Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) - Why is This Franchise Drifting?

Rating: 4/10 (4 October 2012)

Set as a fourth sequel to the original three Ice Age films, "Continental Drift" reunites the memorable characters of Manny the Mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo), Diego the saber-toothed Tiger (voiced by Denis Leary), and of course, my favorite character, Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel whose adventures involve him trying to catch his acorn. In this movie, we learn about Pangaea, the continents drifting apart from each other, and we get a little satire, making fun of how Pangaea actually happened. That concept could have led to a fun animated movie that both kids and adults will enjoy. Sadly, I was half-right, it's only for kids! The "Ice Age" franchise is starting to lose their gas after releasing that "Dawn of the Dinosaurs" crap, and there was never no need to make a fourth installment. But, too bad, because Hollywood always loves to make money out of these movies. That just proves that the only reason why these movies keep being made is that they make tons of money. Although the first two movies were good, it was until the third movie's release when the series became a cash-obsessed series. I'm starting to feel bad for all those unlucky parents who spent their money, so they can take their kids to go see this. Because although it was trying to be a family film that everybody can enjoy, it just falls flat and becomes this stupid kid movie, filled with such juvenile humor. I understand that the general audience for these movies are young kids, but the least you could have done is to also make this movie fun for the adults, as well, so they won't have to kill themselves once they leave the theater. This is definitely not one of those times. Although there are some funny chuckles to be found in this movie, although doesn't help the movie for the most part, the rather hilarious scenes in the movie come from Scrat, the cute squirrel trying to find his acorns. The rest of the movie, just a chuckle! We also have a collection of celebrities who appear as the voices of new characters, from Nicki Minaj, Drake, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lopez, Wanda Sykes, and Peter Dinklage. I just can't begin to think that all these celebrities thought this movie would be nothing but an easy paycheck. The plot was beyond ridiculous, most of the jokes were lame as hell, and the horrendously usual movie clichés were everywhere, from Manny as the over-protective father, the rebellious younger daughter wanting to hang out with the cool kids, the pirate villain wanting revenge on the protagonist for no particular reason, and thousands of love triangle story lines. Are you kidding me? This movie is just a forgettable experience that's not even worth talking about. If anybody has a child in their family, they might enjoy this movie, but this movie is strictly for kids, and if you think adults will like the juvenile humor this movie brings, you know it's going to be bad. It's not funny or entertaining, it just drags on for a couple of hours, goes through plenty of weak gags, one after another, until reaching it's predictable conclusion. This is probably one of the most forgettable movies, and one of the worst movies of the year. But it's not that awful, this is a kids' movie, you know! Yeah, I can be nice! "Ice Age: Continental Drift", in my review, "a generic, mediocre, unfunny, and predictable 'kids-fest'".