For age groups 4-10 year olds.

Film: Ice Age 4: Continental Drift

Director: Steve Martino, Mike Thurmeier

Voices: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah

Genre: Animation | Adventure | Comedy

Like everyone else, I have also cherished previous Ice Age films to the core and being a fan, I was very much keen for their latest outing. When I actually witnessed it, I not only felt disappointed but also lost faith in the genre itself. Reason is not the latest Ice Age film. In this season, we also passed by Pixar’s melodramatic ‘Brave’ & Dreamworks’ not-so-creative ‘Madagascar 3’. Problem isn’t that they are bad, problem is they are just not meant for adults. Just like board games, these films also should’ve come with tagline “for age groups 4-10 year olds”.

Opening scene of Ice Age 4: Continental Drift expectedly shows Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge) chasing his prized acorn. Alike previous three films, this time also it’s hilarious and raises the expectations of the viewer. That emotional & enthusiastic chase of Scrat causes cataclysmic event of continents setting apart which departs Manny the mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano) from his family. Along with him are his faithful friends, brave tiger Diego (voiced by Denis Leary) & noticeably funny & innocent buck-toothed sloth Sid (voiced by John Leguizamo).

In their adventure to return home safely, they meet dangerous pirates who of course are villians. Pirates here are a bunch of nonsense, totally unentertaining & badly written characters which make this film uninteresting. To add predictability to the plot, there’s a humdrum teenage drama plus one love story and if that’s not all we also have one granny. At certain point it felt like Ice Age 4 was inspired from Balaji Telefilms’ daily soaps. 

Mind-blowing set pieces and glorious 3D add much required thrill to the action sequences and are praise worthy but nowadays 3D & set-pieces look so common that they can’t act as the yardstick to measure any film’s strength.

Film still is consistently humorous, thanks to ever funny Sid whose actions and reactions are so unpredictable and amusing that you wish for more scenes featuring him and only him. Another reason why this film works is, Scrat. Scrat is the kind of character for which one can cheer devotedly.

Sid in the film utters that there’s rainbow around every corner. Hope, the makers will find that corner next time around.

Rating: 3/5