This Series Is Tired...Why Is There Another Sequel?

Rating: 4/10 (13 August 2012)

I was a huge Ice Age fan growing up as a kid. The original had a great story, funny dialog, memorable characters, and stellar animation from Blue Sky Studios. Since then we've gotten two sequels, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Meltdown had great animation, but overall felt like a poorly written sequel designed simply to suck money from our wallets. Dawn of the Dinosaurs was better; almost as good as the original. It had even better animation, and actually had a good story and some great jokes for both adults and kids. However, as soon as I saw the five-minute Scrat short at last year's Rio, I realized that the series had taken a turn for the worst.
This is the worst Ice Age film yet. The story feels tired; the jokes are mostly bland; the inclusion of Wanda Sykes as Sid the Sloth's grandmother is a huge mistake; and this film commits the greatest of sins: it has an awful musical number in the middle of the movie. Ugh, it still makes me cringe. The story is about how Manny, Sid, and Diego are separated from their herd and family after the continent starts to break apart. Our heroic trio sail across the sea only to be captured by a band of pirates that sail an iceberg shaped like an old Spanish galleon. Diego gets a love interest, and Scrat continues to hunt for that blasted acorn.
Sure, the animation is great, and the 3D actually works well, but everything about this film is just mediocre. From the bad story, to the uninspired voice acting, to the jaw-droppingly bad musical number, and Scrat's never-ending screams, this is a franchise that will probably see another sequel in three to four years, even though it should have stopped with the dinosaurs, and just feels like an excuse to grab more cash rather than create new, inventive animated films.
Final Verdict: 4/10