"Ice Age: Continental Drift" Review

    The continents split apart in just a few days? Right... This is Ice Age: Continental Drift!

    The first Ice Age film is, in my opinion, one of the all-time greatest animated movies. It was smart and funny. It had a great cast of characters and a heartfelt story. After that, Ice Age: The Meltdown was the film that more closely resembles the film series today. With that film, though still pretty good, the series started to cater more to kids, with more slapstick humor and sillier plots. The third film, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, had an even more ridiculous plot and, though not that bad, is still the weakest entry in the series. Now comes Continental Drift, which despite it insane plot, is the best of the three sequels.

    The film follows Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary) as the get separated from the rest of the animals and get sent adrift at sea. There they run into the evil Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage) and his crew of pirates, including Flynn, a seal played by Nick Frost. Each of the characters also have their own personal story. Manny is trying to get back to his wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah) and daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer). Peaches is trying to get the attention of the popular mammoths (Drake, Nicki Minaj and Glee's Heather Morris) and stay friends with Louis (Josh Gad). Sid has to take care of his grandmother, Granny (Wanda Sykes). Diego is falling for Shira (Jennifer Lopez), a member of Gutt's crew. And Scrat is following a treasure map to an acorn jackpot. Rounding out the huge cast is Sean William Scott and Jack Peck as Ellie's possum brothers, Joy Behar, Aziz Ansari and The Big Bang Theory's Kunal Nayyar as members of Gutt's crew and Alan Tudyk as a Siren. 

Love.

    Yes, the story is massive and the cast is huge. And yet the movie manages to balance it pretty well. Each story is pretty fleshed out and entertaining. Sure, the idea of continental drift as a plot device is silly and it isn't clear why the didn't just have the guys get separated after a piece of ice they were standing on collapses, but it is a children's movie and it's effective enough to get the main plot moving. 

    Where as the last two Ice Age films could be described as harmless, this one does offer up some new stuff to like. The new additions to the cast, especially Jennifer Lopez (Surprisingly) all work well and are likable enough to want to see again in the inevitable Ice Age 5: Evolution Attack*. Most of the actors are clearly having a good time, though Keke Palmer is oddly enough the weakest actor in a cast starring Nicki Minaj, Drake and Joy Behar. 

    Plus, the humor is still here. The movie is still pretty funny and something your kids are sure to love the movie. Adults might not enjoy it as much, but it is overall a pretty entry in the series, considering that the other films were both going downhill. And, if the films can keep up the quality, I don't mind the idea of a fifth movie.

Is that a kangaroo?

    Ice Age: Continental Drift is the fourth film in the Ice Age series and the best one since the first. Sure the plot is a little overly silly and predictable. But the cast is great, the animation and 3D are good and the series is a little bit funny. A solid film for both kids and adults. Ice Age: Continental Drift gets 3 stars out of 6.

* In this film, a group of renegade aliens invade Earth and start evolving animal species into better and smarter species in order to take over the planet. Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of the herd fight against the evolved animals in order to stop the aliens. Sign my check, Blue Sky Animation.