Kids movies like this have a record of getting dodgier and dodgier the more they make. To my surprise, Ice Age didn’t live up to that. At movie-number-three, I thought they kept getting better and better. But this fourth? Put it this way, I think the boat of the Ice Age franchise has…sunk.

It was alright. The hilarious moments I watch the Ice Age movies for were delightfully peppered with the appearance of Sid’s long-lost grandmother and its classic humour moments. But…whoever was on script writing was having a bad day. They did have strikes of inspiration, but for the most part, I felt like I was hearing a scripts snatched from a thousand other movies and mixed into this one. The lines were ridiculously cliche.
“It’s all my fault!”
“I will get back to you!”
“Oh, that person wasn’t really my friend (to get in with the cool mammoths).”

And then when the evil-ape-thingy rocked up, he started off with a song, would you believe, singing about how bad he is. Now, that’s all very well, but for the record, none of the previous Ice Ages have had particularly musical elements unless they’re mimicking a well known song (take Food Glorious Food for instance.) Had the song been something hilarious, like I’ve Got a Dream from Tangled, sure. A weird, eccentricity of the bad guy, which everyone thought was stupid, sure. But when the crew joined in, I just cringed. This is not what I watch Ice Age for.

The incredibly irritating prehistoric ape, was, well.. incredibly irritating. He wasn’t scary and he wasn’t funny and he hand no purpose but to be the badie. He did not add to the story at all.
The little subplot of Peaches (Manny’s teenage daughter) wanting to be in the cool mammoth group… I guess it’s nice that they found something applicable for today’s youth. Problem. 1. Any teenager who wants to get in the cool group is not going to be watching this and actually apply it to themselves (if they wanted some application, they should have made one for kids, maybe 5-8 years old) and 2. It’s been so over done that no one would listen anyway. And done better. Take Mean Girls for instance. Main plot exactly the same as this subplot. And a whole lot funnier (perhaps just because I could identify with a few things about the homeschooler going to high school…) But now I rabbit trail.

The addition of a girl sabre tooth tiger (because we can’t have unmarried characters like Diego, can we?) was interesting. She certainly wasn’t a bad character… but she turned from friend to foe far too quickly. She could have been more, but she wasn’t.
In sort, if you’re an Ice Age fan like me, watch it. Laugh. And dearly hope they don’t make an Ice Age 5.
Gah, as much as I liked the first two Ice Age movies, and the third was actually even better than them, I do wish they'd put the franchise to sleep. Unfortunately, they know it's lucrative . . . I can only hope they realise the mistakes they're making and either drastically improve the next one, or never write it. Let's hope it's the latter.
Something tells me this epic flop of a movie isn't going to be that lucrative… I don't think many people are going to buy it once they leave the cinemas, disgusted. 🙂 But hey. It had its moments. 🙂
I hope they don't either. I hate it when the movies go on and on. At some point . . . guys you need to stop. Just stop. The story is done. Don't ruin it by continuing.
I think they have ruined it. The story is definitely done. 🙂 But it just might be my cynical side as a skeptical viewer… I'm quite known for that. Just ask Cait. 🙂
It's true! (About her cynical side I mean…)
I like Ice age a lot. I haven't seen number 4 yet but I've seen the others. Sid is the best :)God BlessBella
Yeah… Sid always was my favourite character. I liked Diego, too, but he was a bit flat in this one, unfortunately. Sid was still Sid-y as ever, so that was a relief. 🙂
Now you can feel like all those views weren't just spam 😉 Also, I was disappointed with this one as it wasn't like the Ice Age I'd come to expect either. Songs & Ice Age just don't go for me. I will always love 1 the most and always pray that they'll stop making more and then they always do. Diego will always be my favourite though.