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Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

★★ — Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

The fourth entry in Blue Sky Studios' long-running Ice Age franchise, Continental Drift arrived in 2012 with the series already a decade old and showing its age commercially, if not quite financially. Co-directed by Mike Thurmeier (who had worked as a supervising animator on the earlier entries) and Steve Martino (making his feature debut ahead of The Peanuts Movie in 2015), the film leaned into a pirate-adventure format to freshen a formula that had already spawned three sequels and several short films. It went on to gross nearly $880 million worldwide, making it the highest-earning entry in the franchise despite largely indifferent critical notices, a combination that tells you quite a lot about the state of family animation in the early 2010s.

At this point, the series is starting to feel like it’s just going through the motions, and dragging us across the ocean with it. The premise is a floating ice raft, sea adventures, and… pirate monkeys. Oh yes. They’re loud, obnoxious, and somehow even more annoying than regular monkeys. I get that they’re “funny,” but they just made me want to throw my remote into the sea. The animation is still solid, the core characters are still likable, and hey, I’ll never not enjoy Sid being an idiot, but this one feels like a lazy sequel that confused “new setting” with “new ideas.” If you’ve got kids who love the series, sure, you’ll watch it. But don’t expect much beyond floating icebergs and forgettable gags.

Rating: ★★ | Year: 2012 | Watched: 2025-07-21

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Where to watch (UK)

Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Disney Plus · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK

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