Review: 'Ice Age: Continental Drift', starring Ray Romano and Denis Leary

The Ice Age franchise has been around for a decade now, shockingly enough, and in that time they've settled into a comfortable groove of inoffensive family oriented entertainment. Obviously, Fox and the folks at Blue Sky Animation are doing something right. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the biggest hit yet, earning well over $800M. The formula for box office success may have been found, but this is the wrong place to turn if you're looking for an animated film that strives to be anything more than a cash cow. Ice Age: Continental Drift is a decent enough 90 minute babysitter for the kids, but that's it.

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Blu-Ray Deal of the Day: 'Ice Age' Triple Play for $20.91

With Ice Age: Continental Drift floating into theaters this weekend, now is the perfect time to get caught on Manny, Sid, and Diego's early prehistoric adventures! You can get the Ice Age Triple Play on Blu-Ray for only $20.91! For one low price you can get the original Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, followed by Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs! Don't miss out. Order your Ice Age Triple Play today just by going here!

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Trailer for 'The Simpsons' short film, 'The Longest Daycare'

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall anybody begging for The Simpsons to return to the big screen. After nearly two decades of fans begging for it, they finally got what they wanted when The Simpsons Movie opened in 2007. How'd that work out for you all, eh? Not so well, I imagine, as the film was bad even by latter season Simpsons standards, and was generally laugh-free. Maybe the second time's the charm, though, as we learned awhile back that they'd be making their return to theaters in The Longest Daycare, a short-film to premier ahead of Fox's Ice Age: Continental Drift.

Hilariously hyping itself as the "summer's shortest trailer", the film centers on baby Maggie Simpson, who somehow ends up back in the Ayn Rand Daycare(hilarious in and of itself) we first visited in season four, and from the very brief footage it looks like all Hell is going to break loose. Marge will make an appearance in the film, and it looks like Maggie's uni-browed nemesis, Baby Gerald, will be back as well.

There's a better chance of The Simpsons finding big screen success in small doses like this than trying to fill 90 minutes. Plus, we'll get to see them in 3D, a rare treat. I'm heading out the door to see Ice Age: Continental Drift right now, so hopefully we get The Longest Daycare before it....

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Trailer Time: 'Ice Age: Continental Drift', voiced by Ray Romano and Denis Leary

Oh, that crazy Scrat! He's gone and done it now! All his scrambling around for that ever evasive acorn has sent the planet spinning off its axis and throwing the continents into disarray. How are Manny(Ray Romano), Sid(John Lequizamo), Diego(Denis Leary), and Ellie(Queen Latifah) supposed to get home now?

Although we've seen a ton of animated short films starring Scrat, the second official trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift has now been released. The story has Manny and his prehistoric buddies running into a number of colorful and dangerous characters as they try to find their way back home. Along the way, Sid reconnects with his long lost family, and Diego the sabre-tooth tiger finds love for the first time. Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Peter Dinklage, Wanda Sykes, Aziz Ansari, Keke Palmer, Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Heather Morris, Joy Behar, Nicki Minaj, Josh Gad, Alan Tudyk, Nick Frost, Kunal Nayyar, Alain Chabat and JB Smoove will lend their voices to the film when it opens on July 13th...

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Blu-Ray Deal of the Week: Family Blu-Ray 3 Pack (Ice Age/Ice Age 2/Alvin and the Chipmunks) for $19.99

Just like last week's Marvel Blu-Ray triple feature, this week's deal is a 3-Pack featuring animated hits for the entire family. For the low price of only $19.99 you can get Alvin and the Chipmunks, Ice Age, and its sequel Ice Age 2: The Meltdown! That's 60% off the regular retail price! You can take advantage of this amazing deal just by clicking here!

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Trailer Time: 'Ice Age: Continental Drift'

Those hilarious Continental Crack-Up short films Fox has been sprinkling throughout their movies the last few months weren't just for kicks. Scrat's eternal quest to capture the elusive acorn has had dire consequences on the world, and as we've seen it's literally caused the world's land masses to split. The ramifications of Scrat's misadventures will be felt in Ice Age: Continental Drift, which brings back all of the original voice cast for what is the fourth film in the lucrative animated franchise.

With the world now totally unrecognizable, Manny(Ray Romano), Diego(Denis Leary), and Sid(John Leguizamo) must now make the long trek home, running into various evil characters looking to stop them. Queen Latifah and the rest of the previous voice cast is returning, along with new ones like Jennifer Lopez, Drake, Peter Dinklage, Nick Frost, and Aziz Ansari. The latest trailer has been released ahead of the film's July 13th release. Check it out below....[ComingSoon]

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Scrat parodies 'The Artist' in the latest 'Ice Age: Continental Drift' featurette

Nothing against Michael Hazanavicius or Jean Dujardin, but I'd much rather watch Scrat and his eternal quest for the elusive acorn than sit through The Artist again. But hey, that's just me.  The latest featurette for Ice Age: Continental Drift is a total riff on the hit silent movie homage, poking a little fun at the film which is sure to dominate the Academy Awards this weekend.

The clip reveals that the latest trailer for the film will hit on March 5th, with the film due in theaters on July 13th....[Total Film]

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Check out part 2 of Ice Age prequel, Continental Crack-Up!

