, the
world is changing forever for our trio both literally and
metaphorically.
At the end of the last film, our trusty trio were settled with families and looking forward to a more quiet life.
That's all about to change in Ice Age: Continental Drift.
When Scrat's continual pursuit of the acorn sees him causing massive seismic schisms of the landmasses, the splitting of the continents divides Manny from his wife and daughter. Marooned on an iceberg, Manny's sole desire is to get back to the family at whatever cost.
However, this new quest for the trio turns into an adventure of the sea faring kind when their plans to get back to land force them into the path of the maniacal money Captain Gutt (Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage) and his motley pirate crew of animals, fleeing the splitting of the continents.
Will Manny get back home?
Ice Age: Continental Drift is really a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix it when it comes to the CGI film world.
The madness and zaniness of the series is still there and the
children in the audience will certainly love the fast paced
silliness of the story as well as the antics of Sid the Sloth and
that most memorable of animated animals, Scrat.
But this tale of the importance of family is really nothing
new.
At the end of the day, they're all being forced to grow up in some form or other and learn a life lesson or two. Sid gains a grandma (voiced by Wanda Sykes) that none of the rest of the family want; Manny clashes with his young daughter Peaches because he's over protective and she's growing up and wants to hang with the cool kids; and all of them learn the lessons of being true to yourself.
This series has been phenomenally popular and I get the sense that really, the creators are loathe to let it go.
But even the most cynical and hard hearted may be won over by the pure nuttiness of what's on the screen at times and won't be bothered by the weak plot and episodic feel of the action.