Ice Age: Continental Drift (also known as Ice Age 4 and Ice Age 4: Continental Drift) is the seventh feature film released
by Blue Sky Studios and the third sequel to Ice Age. The sequel was announced on May 5, 2010 and was released in theatres and 3D on July 13th 2012, ten years after the original film. It was the second Ice Age installment that used digital 3D, after Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
The movie was made by Blue Sky Studios and it was distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Despite receiving universally mixed reception, the film become a blockbuster success, grossing $877 million worldwide against it's $95 million budget. Ice Age: Continental Drift was Blue Sky's highest grossing film until Toys To Life overtook it in 2020.
Synopsis One of filmdom's formerly beloved trios – Ice Age's Manny, Diego, and Sid – embark upon their greatest adventure after cataclysm sets an entire continent adrift. Separated from the rest of the herd, they use an iceberg as a makeshift ship, which launches them on an epic seafaring quest. Manny and the gang are challenged like never before to become heroes and do the impossible, as they encounter exotic sea creatures, explore a brave new world, and battle ruthless pirates. And Scrat's reunion with his curséd nut catapults him to places no prehistoric squirrel has gone before.
Plot The film begin with Scrat up to his usual antics, trying to find a place for his acorn. After almost causing another crack, he quickly removes the acorn and covers the hole. However, as he touches the ice with the tip of the acorn, a giant split occurs in the earth, and Scrat falls all the way down to the earth's core. All of his movements cause other parts of the earth to split, forming other continents. It is then that he is relaunched to the surface of the earth and falls onto a block of ice and is once again separated from his acorn.
We shift to the herd, meeting Peaches, the teenage daughter of Manny and Ellie. She is hanging out with Louis, a molehog. Louis is worried about Manny finding them, which he does. It's already clear how overprotective he is of his daughter, much to her annoyance. She is attempting to find the popular crowd of mammoths, along with her crush, Ethan.
Meanwhile, Diego notices the rumbling in the earth and lets out a roar that stops it. He feels proud until a huge log knocks into him, carrying a family of sloths. Right before they hit the other animals, Diego stops them. Sid runs in, and he discovers it is his family. They appear happy to see him, but as soon as they leave his Granny with him, they ditch both of them, to the disappointment of Manny and Diego.
Peaches and Louis find the other mammoths partying. She asks Louis how she looks, and it's obvious he has a crush on her, but she has him friend-zoned. They are discovered by Crash and Eddie, who blow their cover as they were sent by Manny to spy on her. Peaches angrily wanders off and accidentally slides down to the party, crashing into Ethan. Manny drops in and embarrasses her in front of everyone. As she storms off, they argue, and she tells him that she wishes he wasn't her dad. Ellie hears this and tries to assure him Peaches is just angry, but at that moment, the earth splits once again. Manny tries to hold onto Ellie, but they become separated. He tries to jump for them, but Diego pushes him back, telling him that he wouldn't have made it. As they and Sid hit the ocean, Manny calls out to Ellie, promising to find her and Peaches again. Peaches becomes guilt-ridden, fearing the last thing she said to her dad was something hateful. Ellie then gathers the other animals away from the large land mass that is crushing the rest of the land. They plan to meet Manny at a land bridge to reunite.
As they continue floating, they head into a storm. A giant crab appears on their block of ice and tries to attack, but a huge tornado comes and launches the trio above the clouds where they see a rainbow, but they fall back into the ocean.
Back to Scrat, still floating on his piece of ice until he reaches a tiny island. He is creeped out when he sees a skeleton resembling him, but notices it is pointing to something. He looks underwater to find an acorn, then sinks down to the bottom of the ocean, nearly losing all the air in his body. He is disappointed to see its only half an acorn, but also a map leading to a giant acorn. As he happily prances along, a hook snags into the map and pulls Scrat to the surface, where he hits a giant iceberg resembling a pirate ship.
The herd, meanwhile, is still stranded. They discover Granny has been sleeping in a tree throughout the whole storm. The trio is already annoyed by her behavior and repulsed as she takes a bath in the ocean, and her filth kills a bunch of fishes and a shark. Suddenly, the trio spot a bird as it flies by them, and then back to the giant ice ship. The bird, Silas, tells a large ape about the herd, including Manny. The captain seems pleased.
