Review: Ice Age: Continental Drift (2D)

Usually a fourth outing of a franchise is the nail in the coffin, but after a lacklustre third part, Ice Age 4 is actually decent fun!


It is still zany, madcap humour with the pacing of a roller-coaster ride, but at least this time around I actually felt some connection with the characters. This time Manny, Sid, Diego and friends meet the ultimate crisis; the world's tectonic plates shifting and the land ripping itself apart.

The film sets the tone immediately when Manny is separated from his family during the initial land divide, and it is up to him and his most trusted friends to brave the seas and be reunited with their loved ones.
True, one can be horrified at first seeing Sid's entire family show up... that's right, imagine five Sids on screen at once... but fortunately they are gone just as quickly, leaving the rather crazed but funny Granny behind. Manny's daughter Peaches also has some "teenager problems" that can grate on nerves, but that is only a subplot.
Our antagonists (yes, this film actually HAS antagonists!) are a crew of imaginative pirates sailing around on a iceberg ship, including a monkey Captain, a bunny, a s Ludicrous? Yes. Watchable? Easily; they had me at "an evil badger who doubles as a Jolly Roger flag". There are some very creative and likeable characters here, and some convincing peril too, putting Dawn of the Dinosaurs to shame.


So okay, pirates aren't exactly original material, but they make for some decent excitement. Sid is not at the forefront as he was before (Blue Sky learnt a lesson there) only appearing for numerous sight gags. The comedy was stronger too, it felt consistent. Heck, there was even a snide go at the third film by Sid: "We met a load of dinosaurs in the Ice Age, even though that makes no sense!" Nice one.


It is a good kids film, mindless but adults can actually watch it without losing braincells, and while it isn't a film I would watch again, it is a vast improvement and you could do a lot worse.

Additional Marshmallows: There's a great A-list celebrity cameo lending his voice at the end!

Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

A colourful distraction, but sorely lacks in any real substance or even peril. That... and what are dinosaurs even doing here??


The film plays out as your typical rescue story; with Manny and Ellie looking to start a family, Sid tries to adopt dinosaur eggs only to be abducted by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The gang from the previous films must venture into a world under the ice to rescue him.

I really wanted the dinosaur to simply eat Sid.


I enjoyed Ice Age, and Meltdown felt like a natural progression, but this feels like the series is swaying into mediocrity. We know the characters, we like them, and after two films you'd think the creators would give them more to do instead of just "Sid is an idiot, go rescue him". Look at how Toy Story developed over three films.
Sure there are some new faces, and the show is thoroughly stolen by Simon Pegg as the adventurous Buck, a weasel with a captain Ahab complex. But my favourite character Diego has precious little to do here; his subplot is brushed aside for more of Sid's mugging into the camera.

Suspension of disbelief is key here. How exactly a tropical jungle paradise can exist under ice, complete with volcanic lava freely flowing is anyone's guess! Heck, even the dinosaurs didn't have much to do in this movie, although there are some cute designs such as the triceratops. 

Dawn of the Dinosaurs was one of the first films to enter the new 3D era, and its release was delayed substantially to shoehorn the effects in. As such the 3D conversion was shoddy, but I didn't notice any residing issue with the 2D version. It is a very bright movie and the characters have great facial animations.
It got a giggle or two from me, I won't lie and tell you it isn't funny (even if it owes most of this to Pegg's over the top performance) but I felt there could have been more substance.

I really want to hate this film more than I do for it reminding me of the Super Mario Brothers movie with including the "Walk the Dinosaur" pop song. Ugh. My ears. That, and did they really just slide down a dinosaur's back shouting "Yabba-dabba-dooo!"?