The gang have now returned an infant to its tribe, fought the melting ice, battled with dinosaurs and now come face to face with sinister sea creatures, or pirates if you will, but Manny, Diego and Sid are very slowly losing their charm and their audience.
Once again, thanks to their continent setting adrift, they are separated from members of their “family”, putting in motion a desperate mission to reunite with loved ones. It’s all so familiar, mostly because this scenario has popped up in every other Ice Age film. Along the way, they learn life’s lessons and form new friendships, which is obviously to send out a positive message of tolerance and cooperation to its target audience.
For this to happen, however, new characters are constantly introduced. Manny is now responsible for a daughter, Sid’s grandmother makes an appearance and Diego has a hint of a love interest, who brings a crew of baddies along with her. On top of that, these newbies are associated with other individuals to further their predictable character arc.
With so many characters crammed in and little story to focus on, Continental Drift has an excessive amount of set pieces. One disaster after another occurs; this focus becoming awfully tiresome considering the many opportunities to increase the humour in the dialogue instead.
But in the end, this is a children’s film. The youngsters will adore the ever-beautiful animation, and they will certainly have some laughs with the original trio. It’s just a shame the humour is minimal for their superiors; sadly, the only joy they will feel is seeing their kids smile.
The opening is comedy gold, featuring the legend that is Scrat, but what follows sinks the franchise to a new low. It’s time to give it a rest.