The giant ice ship finds the trio. Captain Gutt initially introduces himself properly, until he attempts to capture the animals. Manny and Diego try to fight them off, but Diego is subdued by Shira Gutt's first mate and another saber who immediately caught Diego's eye. Manny is hit by a huge block of ice and goes unconscious.
He wakes up to discover they have all been captured. We meet the rest of Gutt's crew - Squint, a fierce and hot-headed rabbit; Flynn, a gleefully dim-witted elephant seal; Raz, a kangaroo; Boris, a boar; and Gupta, a badger who serves as the ship's flag. They perform a sea shanty in Gutt's honor, as he proposes that Manny join his crew, which he refuses. They start to make Sid and Granny walk the plank, but Diego has Manny push him so he can free them, and they fight the crew. Manny breaks the ship, and they escape the pirates on another block of ice. They rescue Shira, who is reluctant to be saved, but goes along anyway.
Back on land, Ellie and Peaches are leading the rest of the animals away as the land mass draws closer. They stop to rest for the night, as they are all exhausted. Peaches runs into Ethan, who invites her to hang out with his crew, but to ditch Louis. She accepts, then falls asleep watching him as Ellie hangs in the tree above her.
On the block of ice, Sid wonders to Granny why their family ditched them, and she says it's because they think the two of them are screwups. This is further demonstrated as Granny finds a clam with Scrat inside, whom she believes to be a rat, knocking him out with her cane, and then having the clam close on Sid's hand, which he uses to knock another chunk off the ice. At the same time, Diego and Shira are arguing, until Manny points out that they hit land. Shira starts running away until Diego catches her. That's when they spot Gutt and his crew attempting to make a new ship using hyraxes as their slaves. Diego points them out to the others, but Shira snarks that they cannot take the crew on and survive. Sid enlists the aide of the hyraxes to take the crew down, and they agree.
Overnight, Diego tries to give Shira water, which she refuses at first as she hides in a tree, but drinks anyway. Diego tries to sympathize with her because they both left their crew of killers, but she seems insistent on going back to the crew. He assures her that they got each other's back, but she tells him that they can't take on Gutt and his crew so easily, but Diego thinks they can.
In the morning, Shira attempts to rejoin the crew, but when she tells Gutt that she couldn't take Manny and Diego down, he berates her as being a disappointment, thereby enlisting Squint as his new first mate. Suddenly, the hyraxes begin to attack with Manny close behind. As Squint tries to cut Manny up, they learn it was a distraction, and the heroes are stealing the new ship. They manage to get on, but Shira, despite Diego's requests, stays behind to keep Gutt from taking them down. They heroes escape, but Gutt, using his strength, manages to create an even bigger ship from a colossal block of ice.
Meanwhile, Crash and Eddie play around as the land mass keeps coming closer. Louis asks how they can be so calm as death approaches, but they admit they're too stupid to care. He goes looking for Peaches, who has joined Ethan and his mammoth girlfriends. They come off as snobby and ask Peaches why she's friends with Louis. She says they aren't friends, which he overhears, breaking his heart. Suddenly, the landmass nearly traps them in the cave they're wandering in, but they make it out soon. Peaches leaves them as they don't appear concerned for their safety, and after Ethan makes a rude remark over her being half-possum. When she rejoins Ellie, they discover the land bridge is gone, and they worriedly wonder how they'll find Manny.
Manny, Diego, Sid, and Granny continue sailing overnight. Diego starts feeling uneasy, and Manny realizes that Diego is in love with Shira, but he is too proud to admit it. Suddenly, he sees what appears to be Shira standing on a rock, beckoning him and entrancing him. Sid and Granny see a beautiful sloth and a handsome sloth also calling out to them, while Manny sees Ellie and Peaches calling for him. When Ellie tells Manny he was right, he snaps out of it, knowing she'd never admit that. They morph into sirens, little ugly creatures who attempt to attack them. Manny tries warning the others, though they're still entranced. Manny manages to steer them to safety, though.
