Ice Age 4 Now in (Some) Cinemas - What Are the Reviews Saying?

Blue Sky Studios' fourth instalment in the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift has been out here in Europe for over a week (although, despite a few early screenings this weekend, isn't open here in England and Wales until 13th) and will open stateside in just under a week, but how's it faring so far? It should come as no great surprise, given how hugely successful Ice Age 3 was, that Continental Drift has done fantastically well at the worldwide box-office - despite non-too strong performances overall in the UK. The film, coming a whole decade after the release of the original Ice Age, opened at number 1 in all of the 34 territories, taking over $80 million and setting many opening-day and opening-weekend records in those territories. The film's current takings (remember, it hasn't opened in the US yet) are an impressive $118,677,915 (via Box Office Mojo).

The critical response, however, is far less enthusiastic. Ice Age: Continental Drift currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 54% from 24 reviews. It's hardly surprising given that the response for the third Ice Age was far from enthusiastic and sequels rarely maintain the critical adoration of the originals - especially to 4 films. THR's Megan Lehmann sums up her review by saying "[Ice Age 4] Has the goods for kids but fails to break new ground for the series." But, on the positive side, Den of Geek's Simon Brew says "the team behind it have delivered something worth cherishing: an immensely good fun summer movie, warts and all. It might not win bags of awards, but for a family movie, you most certainly get your money's worth."

It shouldn't come as any great surprise that critics are less than enthusiastic in general about the film, I can think of very few franchises that maintain critical praise this far in - Toy Story, Lord of the Rings and The Godfather are some of the few that survived 3, let alone 4! But a strong box-office performance and Blue Sky's consistent standards should mean it's enjoyable anyway.

Ice Age: Continental Drift opens in the remaining UK countries and in the US on 13th July,

New Ice Age 4 Characters and Trailer

The official Ice Age Twitter feed has introduced us to a bunch of the new characters that we'll be meeting in the fourth entry in the Ice Age series, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The new characters range from members of the pirate crew (top) that we've seen in the trailers and clips thus far, to new members of Manny and co.'s group.

We've been introduced to self-appointed Master of the Seas, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones), the main antagonist of the film, and his pirate crew, consisting of:

• Shira (Jennifer Lopez) - Captain Gutt's saber-toothed first mate, and presumably a later love-interest for Diego.
• Flynn (Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz) - "a British elephant seal with a heart of gold".
• Raz (Rebel Wilson, Bridesmaids) - "a prehistoric kangaroo" and the ship's weapons expert.
• Squint (Aziz Ansari, 30 Minutes or Less) - a prehistoric rabbit, and a valued member of Gutt's crew.
• Silas (Alain Chabat) - a 'Blue-footed Booby' that "flies ahead of the ship to ensure smooth sailing".
• Gupta (Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang Theory) - "the Bengali badger" who acts as the ship's Jolly Roger.

There are a bunch of other characters joining the franchise as well, including some new Mammoths - Ethan, his posse and Louis - and some new sloths - Sid's absent family who show up to dump his elderly Granny on him.

In addition to this huge glut of new characters, iTunes Movie Trailers have the second trailer for the film for us, which you can watch here. It certainly enforces the epic feel of the film, as well as Blue Sky Studios' usual comedy; Ice Age 4 is certainly looking good so far!

Ice Age: Continental Drift arrives in cinemas on 13th July.

Blue Sky Studios' Leafmen Gets a Title Change

20th Century Fox recently announced their upcoming slate of feature films, including sequels to Rise of the Planet of the Apes (titled Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) and X-Men: First Class, and - more topically given the theme of this blog - a title change to Blue Sky Studios' upcoming animated film, Leafmen.

Blue Sky's next animated release is the fourth instalment in their Ice Age series, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and following that, the newly renamed, Epic. It's hardly the most inspired title change in the world - it's a little blasé and vague; certainly a lot less magical sounding - and seems to be trying to piggyback on the simplicity of Pixar's Brave. But then again, a title means very little, and Blue Sky have a great track record, so let's hope the film turns out great nonetheless.

Epic is based on the book The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs by William Joyce (co-director The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, author of the Guardians of Childhood series on which DreamWorks' Rise of the Guardians is based) and is directed by Blue Sky veteran, Chris Wedge (Ice Age, Robots).

The voice cast was also unveiled by Fox, a voice cast that includes Beyoncé, Colin Farrell and Josh Hutcherson.

Epic is due out on 24th May, 2013, and it's a safe assumption that we'll see a teaser trailer with Ice Age 4 next month.

Via Kyle's Animated World.

UPDATED: New 3D Simpsons Short to Precede Ice Age 4!

