Ice Age: Continental Drift (DVD REVIEW)
Ice Age: Continental Drift
DVD Review
by Kam Williams
Frenetic Fourth
Installment Strictly for Tykes
Unfortunately, the brains behind the
latest installment of this animated series abandoned the family-friendly
formula which made it so popular. Instead, they decided to produce a kitchen
sink comedy more concerned with generating cheap laughs by any means possible than
with spinning a coherent tale.
Besides an unfocused, scatterbrained
storyline, Ice Age 4 features a plethora of preposterous anachronisms which suggest
that pirates, togas and telephones existed in an age of prehistoric creatures. Plus,
the picture makes a number of distracting allusions to everything from the
movie Meet the Parents (“Why do males have nipples?”) to Trix cereal TV
commercials (“Silly Rabbit!”) to Homer’s Odyssey (seductive Sirens as characters)
to the Bible (Book of Jonah).
The upshot is a frenetic,
attention-deficit adventure apt to enthrall tykes at the expense of appealing
to other demographics. In addition to the principals reprising their roles,
noteworthy newcomers to the voice cast include Jennifer Lopez, Drake, Wanda
Sykes, Joy Behar, Peter Dinklage, Nicki Minaj and Keke Palmer.
The action starts when half-squirrel/half-rat
Scrat (Chris Wedge) accidentally triggers the continental divide of the planet
while trying to bury an acorn in the frozen tundra. Elsewhere, Woolly mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and his wife, Ellie (Queen
Latifah), exhibit concern about their daughter Peaches’ (Palmer) having
developed a crush on bad boy Ethan (Drake). Meanwhile, the smitten teen rides
roughshod over the feelings of a secret admirer (Josh Gad) she barely
recognizes since he’s just a nerdy molehog.
Additional
subplots involve sloth Sid’s (John Leguizamo) having to care for his sassy
grandmother (Sykes) and, later, Saber-toothed tiger Diego’s (Denis Leary)
pursuit of a love interest (Lopez). However,
the film’s primary concern is reuniting families left separated from each other
on different land masses in the wake of Scrat’s cataclysmic hijinks.
Too
bad the resolution of every piece of this cinematic jigsaw puzzle proves
predictable. Sad to see a once-beloved franchise jump the prehistoric shark.
Fair (1 star)
Rated PG for rude humor, action and scenes of peril
Running time: 94 minutes
Distributor: 20th
Century Fox Home Entertainment
Blu-ray/DVD
Combo Pack Extras: Deleted scenes; Pirate Picasso; Through a Pirate’s Spyglass;
Gutt’s Sing-a-Long and music videos; Whale of a Tale; Party with a Private; and
more.
To see a trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja-qjGeDBZQ
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