In an animation era in which making kids movies that also appeal to adults is all the rage, the Ice Age franchise is pretty resolute about making kids movies for kids. But put the metaphorical gun to my head and I'd say Ice Age: Continental Drift is worse than the first and third franchise iterations and probably on a par with the second.Īnd that's really all I've got to say on the topic. The animation has continued to advance, as it is wont to do, and a few early scenes of avalanche, tidal wave, and tornado, are pretty spectacular. I'm sorry to report that Simon Pegg, who was a pleasant vocal surprise as the one-eyed weasel Buck in the last movie, has only a miniscule cameo in this one, and the many new celebrity talents assembled for this outing-Jennifer Lopez, Peter Dinklage, Wanda Sykes, and others-do not make up for his absence. Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of their burgeoning 'herd' take a journey, encounter predators and natural disasters, engage in wacky antics, and learn valuable lessons about friendship and family. Ice Age: Continental Drift is an Ice Age movie, and those who have seen any of its predecessors will have a reasonably good idea of what to expect. What can be profitably said of Ice Age: Continental Drift? That it is the franchise's fourth installment? That I would have been perfectly content if the interglacial period following the third had lasted 10,000 years? Tom, 8, said the film was 'the best ever.' I should note, though, my kids tend to believe that any recently concluded activity was 'the best ever.' And while scientists are not predicting mass species extinctions, it never hurts to prepare for the worst. I bring this up because, cinematically speaking, the interglacial period we have enjoyed for most of the last three years ends today and a new glacial is upon us, in the form of Ice Age: Continental Drift.

What we typically refer to as 'the ice age' is the most recent glacial period, which ended some 10,000 years ago.

But ice ages have colder periods (called 'glacials') and warmer ones ('interglacials'). First, owing to the endurance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, we are still technically in the midst of an ice age that began toward the end of the Pliocene epoch, a hair over two-and-a-half million years ago.

I've recently learned a few things about ice ages.

Instal Ice Age: Continental Drift