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Saturday, February 02, 2013

Ice Age: Continental Drift

"Surrender your ship or face my fury!"
"Or face your furry what?"
"Not furry, fury!"

When Scrat the squirrel causes the ground to split apart and form separate continents.  While the earth is reforming, Manny (Romano), Sid (Leguizamo), and Diego (Leary) are separated from the rest of their herd and swept up in a storm.  They drift into the sea on a large chunk of ice, with Sid's eccentric Granny (Sykes) sleeping through the storm.  Soon they are captured by a band of pirates, led by Captain Gutt (Dinklage) a Gigantopithecus, who wants to control the ocean.  They manage to get free and destroy Gutt's ship.  They escape on a tiny piece of ice and rescue Gutt's second in command, Shira (Lopez).  They float away with Gutt and his crew giving chase.

Meanwhile, Ellie (Latifah) and Peaches (Palmer) are leading everyone to the land bridge to escape the land shift that is looming behind them.  Can Ellie and Manny get back to each other, or will pirates ruin everything?


This is the 4th film in the Ice Age franchise, which is starting to wear out its welcome.  Maybe it's because it is the 4th film, maybe it's because it's trying to compete with other animated franchises...

1) There are too many unnecessary characters: the other films had big stars in small roles, but this one tried to hard.  The teen mammoths are not needed and shouldn't be in the film... the film should focus more on the pirates and less on the teen crap.  Also, is the Louis character necessary here?

2) Why the huge jump in time since the 3rd film?  Peaches was a newborn and she is still young in the Christmas special... the film could still work if she was a child, which would remove the need for most of the unnecessary characters.

3) Singing over the credits... no.  In most movies it works, but I wasn't fan of it here.

The returning characters are once again funny.  It was good to see the original guys together, and Wanda Sykes was a welcome addition as Granny.  They are still the characters you fell in love with ten years ago, with some emotional growth.  Peter Dinklage is also excellent as Captain Gutt.  Apparently they originally wanted Jeremy Renner in the role, but I prefer Dinklage.  The pirates are entertaining.

I'm sure children will still enjoy it, but I don't think adults will love it.

Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) 88 minutes
Director: Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier
Starring: Ray Romano as Manny
John Leguizamo as Sid
Denis Leary as Diego
Seann William Scott as Crash
Josh Peck as Eddie
Peter Dinklage as Captain Gutt
Wanda Sykes as Granny
Queen Latifah as Ellie
Keke Palmer as Peaches
Josh Gad as Louis
Jennifer Lopez as Shira
Aziz Ansari as Squint
Nick Frost as Flynn
Rebel Wilson as Raz

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