Are there no other acorns anywhere else in the world? That's the question I have after watching this second installment of Continental Crack-Up, the short film featuring that little rodent Scrat, and a bridge to next year's Ice Age: Continental Drift. If you missed the first chapter released way back in January, you can still catch it here.

It's Scrat and his destructive pursuit of the acorn that causes a shift in the world's geographical make-up, separating Sid, Diego, and Manny from their homes and triggering their greatest adventure yet. Continental Drift opens next year on July 13th, but you can get primed for it now by checking out the next part of Continental Crack-Up below...

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Nick Frost, JB Smoove, Nicki Minaj join voice cast of Ice Age: Continental Drift

Blue Sky Studios is fairly young when it comes to producing feature length films, only having begun to do so in 2002. But in that short amount of time, they've had incredible success crafting blockbuster hits on relatively small budgets. Out of the six films they've released, none have had one that made less than $260M(2005's Robots), and no budgets exceeding $90M. That's pretty damn good. The centerpiece of Blue Sky's strategy has been the vastly successful Ice Age franchise, which through three films has grossed just shy of $2B worldwide. The fourth film in the series, Continental Drift, is on the way, and already the voice talent involved could make it the biggest one yet.

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Sure Shots: Ice Age 4; Atlas Shrugged sequels canned; Zorro Reborn

* Blue Sky Studios is still revelling in the success of their latest animated hit, Rio, but that's not stopping them from filling out the voice cast for the fourth film in their popular Ice Cage franchise. The fourth film, titled Ice Age: Continental Drift, already features returning stars Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, John Leguizamo and Josh Peck. Now THR reports that Jennifer Lopez, Aziz Ansari, Drake, Keke Palmer, and Jeremy Renner will be lending their talents as well. How Renner can possibly fit this in with all the damn movies he's got cooking is beyond me. Ice Age 4 will hit theaters on July 13th 2012, and will be the first not to feature director Carlos Saldanha. Instead, Steve Marino and Mike Thurmeier will helm. The first three Ice Age flicks have earned nearly $2B worldwide.

* Even though I never got a chance to see the pitiful looking, indie-financed adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, I've been not so secretly hoping for it's demise. What can I say, I can be quite spiteful at times, and the fanatical Tea Party folks who think they know a lick about Rand's philosophy have made me bitter. The film was planned as a trilogy, and part 1 actually didn't do too badly when it opened a couple weeks ago. But the reviews were almost universally negative, and the 2nd weeks grosses tanked. Now producer Michael Aglialoro has made statements to the LA Times indicating the critics have "won", and now he's going "on strike" from making the sequels. Awwww. Dude, it wasn't critics who "won". The free market judged your product and found it lacking. Bye bye seeya latah.

* I loved the Antonio Banderas Zorro flicks. Ok, moreso 1998's The Mask of Zorro and not so much the 2005 sequel, but overall both were pretty good and Catherine Zeta-Jones was absolutely smokin'. Zorro is a tough character to get right, though, and Fox is taking a scary risk with their planned return of the hero, a film they're calling Zorro Reborn. It's being directed by Rpin Suwannath, and would put the masked swashbuckler into a dystopian future where he'll seek revenge for...something. Whether or not his trademark swords and whips will remain is in question. This sounds like a fu**ing terrible idea, the type that usually ends so disastrously that guys like me will be writing about it for years. Can someone tell me why you'd take Zorro out of Spanish California and put him...where, in Blade Runner land? Supposedly the story will have more of a Western focus, resembling the great works of Sergio Leone, but honestly I just think that's stuff producers tell you to make their crap smell sweet.

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Check out Ice Age short film, Scrat's Continental Crack-Up in full!

I didn't completely dislike Gulliver's Travels, but I have to admit that the best part was the animated short film that preceded it, Scrat's Continental Crack-Up. Yes, the little....whatever that rodent thing is from the Ice Age movies is back with more acorn scrounging hijinks. I laughed my butt off as I always do at his misadventures.  With Gulliver dying a rapid death at the box office, I guess Fox wanted to make sure people still got a chance to see Scrat in action, so they've released the entire film for you to see for free. Ain't that nice of them?  The short serves as a prelude to Ice Age: Continental Drift, which is due out on July 13th 2010. You can check out the video below, courtesy of our friends at Comingsoon.net!

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DVD Deal of the Day: Ice Age Triple Pack(Blu-Ray)

Until October 23rd Amazon has an amazing deal on the entire series of Fox's animated hit, Ice Age. For only $36.99 you can get all of Sid, Sloth, and Diego's adventures on Blu-Ray as they try to survive the comical Paleolithic Age. The Ice Age films have earned over $220M worldwide since 2002, with a fourth film, Ice Age: Continental Drift due out in 2012.

Featuring the voice talents of: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, John Lequizamo, Simon Pegg, and Sean William Scott.

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Ice Age: Continental Drift Confirmed

Because it never gets tiresome watching a little rodent thing chase after an errant acorn. Oh wait, yes it does. 20th Century Fox has announced that Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth film in the series, has been confirmed for a July 13, 2012 release. That puts it squarely in the thick of a very sequel heavy summer.

The Ice Age films have grossed nearly $2B worldwide since the franchise began back in 2002.

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