Get my drift

'Ice Age 4: Continental Drift' continues the adventures of unlikely 'herd' Manny the woolly mammoth, Diego the sabretooth tiger and Sid the sloth as they are separated from their friends and family when the earth breaks up (the titular continental drift).

Along the way they battle pirates, find out what real friendship means, learn respect for a grandmother sloth, and find true love.

Following the monumental success of the original Ice Age in 2002, two sequels followed: The Meltdown in 2006 and the Dawn of the Dinosaurs in 2009.

The plot in this fourth film - released a decade after the first - is a find-your-way-back-to-the-family story that has been a classic since The Incredible Journey and probably earlier. Manny will do anything to be reunited with his wife and daughter and guide their floating iceberg back to the land bridge where the animals are headed as the wall of colliding plates nears closer and closer.

The only parts of the film I found odd were the sirens segment which didn't seem necessary at all, and the odd appearance of countless pieces of tropical fruit on the iceberg, which I suppose explained what they ate, but raised more questions! Still I suppose if you're dealing with talking animals, let's not get picky about pineapples appearing.

It features the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Keke Palmer, Peter Dinklage, Aziz Ansari, Drake, Wanda Sykes, Heather Morris with Chris Wedge and Jennifer Lopez. I particularly liked the sassy streetwise teenage woolly mammoth of Nicki Minaj, and Nick Frost as a blubbery pirate.

Whilst my 2 and 2/3 year old daughter was probably too young to a) sit still and watch, and b) keep 3D glasses on, she did enjoy it and kept saying "Elephants!" whenever the mammoths were on. The 5 and 7 year olds we took loved it, and were repeating oneliners that they especially enjoyed. Parents will enjoy the odd line here and there - I laughed out loud at the "piracy doesn't pay" message when fighting pirates but ostensibly aimed at video piracy of Ice Age movies.

And yes, true to form, the acorn-nuts squirrel Scrat causes global disaster at the end of the film. But relax, that's not the end of the world as we know it. Rest assured there'll be a sequel...

Megan Robinson
24 June 2012