2.5/5
Stars
The mammoth Manny (voiced by Ray Romano),
Sid the sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo) and Diego (voiced by Denis Leary), the
smilodon or the saber-toothed cat, are back with the fourth film in the ‘Ice
Age’ franchise. In a parallel storyline, you have Scrat (voiced by Chris Wedge),
the saber-toothed squirrel, on the hunt for acorns. Scrat triggers the
break-out of the Pangaea into the continents that we know of today’s time.
Meanwhile, Manny and his wife Ellie (voiced
by Queen Latifah) are dealing with their teenage daughter Peaches (voiced by
Keke Palmer), who is smitten by Ethan (Aubrey Graham), a teenage woolly
mammoth. Peaches, is upset with her father for being so restrictive when it
comes to her and yearns for independence. Keeping Peaches’ company is the
soft-spoken and the inimitably charming molehog, Louis (voiced by Josh Ged),
who secretly has a crush on her. Sid has been left with his Granny (Wanda
Sykes), who also gets abandoned by their family. Now amidst all this drama, the
break-up of the continent starts having its repercussions as Manny gets
separated from his family. Accompanied by Sid, Diego and Granny on a floating
ice raft, Manny thinks of ways to reunite with his family.
The route way back to his home kept getting
tumultuous as the quad got captured by a pirate gang, led by Captain Gutt
(voiced by Peter Dinklage), a Gigantopithecus. Manny rejects Gutt’s offer of joining
the pirate gang and ends up infuriating him. Diego falls for the female pirate
Shira (voiced by Jennifer Lopez), also a saber-toothed cat, who helps the quad
escape for a brief period.
Manny, Sid, Granny and Diego encounter
sirens, shown as sharp-toothed creatures, which take the shape of loved ones,
and attempt to entice the sailors.
How the quad brave all odds (in the form of
storms, a paralyzed Sid, another attack by Captain Gutt, attempted attack by
Sirens) in order to get everything back to normal forms the crux of the story.
The plot was myriad in the first-half. It
is in the second-half of this 90-minute film that the story finally begins to
develop. It takes too long, for the battle lines to be drawn; hence time gets
spent in watching endless gags, tomfoolery and the occasional tussle on screen.
There are a few endearing moments in the film such as the romantic track
between Diego and Shira, Peaches trying to impress Ethan, Louis’ waging a fight
against the mighty Captain Gutt to save his love Peaches. However, they are too
few and far in between, and sadly the only uplifting moments in the film.
The animation was stupendous. Blue Sky
Studios deserve a pat on their back for the brilliant visual effects. However,
the script leaves a lot to be desired. The animation is on par with recent
films such as ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ and ‘Brave’, but it is not
as much about the visuals as it is about the entire film. The 3D is passable.
The line-up consists of heavyweights such
as Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, with two celebs
of Indian origin as well, Aziz Ansari and Kunal Nayyar (of ‘The Big Bang Theory’
fame). Voiceovers were exceptional but they too, were let-down by some lazy
dialogue writing. The soundtrack by John Powell was good with the final track
of the film ‘We Are’ (written by Ester Dean) evoking much excitement from the
audience.
The writing (Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs)
and the direction (Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier) could have been a lot
better. The franchise, which has been exceptional thus far, does disappoint
this time around.
There
is nothing noteworthy about the story. It’s a 45-minute concept dragged to an
hour and a half. Some of the sequences and gags playing out in the film are
needless. However, it is essentially a children’s film and the kids will love
it! (First Posted in MSN)
Shivom
Oza
Nice review! Thanks a lot for sharing it online. I was planning to add this movie to my watch list. I just finished watching shows by Andy Yeatman with my kids and therefore, I thought of adding some more. He doesn’t work with Netflix anymore and that is why the new content isn’t that good.
ReplyDeleteThanks great blog post
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