My Review of Ice Age 4: Continental Drift · 2:25am Apr 6th, 2022

Rating Scale:

12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made

Greetings, everyone! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for tonight! This evening, I will be reviewing Blue Sky Studios’ fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise: Ice Age: Continental Drift from 2012. In my humble opinion, this is the second best Ice Age movie of the series and my second favorite film following the first movie. I really don't understand why this film got a lot of hate over the years; granted, it has a lot of silly moments here and there but it’s not something people should be upset over. It has plenty of heart-warming moments, is full of character development, contains solid writing, and has well-animated choreography. Having watched this movie for the first time just last summer and re-watched it about a few months ago, this is definitely one of the best 3D animated movies I’ve seen.

This movie is about Manny trying to look out for his daughter Peaches, who is now a teenager. Being an overprotective father causes an argument between them until they are separated by a continental drift. Now Manny, Sid, and Diego must find a way back to the herd before they get lost. However, they end up encountering a group of ferocious pirates in the middle of the sea which is not good for our heroes. Manny must fight them before they could cause any chaos.

I fully enjoyed the premise and the story the writers drafted for this movie. It actually served as a way to finally wrap up Manny’s character arch; first, he learned to embrace new friends; next, he managed to find a woman he loves and wants to start a new family with; then, he finally has a child of his own once again and is proud of being a father again; now, his daughter is a teenager and is trying his hardest to be there for her—never again repeating the tragedy that once took away his first family. So it made sense why Manny was so overprotective of her in this movie because he didn’t want to lose another child. At the end of the movie, he had to learn to let his daughter have fun while he had to lay some proper ground rules. I really enjoyed the father/daughter dynamic they had.

The voice acting was great as well. There was a lot of emotion, heart, and soul being put in this which made this movie pretty much engaging and entertaining.

The humor was actually pretty solid too. The MVP Scrat was as hilarious as usual although I wasn’t particularly fond of the ending in which he basically indirectly killed all the other scrats in that golden city of some sort which ultimately created a drought in the middle of nowhere. That was honestly not that funny or creative in any way. Other than that, everything else was awesome.

Captain Gutt was a well-crafted, awesome villain! Peter Dinklage did a fantastic job in portraying a sadist, ferocious, short-tempered, and charismatic Gigantopithecus. His design looked fabulously impressive, his voice performance was great, and his motivation made a lot of sense. He may have had a lot of goofy moments, but they were immediately overshadowed by his intimidating appearance and personality. His badass dialogue was likewise epic to listen to. He reminds me a lot of Scar from The Lion King both for his actions, his mannerisms, and his disturbing death scene. Ever since I’ve first watched the movie, he became one of my favorite villains of all time. Enough said.

I liked the other pirates too especially Flynn. That guy was so funny. Oh, and Granny was another character I genuinely enjoyed. She was both hilarious and entertaining! Wanda Sykes is always a national treasure!

Overall, this was amazingly enjoyable! This movie taught so much about family, sacrifice, and being yourself no matter what other people think or say about you. That’s what I liked most about Peaches; she really had to learn the hard way about being herself and learning the true love of family. That’s something I took away from this. With that said, I will rate this a hearty 10/10! Again, the fact that many people hate this movie for whatever reason is beyond me. Give it a chance, and you might enjoy it or might not. It’s your choice.

Peace!