A Definite Decline In The Series' Quality

Rating: 4/10 (15 July 2012)

As with most sequels, the quality of the Ice Age movies is definitely regressing. I've enjoyed the others in the series (well, actually, I haven't seen The Meltdown, but I've seen the original and Dawn of the Dinosaurs) but I found Continental Drift to be disappointing in comparison. The animation is good as always, but there's too much in this that's too similar to what we've seen before (and, frankly, Scrat the sabre-toothed squirrel is getting tired and boring; same sub-plot every single time.)
In Continental Drift the original content came across to me as silly and overdone. As the land begins to drift apart (quite suddenly) Manny, Sid and Diego are trapped on a floating block of ice, desperately trying to get back to their "herd." Then they spend basically the entire movie fighting a gang of pirates led by a primate named Captain Gutt. This battle goes on and on and on. It makes for a movie that's a little bit (well, a lot) more violent than the other Ice Age movies and while there are some humorous moments (largely revolving around Sid's grandma) it didn't seem to me to have the fun of the other movies in the series that I've seen.
In fairness, my daughter's 8. She says she liked it. I can't disagree with that, so if the target audience is kids, then this is OK. It's just that the previous Ice Age movies seemed to have something for people of all ages to enjoy. This one was lacking that. (4/10)