Ironically, I think the actual ice age was shorter than this franchise

Rating: 6/10 (22 July 2012)

There is a reason I'm not in the stock market, I'm not sure why some movies continue to get sequels, I never figured they would try to turn Ice Age into a franchise of some sort. The first Ice Age was very cute, nothing special, but enjoyable to watch. The sequels are pretty decent over all, but I never found myself watching them twice. But I guess they were popular enough to spawn another sequel called Continental Drift. So in our quest for a movie weekend, my fiancé and I decided to give this movie a fair chance on it's opening weekend. Over all, it was pretty cute and had it's share of laughs. I do think this was a pick up from the last sequel, but again, it was a movie worthy of a straight to DVD release. The story is predictable and some of the actor's voices just don't work with the characters. However with some new additional characters that were actually pretty funny, I don't find myself unsatisfied with Continental Drift.
Scrat's hunt for acorns triggers the break-up of the Pangaea landmass into the continents as we know them today. In the meantime, Manny and his wife Ellie deal with their teenage daughter Peaches. Sid's family, appear to have been looking for him, but it is revealed that they only want to leave Sid's annoying Granny with him and leave him again. When Manny catches Peaches hanging with friends after he told her not to, Manny and Peaches have a falling out. Soon after, the breakup of the continent separates Manny from his family. Manny gets stuck on a floating ice raft with Sid, Diego and Granny. A large moving landmass drives Ellie, Peaches, and a herd of other animals towards a land bridge, where Manny had told them to go. Manny promises to come back to them, but may have some trouble getting back.
This was a crazed celebrity fest of voices: Nick Frost, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Wanda Sykes, Simon Pegg, Jennifer Lopez, Ray Romano, Seann William Scott, the list goes on. Makes you really wonder where the budgets for these films go when you got big names. A little advice to Hollywood when it comes to animated films: use the money budget towards the script and animation, not the voices. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. I didn't respond too well to hearing Wanda's screeching voice for 80% of the film. Did it really make a difference to have Jennifer Lopez's voice in the movie? But given credit where it's due, I did like the new character/villain, Captain Gutt and his pirates. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost do add a lot of comedy to the movie, because of their natural chemistry, it just works. The animation is very nice, especially during the storm scenes.
Over all, I did like the movie, it wasn't a waste of time and I got a few laughs out of it. I think the heart of the film goes to Scrat, no matter how many times I see him chasing after those acorns, I don't think I could ever get sick of it. I also liked how the film took a little clever twist with telling the story of the Odyssey so the kids would not only have a good time, but to learn a great story of adventure. But it's still only worth the rental, at most a matinée. I think the kids will definitely get a kick out of it, but that's about it. I don't know if this will be the last Ice Age, but as long as Hollywood wants it's money and this movie makes number one at the box office, I think we'll probably have another one.
6/10