Seriously, apart from serial killers, Nazis, UKIP supporters and religious fanatics, who doesn’t love the Ice Age films? The movie count is now up to an impressive 4th installment in the 2012 release of Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, which went on to be another box office hit for the animated production team at Blue Sky Studios. A fifth film in the series has also been confirmed entitled Ice Age: Collision Course and will be hitting the big screen in summer 2016.
Release date
Ice Age 4: Continental Drift had a UK release date of the 27th June 2012, with the US release trailing it slightly on the 13th July 2012. It was subsequently released on DVD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and digital download on the 10th December 2012 in the UK and December 11th in the US, just in time for the mad buying spree that is Christmas.
Plot
As expected from the title, Sid (John Leguizamo), Manny (Ray Romano) and Diego (Denis Leary) are back with a new ice age drama to contend with, a continental drift. When the primordial super-continent Pangaea starts to break apart, the unusual team and their extended family will need to work together to battle the crazy elements that ensue.
Split apart from the rest of the herd, they end up out at sea on an iceberg as their only lifeline. Needless to say, they embark on an adventure to get back to safety, taking in wild sea-creatures and bizarrely battling early day pirates (we’re not sure about the chronological validity of that last one, but we’ll need to break out the old Encarta Encyclopedia CD Rom to double check).
Cast
In addition to Leguizamo, Romano and Leary, the mammoth Continental Drift cast also includes Queen Latifah as Manny’s wife Ellie, Seann William Scott (American Pie) as an opossum called Crash, Josh Peck as his younger brother Eddie, Alan Tudyk (Big Hero 6) as Sid’s dad Milton and Nick Frost (Cuban Fury) as an elephant seal called Flynn an elephant. Jennifer Lopez will also be joining the cast as sabre tooth tiger/smilodon love interest for Diego called Shira, along with Peter Dinklage (Pixels) as Captain Gutt, Josh Gad (Pixels) as molehog Louis and Aziz Ansari as Gutt’s first mate Squint.
The music connection of the film doesn’t stop at Queen Latifah and Jennifer Lopez as Drake was added to the voice cast as mammoth Ethan and Nicki Minaj plays his friend and fellow mammoth Steffie.
Production
Ice Age 4: Continental Drift was directed by Steve Martino (The Peanuts Movie) and Mike Thurmeier with a screenplay written by Michael Berg and Jason Fuchs (Pan). John C. Donkin and Lori Forte produced the movie for Blue Sky Studios.
As you can see from the first imagery for the film above, and the teaser trailer below, it’s another cute, witty and loveable outing from the guys at Blue Sky Studios.
