(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Ice Age: Continental Drift)
Doug (vo): Let's see, what are we on, four? Yeah, okay. It's Ice Age 4, and, brother, does this feel like...Ice Age 4. Yeah, it's no secret I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the Ice Age movies. I don't dislike them, but I don't really get into them that much, that is, except for the last one. Number three actually had a fair amount of life and energy into it, I actually kind of dug that one. At the very least, you could say, "All right, it stops at 3. It's a trilogy, and you can kind of wrap it up". But...nope. Somewhere, somebody said these still make money, and then...yeah, I guess they must, they made two more. So we got an obligation movie. And, yeah, that's exactly what it feels like, an obligation movie.
Story[]
Doug (vo): Manny and Ellie are getting used to life as parents, when out of the blue, Sid's family pops up and gives them their grandma...only to immediately disappear because they pretty much want to abandon her the same way they abandoned him. Okay, I will give this movie credit, that is a really good fakeout. I really thought they were going to be main characters, they give them personalities and distinct looks and everything, and they just leave for no other reason than...they're awful, and I kind of respect that. However, as the title suggests, a continental drift occurs, caused by, well, that musrat-squirrel thingy from earlier (Scrat)...and, yeah, once again, he kind of has the best scenes in the movie...and Manny, Diego and Sid are separated from the rest. Trying to get back home, they discover a group of pirates who destroy anyone in their path, but get really pissed off when somehow, Manny's group survives. Can they get back home in time while the daughter (Peaches) learns about friendship and Diego befriends a lady version of himself (Shira) and Manny learns to let go as a parent and Pinocchio learns not to lie and Aladdin figures out he just has to be himself? You've heard all these lessons before.
Review[]
Doug (vo): There is little to nothing new in this movie, nothing really that energetic or crazy creative. It is a straight up babysitting movie. It is here just to keep your kids entertained for a little bit and give you a break. I guess I can't say it's bad at that. I mean, there's really no moments where I was rolling my eyes and saying, "Oh, what a terrible joke" or anything like that. The story is not insulting, the lines aren't insulting, but there's just nothing that really stands out about it, either. The things that do work about it work...okay at best.
(Footage focusing on Captain Gutt, Granny and Scrat is shown)
Doug (vo): Like, the villain, I think kind of looks cool and has a cool voice. It's Peter Dinklage, they're pretty good at making him look and sound intimidating, but I feel like they could have made him a lot funnier. Wanda Sykes as the grandma surprisingly gets a lot of laughs. I really thought I was going to get annoyed with this character, but her kind of elderly, not-all-there design and dialogue is pretty funny. The coyote-rodent thing once again kind of steals the show. I really thought I would get tired of this thing by now, but I actually found myself more invested in his story than anyone else's, and it actually does have a really good payoff.
(Various footage is shown, mostly focusing on Shira, the animation and the song sequence)
Doug (vo): Outside of that, there's really nothing much. I mean, like, I'm struggling to think of anything else to talk about with this movie. Um...oh, i-it's kind of neat that this is the second cat since Scar where if I was just to look at them, I could tell which celebrity was voicing them. Um, the animation's...fine. Honestly, it kind of looks like more money was thrown at it than they probably needed to be. Like, in the last one, it really was kind of big and grand, and it was animated that way. This one, they're mostly just at sea, and I just feel like you don't need that much detail while you're out there, especially with these designs. I don't know, it's weird, 'cause I talked about how simple and not very impressive the first film was in terms of how it looked, but this is the first one where I feel like they could have dialed it back. You just didn't need to see every hair on Manny for him just being out at sea, you know what I mean? It's a little weird to give the one song in the movie to the one guy who really can't sing, and he's got a singer in his crew. It's really bizarre they didn't give her a song.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): It just...kind of exists. It doesn't annoy me, but it doesn't delight me, either. I wouldn't watch it again, I probably wouldn't seek it out to watch it for a first time if I didn't have to for a job. It's hard to say it's even underwhelming, because I didn't really get into these films to begin with. I guess after the third one, I was maybe expecting a little bit more, like, well, if they're going to make a fourth one, they're going to, like, bring out something really unique, like, you know, justify its existence, but it really doesn't. It's just clearly a movie made to make money. But as a movie that's made to clearly just make money goes, there's been far worse, but there's also been far better. Yeah, sorry, I really don't have much on this one. It's Ice Age 4. Who has passionate thoughts about Ice Age 4? Not me. Um...goodbye.
(One of the film's final scenes, showing Manny, Ellie and the rest of the animals sailing to a new island, is shown)