Blue Sky Studios,
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Nicki Minaj, Aubrey Graham, Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Aziz Ansari, Joy Behar, Peter Dinklage, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Wanda Sykes, Patrick Stewart, Heather Morris, Rebel Wilson, Josh Gad
A catastrophic event sends Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) drifting away from Ellie (Queen Latifa) and the rest of the herd. They’re trying to work their way back when they are captured by bloodthirsty pirates. After escaping they try to steal the ship and make the long trek back home in this 4th installment of the Ice Age series of animated films.
I will admit that I was never a big fan of the Ice Age movies, not even the first one. I just didn’t get into the characters, nor the story from the beginning, although several of them I have tried to watch multiple times. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I went into this one. I stared at it in the “new releases” before finally deciding to give it a try and put it in my queue. Well, I was not surprised to come to the realization that I’m just tired of this story. Through about seventeen “Land Before Time” straight to video sequels, I didn’t find myself as bored as I was through Continental Drift. In the very beginning we’re treated to another round of that stupid squirrel trying to get his acorn and starting the earth to break up and the continents to split apart. Trouble is that unlike Luxor the Lamp from Pixar or Tinkerbell and the castle from Disney films, they aren’t just a mascot that appears during the opening seconds. We’re instead treated to a mini cartoon with this hysterical (not) creature chasing an acorn. Now Wile E Coyote was a one trick Road Runner chaser, but they were very original and were fun to watch. But this mini cartoon to introduce the film was completely shown in the trailer, so it was absolutely nothing new to see in the movie. I realize that they always do that, but it’s always annoyed me for some reason. (I just watched Wreck-It Ralph again in the bargain theater because my Grandson wanted to see it again, and watched with pleasure the opening cartoon about the guy and girl and the paper airplanes that was as fresh this time as the last time.) But I had seen the trailer for IA4 so many times that I know that bit about the core of the earth too well to enjoy watching it again.
The story is typical of Ice Age films, and a lot like the rest, and also a lot like other animated stories (like Happy Feet Two for example) but just left me disappointed. This has been a rough week, as I faced both Frankenweenie and this one in the same week. Of the two, I’d choose this one, but not by much. Now I must say that the younger folk won’t mind so much that the story is so similar. I have grandkids that have watched Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo hundreds and hundreds of times! The kids will enjoy the action and the animated characters just fine, and if you have a little one to entertain, you can put this on and they’ll love it. I don’t condemn the film, but just feel for me I’ve worn out the concept and I doubt I’ll be watching Ice Age 5 when it’s sure to come around. When it was over, I just said, “Eh!” and shrugged my shoulders. Not awful but just not very exciting.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
