Christmas Marathon: Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas (2011)

My first reaction to this was WAIT! it was a TV short.  That’s what happens when you don’t have cable or satellite TV.  All I have is my beautiful HD bunny ears.  I upgraded them last year to be able to catch my normal public television broadcasting channels.  They were pretty awesome because now I get a fuzzy NBC and CBS.  And you wonder why I buy all my movies, right?

ICE AGE: A MAMMOTH CHRISTMAS

Cast: Ray Ramano, Queen Latifah, Dennis Leary, John Leguizamo

A Mammoth Christmas is the about Christmas in the Ice Age world.  We start by seeing Manny’s heirloom rock that will lead Santa to know where his family is.  Sid has his wonderful ideas as usual and throws in the idea of decorating a Christmas tree a la Ice Age style with worms as tinsels and fish skeletons as ornaments. In the process, of course he destroys it, as he does to everything else.  Its here that Manny  makes up the idea of Santa’s naughty list and then Peaches (his daughter) overhears that he doesn’t believe in Santa.  With this, Sid goes with Peaches  along with the two possum brothers, Eddie and Crash to go to North Pole to find Santa to take themselves off the naughty list and to prove that Santa exists.  Along the way, we meet Prancer, a flying magical reindeer and the infamous Santa Claus.

This is a TV short so its about 25 mins or so.  Seeing as its a short, it actually does accomplish quite a bit and makes it easy to get into especially when it brings up all the Christmas traditions we know customized to Ice Age.  Even if I’m not a big fan of Ice Age, (and my review on the 4th one proves it.  You can check that out HERE if you’re interested) this one was alright.  It had a nice Christmas spirit going.  I can see how certain Ice Age fans would appreciate it and maybe get some new fans.  Just a nice relaxing kids movie to put in your DVD or Blu-ray or catch on TV to end off your night and get some family time.

I always wonder after How I Train a Dragon Christmas movie and now this one, why I ever pick up these movies.  Its not that they are bad and some times, its actually quite fun and lighthearted watch but still, to spend money on a 20-30 minute Christmas special (that is not a classic) is a bit silly in my book.  However, here they are, sitting in my movie collection.  The things we do, right?

So ICE AGE, do you dig it? Which movie (out of the 4 and this one) do you like? Have you seen this Christmas special?

Ice Age:Continental Drift (2012)

This is the 4th instalment of Ice Age. I seen the third one yet original have but I don’t remember.  This one fits in that typical point where it just pumps out the generic animation. This is the first movie I chose to watch as it wasn’t heavy so would be perfect at 8am in the morning flying over to Vancouver. This is the first actual away from home post officially completely from my tablet, if there is any spelling mistakes I apologize in advance.

The story of this instalment starts off quite peacefully we have the introduction of also the characters with Manny and Ellie with the teenage daughter in this mammoth family. We see Sid and Diego brought into the picture. Sid, a sloth is as always the clueless and absurd character and Diego is the smarter and more careful saber tooth tiger. The main story this time around focuses on Manny and his teenage daughter Peaches, who wants to have her independence and just have some fun.  You know, the typical teenage girl story just with mammoths.  Things of course go south as they experience a continental drift and Manny, Sid, and Diego get separated from Ellie and Peaches and he promises to meet them further where it is safe land.  They travel out and get caught iPhone with pirates crew lead by a monkey called Captain Gut and his first mate Shira that is a saber tooth tiger.  Things get rough from that point on as they try to meet up but the pirates get in their way.

This one brings in some quirky characters to help keep the entertainment going.  We also get less snapshots of Scrat, our favorite silly squirrel who never ever gets that acorn of his.  I still think he is the funniest part of this whole series.  Some of the new characters are quite fun though as I didn’t get much entertainment from the old cast.  They had the new role of Sid’s grandma who was just crazy funny to see in action.  She just reminded me of Grandma Puckett in Hoodwinked, if you have seen it then you will know what mean.  Sid’s grandma helped bring this movie from typical and boring to average. 

There isn’t really much to say about this one. I think it may possibly  be the first review where I really didn’t have that much fun . I just wonder if they will end the series here or more will come out.  I don’t remember how they did at the box office but I think personally that I’m done with it. I’m guessing since the target audience is probably younger than me, maybe they will find a bit more entertainment in it. 

If you have kids, I think they might enjoy it.  I can see a certain appeal, however, I would not really recommend this. 

Anyways, I’m off for my 12 hours flight. I”ll be working on another few posts during this time.