It was just announced last night that Maggie Simpson will star in her very own short film, "The Longest Daycare"! The short will show before Blue Sky Studios' (who're also owned by Fox) Ice Age 4 later this year. You can view a short promo for the short film above.

"The Longest Daycare" is touted as being in 3D, and hopefully this just means it will have stereoscopic 3D effects, and not that it's animated using CGI - it would just not look right for The Simpsons.

This is very exciting news for several reasons: it's Maggie's first starring role, it's the first Simpsons theatrical short film, and indeed the first Simpsons short film since 1989! If you weren't planning on seeing Ice Age 4 before, it's just became a must see.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift hits cinemas on 13th July.

Via Cartoon Brew.

Update:

Entertainment Weekly's site sports a mini-interview with Simpsons Exec. Producer, Al Jean, about "The Longest Daycare", which gives us a sizeable about of information about the short.

Jean says:

"Jim Brooks thought we should do an animated short — a la the ones Pixar does before their features, a la the cartoons you used to see in the theater years ago — as a fun thing to give our fans. We just wanted to do this as a way of saying, ‘We appreciate how much people have stayed with the show and watched it for 25 years."

The EW article also tells us that the short sees Maggie returning to the Ayn Rand School for Tots (need reminded?) and that it'll be 4 minutes long and directed by David Silverman. It also seems that in the short (rather than as hoped above) the "3D" doesn't mean the film will be in 3D, rather that it will be animated using CGI. Meh, I'd rather see it animated in the normal Simpsons mould, but I suppose it will give it a different feel and it worked rather well for Looney Tunes.

Also, of note, Al Jean spoke briefly about the long speculated The Simpsons Movie 2:

“There are no immediate plans for a feature, although as you see with this, you never know. It certainly made us excited to think that if we did another feature, maybe 3-D would be the way to go.”

Be sure to read the full article here!

Update 2:

Pardon my misreading, the director of The Simpsons Movie and "The Longest Daycare", David Silverman, told us on Twitter "Nope! - its 3D not CG. Drawn like the show, but several levels of cleanup, using After Effects to create 3D."

Phew. Like I said, I'm sure it would've been good as CG, but it'll be so much better without!

First Full-Length Ice Age 4 Trailer

After many clips and short films, both online and preceding films, we finally get the first full-length, theatrical for Ice Age: Continental Drift. The fourth installment in the ever popular Ice Age franchise is due for release on 13th July.

Whilst I'm not overly sold on the idea of a fourth Ice Age - the third, after all, was rather trite and cheesy - I have faith in Blue Sky Studios and there'll always be a place in my heart for Manny and friends. Also, the trailer doesn't look half bad; reasonably funny, what seems like the next logical step in terms of plot, and some truly stunning animation.

Head on over to iTunes Movie Trailers to check it out.

"Scrat Continental Drift"

You may recall a while back, I told you all about a clip from a planned Blue Sky Studios short film, Srat's Continental Crack Up, starring Scrat from the Ice Age franchise. The clip garnered attention as many thought it a teaser trailer for Ice Age 4, rather than a short film, my theory was that it was both, and I appear to be right.

The full short, embedded above, premiered with select showings of Guilliver's Travels and Rio and acts as a promotional trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift, due out in July of next year.

Most recently, artist and animator Ric Sluiter (who was part of the team for the original Circle 7 planned Toy Story 3) posted the above picture on his blog, citing it as "Scrat Continental Drift Colour Key"... What?
This seems a tad conflicting, as this appears to be a shot from the above short film, called "Scrat's Continental Crack-Up", whereas Ice Age 4 is to be subtitiled, "Continental Drift", the title on this colour key is a combination of both. This could be an error on Ric's part or perhaps, if the short film really is nothing more than a teaser trailer, a hint that scenes from the short will feature in Ice Age 4.

Hmmm... I guess we'll have to wait to see.

Scrat's Continental Crack-Up

          
Recently, the video embedded above made its way online. The video is believed to be a trailer for the upcoming Blue Sky Studios short film, Scrat's Continental Crack-Up, however many claim it is a teaser trailer for the upcoming 2012 feature film, Ice Age: Continental Drift (or Ice Age 4). However, it may well be both...

A short, starring Scrat (a staple of the Ice Age movies), this far into work on Ice Age 4, and concerning continental plates moving, like the film, is surely linked to it.

Regardless of the mystery and speculation, the clip looks great (I am still concerned about the film as a whole though after the cringe fest that was Ice Age 3), however we also have this screenshot of the film to fuel the fire that this is indeed a trailer, as both debuted within weeks of each other.

Don't forget Blue Sky Studios' next feature film, Rio, out next year, you can watch the trailer here.