Starring the voices of: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Peter Dinklage, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez.

Rated PG.  Animated.  Running Time: 1 hour 34 minutes.

If you’re wondering if you should dish out the cash to go see another Ice Age movie, just take a look at the all star cast.  In the fourth installment of this series Manny, Diego and Sid meet some new leading ladies and a few menacing men.  The Ice Age veterans are joined by newcomers Jennifer Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Peter Dinklage and a few cameos including rappers Drake and Nicki Minaj.  Manny, Diego and Sid find themselves floating from their comfortable home following an unfortunate shift in the continents.  The shift is caused by the acorn obsessed Scrat, one of my favorite recurring characters.

Yes, who knew that Scrat single handedly turned the super continent, Pangea, into the seven continents we have today.  And all in pursuit of his unattainable acorn.  Last month the Madagascar gang had their chance, and now Ice Age’s strangest herd in history, bring us their fourth epic adventure.  As Maria has told you, the original three: Manny, Sid and Diego are floating away on a large slab of ice and get separated from their extended family of Ellie (Manny’s mate), Peaches (their daughter) and Crash and Eddie (the two opposums and Ellie’s “brothers”.)  They have to get back before the rest of the animals get forced into the ocean by the new, moving continents.  As you might guess, there are numerous obstacles in their way.  The biggest would be a boatload of pirates, led by the menacing simian, Captain Gutt, voiced brilliantly by the always awesome Dinklage.  (If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones on HBO, you should watch it just for his turn as Tyrion Lannister.)  Other notable newcomers are Sid’s Granny, voiced by Wanda Sykes and Shira (JLo) a feline member of Gutt’s crew, but ultimately a love interest for Diego (Leary).  Granny ended up with the guys after Sid’s family dropped in and abandoned her.  They aren’t a very loving bunch, as fans of the series know, but we did get to meet the famous Uncle Fungus, if just briefly.  Sykes’ Granny is one of the highlights of the movie, as she steals every scene she is in.

You stole the thought right out of my head.  Sykes was, by far, my favorite new addition.  She is just consistently rad, her stand-up “I’ma Be Me” is amazing.  Back to ‘Continental Drift’, I did thoroughly enjoy this movie.  Although, I also thoroughly despise paying extra for 3D, which every single animated movie seems to be.  But I know I’ve complained about this before – so I’ll save my spiel.  I think what I enjoy most about the Ice Age movies is the way they intermingle the childish humor with adult jokes.  Not all of the kids movie’s pull this off quite as cleverly.  One of my other favorite things to do with these animated films is to try and guess who’s voices are behind the characters.  This movie boggled my mind, other than JLO and Sykes.  I was so surprised that Dinklage was the voice of Gutt!

I’m not a fan of the nearly universal 3D movies either.  It does seem to be just a money grab, but as Maria said, enough of that.  As I’ve mentioned before, the animated movies for kids are much more likely to entertain than the rest of the movies they pump out of Hollywood.  I enjoyed the fourth Ice Age.  The new characters were a good fit, the story was a little far-fetched, but hell they were being chased by a dinosaur in the last one (even Sid made a joke about that).  It was a good time and an hour and a half well spent.  That all being said, I did have the feeling that this should be it for the gang.  I’m not saying I wouldn’t go to the next one if they made it, but I think it’s time to wrap it up.  It was my least favorite of the four, and I’d hate to leave an Ice Age movie that I didn’t like.  Maybe just give Scrat his own show on Nickelodeon.

I agree darling, I think 4 is enough.  And I would totally be watching the Scrat show.

Ross’ Rating: 3.5 Gummy Bears out of 5.

Maria’s Rating: 3 Gummies.