A flawed but fun addition to the series

Rating: 6/10 (8 July 2012)

It has been ten years since we saw our Sub-Zero Heros for the first time, and as a long-term Ice Age fan, I have experienced some ups and downs with the series. The first two movies I have really adored, especially the second one for its relaxed story and beautiful animation. But by the time they jumped the shark with the dumb addition of dinosaurs in the third film and the incoherent Christmas special (in which Christmas didn't exist), this made me loose faith in the series. Despite low expectations for this latest addition, I did opt to attend a 3D screening and I was quite surprised about how much fun I had. While Ice Age 4: Continental Drift is quiet enjoyable, its heavily flawed too.
This episode of the highly successful series see's Manny, Diego and Sid separated from the others on a sheet of ice after Scrat the saber-tooth squirrel accidentally causes Pangaea to break up with his acorn (which you've probably seen earlier in Scrat's Continental Crack-up). On the way, they find Sid's granny as a stowaway, discover a new land and come across a bunch of pirates in which Diego falls in love with one of them; a female saber-tooth called Shira. Meanwhile back at home Manny's teenage daughter Peaches finds herself in a relationship conflict with a mammoth named Ethan and a mole hog called Louis, while at the same time having to avoid the disaster caused by Scrat.
Phew! At first impression, this seems like a lot of story to get through in a 94 minute movie. However, the storytelling is all played smoothly, if predictably, but also suffers from a number of unexplained story elements like where did the pirates come from and why they became pirates in the first place. The biggest plot hole has to be the fact that the Pangaea continent Scrat splits up is entirely out of continuity with the Ice Age period since this was meant to happen millions of years prior. Did they makers even do research on this? Couldn't it have just been an simpler approach instead? I found many parts of the film to feel borrowed or rehashed from other animated films, including previous Ice Age films, and with the large amount of story, a few elements aren't focused deep enough including Diego and Shira's relationship.
Despite these issues however, here is a lot to like in this entry. As you would expect from Blue Sky, the animation is very colourful and fluid, the most impressive elements having to be the sea storms as they are well-detailed and thrilling to watch, but it has a been-there-done-that feeling since we are all familiar with the characters and setting. Plus the movie has good use of 3D which isn't too distracting or barely noticeable and I soon forgot that I was wearing the glasses. The humor in this one is pretty hit-and-miss, but when it hits, its quite funny. With the old characters retaining their personalities (which is faithful to them), there's a lot of new characters to freshen things up. While I found Sid's granny a bit annoying at times, I did particularly enjoy Peter Dinklage's evil performance as Captain Gutt as with the other pirates. However my two person favorites were Peaches and Louis because of their character development and nice (if slightly clichéd) friendship, which is something I could relate to, and I thought Josh Gad was a good choice for Louis' sweet and caring personality.
So overall, I'd have to say that Ice Age 4 was a pretty fun ride for me and was much better than I expected despite its problems. Is it great? Well I can't say its as amazing as the first two, but at least its a bit better than the third. I'm glad that I saw it, but I think the series just doesn't feel the same as it was back in 2002. It seems to be missing the nostalgia and charm that the first movie had. And with that said, I suggest its best for Fox to end this saga here instead of continuing to milk and worsen the beloved series. A fifth film is just unnecessary.