Ice Age 4: A Floe Too Far
We go to movies presumably to enjoy a good story. Yes, the writing is important, as are the acting, cinematography, score, set design — all the myriad things that must work together in service of the story. They are but tools intended for a larger purpose. Of course, too often one or more tools fail or the filmmakers put too much emphasis on them and forget the story altogether.
That seems to be the case with Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise by Blue Sky Studios. Terrific computer animation in digital 3D renders crisp detail in the animals’ fur and performs a virtuoso dance of light and shadow on ice and water.
But the movie feels overstuffed with way too many barely developed characters. The story could easily have been cut by a third and its building blocks could have been more artfully arranged. The film feels workmanlike, adequate but lacking zest. While the earlier installments had the obligatory subtext about doing the right thing and the importance of working together, the lessons in Continental Drift feel forced. Yes, kids, it’s important to obey your parents, value your friends, and not get caught up in the wrong crowd — good lessons all, but they come with the subtlety of an elbow to the ribs.
As with the first three Ice Ages, there are plenty of sight gags and pratfalls along the way with the usual gross-out jokes. And as always, Scrat the proto rat is the best part of these stories, with his Gilligan-like ability to blow a sure thing and a single-mindedness that makes Wile E. Coyote look positively ambivalent.
Saw the movie today and the children in the audience were mesmerized by the film and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I think George MacDonald was Scots, not English, but your quote from him is well taken.
Judging from the tail, I would classify Scrat as a proto-squirrel.
Wow an intelligent thoughtful film review at PJMedia! That’s something. Given how woeful some of the film reviews have been here.
It’s worth pointing out something not really mentioned in the review, why even have a fourth installment, enough already! There are no other stories to tell? There are plenty new stories they could come up with or adapt to the screen. I mean really. It’s the same with DreamWorks’s Shrek, first one great, second one OK, third one very blah. I think it’s the studios getting lazy more than anything and sticking to what has won them success the first and second time over, afraid to take risks. Pixar of course are an exception (well excepting Cars 2), and understand the importance of freshness and the fact that there are so many stories to tell, and that there are plenty of good writers out there willing to tell them.