What is this – the 4th Ice Age movie? This is turning into a heck of a franchise. A bit of suspension of disbelief is certainly required with these movies, as we have a very disparate group of mammals having banded together to form a type of herd. There’s Manny, the wooly mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid a giant ground sloth (John Leguizamo), Ellie, another wooly mammoth and Manny’s wife (Queen Latifa), Crash and Eddie, two possums (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck) and last but not least, Diego, the predator, a saber-toothed cat (Denis Leary). It’s all a bit… well, yeah, it’s a movie, just go with it.
And audiences have. This is the 4th film, there’s been a television special and a couple of shorts featuring the saber-toothed squirrel (a fictional species) Scrat. Actually, if there were more shorts featuring this character, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Point is, audiences love the Ice Age films, particularly kids. They are well made and different enough to stand out from the usual fare, and since they only come every 3 years or so, it’s easy to not get too tired of them.
This time around, the … herd (group, gang, loose family unit, whatever) winds up breaking apart because of Scrat inadvertently breaking apart the Pangaean continent. We get a series of adventures that involves pirates (yes, animals can be pirates too) the drifting continents, love, family, sacrifice, and… added to the mix is Peaches, the daughter off Manny and Ellie who is at the center of a love triangle.
Alright, so the first film made more sense, a few animals banding together to survive, and as the films go on they increasingly get more and more bizarre. The only way this film works is if you enjoyed the previous three. Yes, it is a stand-alone story, but the characters and situations are such that you really do need to have seen the previous films. Is this a bad thing? No, it’s just the way it is.
Ice Age: Continental Drift is a decent film for families, especially with older kids. younger kids will enjoy the physical humor, particularly that of Scrat and his obsession with acorns, but much of the actual humor and story will be lost on them.
Could Ice Age: Continental Drift have been better? Yes. Had the themes of separation been further explored with the initial group separated from their loved ones and the nature of family emphasized more. Had there been more of a longing on the part of the original cast for the various additions, sort of a coming to terms and realization that family is what you make of it which is there, but not nearly as much as it should, then Ice Age: Continental Drift would have had a more emotional anchor from which to take hold of the audience.
As for special features, we don’t get an audio commentary or picture in picture with storyboards or rough animation. It’s not overly missed, but does point to the fact these films are made for money not because there is any sort of artistic story trying to get told. A couple of deleted scenes are present, a half hour “making of” featurette, a couple more shorter featurettes that should have been folded back into the main feature focusing on specific characters, another not quite half hour featurette looking at the real life animals that are featured in the film, a sing-along and “story so far” piece. Oh, and a montage of Scrat clips which only proves that more shorts featuring the saber-toothed squirrel would be well received.
If you have the previous Ice Age films, go ahead and pick this up. If you don’t, then bypass this one. There are better films out there, but if you or your kids are fans, then you’ll enjoy Ice Age: Continental Drift.