Review of Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) by Matthew C — 26 Dec 2012

One of the worst animated films Hollywood has to offer.

If you look back at my reviews of the other "Ice Age" sequels or flicks like "Madagascar II," "Shrek the Third," and "The Lorax" to name a few, you'll see how I feel about the current state of cg animation: it's mostly full of crass, pandering, pop-culture-ridden fluff. "Ice Age: Continental Drift is, unfortunately, no exception. What starts out as an intriguing look at a couple of extinct creatures during the ice age in the original film, has "evolved" into romps wherein each character in the main quad (Manny, Sid, Diego, Scrat) is given a female counterpart, they have children, the cast balloons with odd choices for celebrity voices (Joy Behar, Nicki Manaj, etc.) joining the main group in each film, and we're treated with cliched dopey dad stories wherein urban-sounding youth complain about parental fairness during ecological disasters. Okay, perhaps most of that description applies just to this film. What bugs me, however, is how far removed the franchise continually grows from its ice age setting. With the addition of children characters obsessed with being "cool" and other characters that say things like "y'all" and "this is wack," I am further removed from the time period of the movie--and thus the story--and I'm once again reminded of how "crass, pandering, and pop-culture-ridden" these cg animated films always are. It doesn't matter what time frame, culture, or continent the movie takes place in/on. Every character must be sassy and talk like they're living in 2012. This film, as well as those of its ilk, might as well feature human characters living in New York City. "Bambi," on the other hand, is timeless in this regard.

This story is so weak. Not only does it strongly resemble a chunk of "Happy Feet 2's" plot, it makes the odd choice of featuring a group of animal pirates. I guess pirates are "in" now. I swear, with each film in this franchise, "Ice Age" appears more and more like episodic television than motion picture. Ice Age 1: The One Where They Help an Eskimo Baby, Ice Age 2: The One Where They Meet Queen Latifah, Ice Age 3: The One About Dinosaurs, Ice Age 4: The One Where They Meet Pirates, Ice Age 5: The One Where Little Timmy Smokes a Joint, and so forth.

The animation on some of the new characters is pretty good. I understand that the animators can't really change much design-wise with the main cast since they are dealing with established characters, but their original, 2002 design has always been a bit wonky. Some of the new pirate characters, on the other hand, thankfully exhibit a bit more life and detail.

I like Scrat's (a character who is the main draw to the franchise for many) scenes in the film. As I've said before, his stuff is delightfully Looney Tunes-eque and works quite well on its own as animated shorts.

Ultimately, this is what I've come to expect from cg animated efforts outside of Pixar. It may even be a bit too low-brow for Dreamworks even. I wouldn't recommend anyone taking their kids to see this. It isn't funny enough for adults--even though its parenthood moral is targeted at them--and it isn't imaginative, inspiring, or exciting enough for kids. Skip it completely.