So this is the fourth film in the series by the animators at Blue Sky who are also responsible for such animated flicks as Rio, Horton Hears a Who and Robots. Blue Sky has been pretty ambitious and has made some pretty good kids flicks over the years and a healthy bottom line with each picture. I wasn't familiar with this Ice Age series however Nathan had seen the first one on Netflix and liked it. So he was more in tune with the movie than I was from the start. The little guy has been on a big time Dinosaur kick as of late and he's fascinated by early evolutionary creatures like squirrels with sharp teeth, Wooly Mammoths, etc. So this was, in a sense, perfect timing.
The Wooly Mammoth Manny (Ray Ramano), Sabertooth Tiger Diego (Denis Leary) & Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) are separated from their herd when the continent begins to shift. They find themselves adrift in the ocean searching for a way back home only to run into a band of scurvy pirates led by an ape, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage) and his first mate a female Sabertooth Tiger named Shira (Jennifer Lopez) and their ragtag mishmash of animal pirate characters.
To be honest this was not one of those flicks that has something for everyone. On the surface it was cute and simple and followed typical kids animation tropes about belonging and loyalty but there isn't anything surprising or new in this fairly banal sequel. Admittedly I don't have a history following these characters so perhaps there were character jokes here that someone who has watched this series may understand better but personally I enjoyed watching Nathans' reactions to the movie much more. The location renderings were pretty fantastic though and I'm sure it would be even more entertaining in 3D. If you've read my posts in the past Nathan doesn't have much patience for the glasses so we usually skip the 3D versions. I still contend it doesn't matter but it depends on the age of your kid. If they are between 6 and 10 I would say it would be a waste not to take them to the 3D version.
In the end it accomplished what it was supposed to, which is to please my kid. Nathan really had fun with it even though he seemed to be a little disturbed by Dinklage's Pirate Captain. He kept mentioning to me about the angry monkey. Otherwise he really loved watching Scrat and his search for Acorn Atlantis, maybe I need to show him more Tom and Jerry, which would mean more of him running around banging into walls and breaking stuff and---uh, maybe that isn't such a good idea. Anyway if you have kids between 3 and 8 I'm sure they will love the flick. Any older and they may revolt on you.
My Grade: 2 Buckets
Kid Grade: 3 Buckets - (scary Monkey downgrade)
No comments:
Post a Comment