Movie Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Daniel "Pinto" Gunderson reviews the movie Ice Age: Continental Drift.

 

 

 

 

(Photo courtesy of Facebook)


This weekend, I reviewed the movie Ice Age: Continental Drift. It is an animated movie featuring the voices of Ray Romano, Dennis Leary and John Leguizamo, among others.

It is the fourth installment of the Ice Age series and comes ten years after the original Ice Age.

The movie starts out with the beginning of the continental drift, an event in where the continents started out as one land mass, but began to separate and drift apart.

Because of this, Manny (Ray Romano) gets separated from his wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) and daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer). He tells his family to make it to the land bridge and he will meet them on the other side.

Meanwhile, while the land continues to shift, Manny is stuck on an iceberg that is floating away from the land with Diego (Dennis Leary) Sid (John Leguizamo) and Sid’s grandma Granny (Wanda Sykes).

They figure out they need to get to an island where the current changes and sends them back to where Manny’s family is at. Before they can get there, they are overtaken by a band of animal pirates lead by Captain Gutt (Peter Dinkalge).

Fun Fact: Jeremy Renner was originally cast in this movie, but had to back out due to other commitments.

What I Liked:
When Diego, Granny, Manny, Sid and a recently saved pirate Shira (Jennifer Lopez) get to the island where the water changes currents, they see that pirates have made it to the island as well. They need to figure out a way to try and defeat the pirates, take over their ship and make their way back to land.

During this time, they come across a group of furry animals known as hyraxes. If you’ve ever seen Star Wars, they kind of remind you of Ewoks. They are furry little creatures that make a lot of squeaky noises, but are very difficult to understand.

These little guys were the best part of the movie because they were extremely funny. They were the type of characters that stick out and add something different.

Manny, Diego, Sid and even the squirrel constantly searching for the perfect acorn, Scrat, are going to have their moments, but you need that new character or twist to keep the movie fresh and exciting for the parents who take their kids to these movies.

What I Didn’t Like:
The rapid escalation of the opening scenes to me was a little much. You started out with the world changing rapidly, with the shifting of the land. That was followed up by Manny being separated from his family on a floating iceberg that is sent rapidly out to sea.

Follow that up with the group being sent into a massive storm that includes a tidal wave and a hurricane. This all happens in the first 15 minutes or so.

It seemed to me that was much too quick for any person of any age to really absorb what had just happened. Maybe take a little time to let people digest what is going on and then hit us with the intense scenes.

Don’t hit me with a barrage of information and expect me to be okay with what just happened. I need some time.

GO = Go See It!
So my last complaint might be well place if this movie was overly confusing. In reality, it is a kid’s movie and a funny one at that. My father tried to explain to me that Ice Age: The Meltdown was a hint at global warming.

Well, this movie goes nowhere close to social issues, takes a scientific hypothesis and makes a good kid movie out of it. There is nothing about this movie that would suggest you couldn’t take a kid of any age to it.

Maybe the intense scenes of Manny trying to save his family from Captain Gut, but otherwise, it is a good, clean movie. Take the kids, take the family on a rainy day and share a few laughs.

Next Up: Dark Knight Rises

   

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