Starring the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez, Queen Latifah, Peter Dinklage, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Keke Palmer, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Josh Gad, Nick Frost and Chris Wedge.Directed by Steve Martino & Mike Thurmeier.
★★½
This is the fourth installment in the series, box-office-wise, there's no indication it'll be going extinct anytime soon. Ice Age 5 & 6 will happen.
Manny, Sid and Diego are living happily ever after, or at least have been since escaping the middle of the Earth where dinosaurs still roamed. Manny's daughter's growing up and he's overprotective (no references to the wife and child he lost before the first Ice Age). Sid's family shows up long enough to drop off Granny and abandon him again. Diego's just hanging out.
The best part of all of the movies is Scrat, in fruitless pursuit of the perfect acorn. This time he falls to the Earth's core, causing the plate shifts that rip apart the continents. Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny happen to be on one piece of land that drifts out into the ocean, cutting them off from everyone else.
I welcome an excuse to narrow down the cast, and Wanda Sykes is a perfect fourth-wheel as the cranky, wrinky granny sloth. The four eventually encounter pirates, led by a malicious baboon named Captain Guts. (I couldn't place the voice, but ah, it was Peter Dinklage). Naturally there's a sabre-tooth hottie (Jennifer Lopez) among the crew that Diego can pine for.
It's an okay time-killer. I still enjoy John Leguizamo's Sid the Sloth, and some of the visual gags are funny. The teenage-daughter subplot is typical Nick Jr. stuff.