Scrat ends up swimming toward the sirens, one of which takes the form of Scratte, but he ignores it until the siren transforms into an acorn, and his buddies start attacking him as he runs away.
The following morning, the herd reaches land, while Granny drops fruit for Precious, her "imaginary" pet. When they hit land, they see the land bridge is broken, and Manny becomes hopeless. However, he sees Peaches calling out for him, only to discover Gutt has taken her and Ellie hostage. Manny tries to surrender himself, but Gutt still plans to harm his family. That's when Louis shows up and challenges Gutt and his crew. They laugh at him as the other animals watch, but he manages to hit Gutt's foot with ice, and a battle ensues. The pirates attack while Sid and Shira fight them off. Granny calls for Precious, who turns out to be an enormous whale that scares off the pirates. Precious takes Sid and Granny, and they get the whale to shoot water at Gutt's crew, knocking them all into the ocean.
Another large piece of ice breaks as the landmass hits, pushing Manny and Gutt away. They engage in a fight, with Gutt almost winning, until Manny jumps onto the end of the ice block, catapulting Gutt into the air, as Manny knocks him into a cave. Manny then flies into Precious's mouth with the other animals, now reunited with everyone.
In the cave, Gutt encounters a female of his species telling him to sail the seas with her. He agrees, until she is revealed to be a siren, which grabs Gutt and presumably eats him.
The animals are all on the giant block of ice as Precious pushes them to a brand new land where the hyraxes are. This will be their new home. Diego and Shira become a couple, Sid makes Granny a new set of dentures, and Manny allows Peaches and Louis to hang out together on their own. Ethan and his friends, impressed with Louis's bravery, ask to hang out with them, which they allow. Manny also tells Sid that he is not a screw-up, but a hero.
We catch up with Scrat, who has finally found the giant acorn. He comes to the land and discovers Scratlantis, led by Ariscratle. The place appears to be an advanced society of saber-toothed squirrels like Scrat, complete with acorns everywhere. However, Scrat's impulsiveness gets the best of him, and he goes around grabbing every acorn he can, until he reaches an acorn stuck in the ground. Ariscratle pleads with Scrat not to touch it, but he yanks it out, and Scratlantis sinks to the bottom of the ocean, then drying up, leaving Scrat in the desert under the scorching sun. His eyes start burning and he once again screams in frustration.
Voice cast Ray Romano as Manny
John Leguizamo as Sid
Denis Leary as Diego
Queen Latifah as Ellie
Seann William Scott as Crash
Josh Peck as Eddie
Keke Palmer as Peaches
Chris Wedge as Scrat
Karen Disher as Scratte
Sir Patrick Stewart as Ariscratle
Simon Pegg as Buck (archived footage)
Peter Dinklage as Gutt
Jennifer Lopez as Shira
Aziz Ansari as Squint
Drake as Ethan
Wanda Sykes as Granny
Josh Gad as Louis
Ester Dean as Sloth Siren
Heather Morris as Katie (a woolly mammoth)
Alan Tudyk as Milton (a sloth)
Kunal Nayyar as Gupta
Alain Chabat as Silas
Joy Behar as Eunice (Sid's Mom)
Nicki Minaj as Steffie
Nick Frost as Flynn
Rebel Wilson as Raz
Soundtrack We Are - Keke Palmer ↵Chasing The Sun - The Wanted
Development The first details of the film were revealed on January 10 2010 when The New York Times reported that Blue Sky was working on a fourth film, and was in negotiations with the voice cast. Fox later confirmed on May 5th, 2010 that Ice Age: Continental Drift would be released on July 13th.
An early poster of the movie was revealed at the 2010 Licensing International Expo in Las Vegas. On December 19, 2010, 20th Century Fox released the first screenshot of Ice Age: Continental Drift.
Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier are now the directors and John Powell will once again compose the musical score. The visual effects are being done by Dan Cayer, who's the composting supervisor of Blue Sky Studios. Lori Forte is also returning to produce the movie. Michael Berg, Jason Fuchs are the writers of the movie. Ari Rubenstein is the lead compositor of the movie.
An official screenshot from the teaser trailer of Ice Age: Continental Drift was released January 6, 2011 on examiner.com.
The official trailer was released on March 5, 2012.
Trailer