If there is anything guaranteed in this world, it is that a CG animated film will make half a billion dollars. Not a year goes by without seeing a new Madagascar, Ice Age, or Shrek sequel. Kid business is big business. Seriously, even cinematic travesties like the Smurfs and the Chipmunk movies make enough money to fill Uncle Scrooge’s money bin.
As a side note, who didn’t want to take a dive in that 70 ft deep pool of gold coins? I know I did, even though the dive into the coinage would surely paralyze me, or if I did manage to break the surface I would be swallowed by the money and eventually get suffocated by the dirty pennies at the bottom.
The only movie of this caliber that has bombed in the past few years was Disney’s “Mars Needs Moms.” Between that and John Carter, I feel there really needs to be a college course on how bad Disney’s advertising has been these past two years.
Tangents aside, in Ice Age 4 the gang of Manny, Sid, and Diego are back again on another mediocre adventure. This time the trouble begins when Scrat manages to cause the separation of continents and a massive wall of Earth is slowly imposing to spell certain doom for the band of prehistoric creatures. Manny, who is now the father of a popularity seeking teenage mammoth, gets separated (literally, not in the legal sense) from his wife and struggles to survive the travails of the ocean while dodging hungry pirates. All the while, his wife, who I just call Queen Latifah, guides the land dwelling group to safety. All of this builds to a very anticlimactic reunion.
There, I just saved you about 30 dollars. (Your ticket, kids’ tickets, popcorn, etc)
I need to say that I am over celebrity voice casting. This movie is full of celebrity voice talent. Even Nicki Minaj stars as the mammoth daughter. The problem with the voices is that they’re not even trying to sound like anyone other than themselves. The only two characters who sound like they’re having any fun are John Leguizamo as Sid the sloth and Peter Dinklage, who is introduced as the villainous Captain Gutt. I have always liked Dennis Leary’s Diego, but in this movie he is relegated to fawning over a new villain love interest voiced by Jennifer Lopez. Again, why?One last complaint about the voice work. Wanda Sykes voices Sid’s grandma. She mustbe the John Ratzenberger of Dreamworks because she is in every single movie. Don’t get me wrong, she has a unique voice, but at this point it is like nails on a chalkboard. And she can never act like any other person than Wanda Sykes.I know they’ll keep making these movies as long as parents need two hour babysitters but I don’t see the need for this series to continue. The jokes ran out in the second movie. I brought my daughter and even she was bored. The saving grace of seeing this with your kids is that they included a 3D Simpsons short called The Longest Daycare. Is easily they best Simpsons material I’ve sen in years. The children in the audience didn’t love it but it had the older crowd in stitches.
I give Ice Age 4 a D. I may not have talked you out of taking your kids to see this, the better alternatives would be Madagascar 3 and Brave.
I’ve never been a fan of this series. They would be better off releasing a series of short cartoons about the squirrel in pursuit of the acorn- and I couldn’t agree more about the celebrity voice-over fad- watch old cartoons and their only interest was having an interesting sounding voice- see Phil Harris, Steriling Holloway etc. What’s cool about J-Lo’s speaking voice? Nothing.
I haven’t seen this movie, but I agree with everything you have said. The only movie of the series that is worth seeing is the first one. And while it’s entertaining (at times), it still isn’t a great movie–especially when you compare it to the other choices out there. And this series isn’t even a good 2-hour babysitter for me. My son won’t sit through any of them from beginning to end. He’ll watch about 30 minutes and then lose interest.