Double Feature

 - The Lorax + Ice Age: Continental Drift

In a double feature article I will be reviewing two films. I will mainly be doing this to save time if I have too many to do so will write smaller reviews on two films of the same genre. In this article I will be reviewing to highly anticipated animated films; The Lorax and the latest Ice Age film.

The Lorax

Directed by: Chris Renaud, Kyle Balda


Starring: Danny DeVito, Zac Efron and Taylor Swift


Plot: In a world where trees are the stuff of myths, one young boy discovers the past and the truth about The Lorax.


SPOILER ALERT - THE FOLLOWING REVIEW IS AWESOME...........
AND MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS


When my brother and I went to america early April we had the chance to see The Lorax but didn't!  Since then I have looked forward to the release of this film and couldn't wait to see it. I thought it looked brilliant even though i am not a fan of the work of the DR himself.


(You can tell where this is going) Sadly to say, I was disappointed by it. (You were right). For anyone who doesn't know the concept of The Lorax it is mainly to do about the environment which is so relevant to us right now since there is a massive push at the moment for saving the environment. This film had a lot of potential but just let me down.


I thought that The Lorax himself was amazing and the bears and the fish were hilarious. Especially the chubby bear - maybe because I could relate :)  Whenever they were on the screen it was funny. However, they are only used in cut scenes to show how the trees disappeared.  Because of this it felt like the main characters who had potential and the most room for development weren't shown enough as the story followed a young lad who finds out the truth so since he is being told about the Lorax.  If they scrapped the whole present and past stories and just focused on the Lorax and that story line then the film would have been a lot more consistent and a lot better.


As I mentioned about the consistency of the two story lines and the characters it didn't develop any of them and the one character that was developed "The Onceler" (as he was recapping his encounter of the Lorax to the young boy) wasn't the main character. If they just had that as the main story it would have showed more character development as well as scrap the pointless character and had more screen time for the best things in it. 


Was an OK film but was just one of the films I thought could have been spectacular but was just a let down. Still see it tho for the fish and the bears as you will agree with me!



The Good: The Lorax, The Fish and The Bears
The Bad: Seemed Very Short
The Ugly: Didn't Develop Anyone

Rating: 2.5*

Ice Age: Continental Drift

Directed by: Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier


Starring: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary


Plot: Manny, Diego and Sid are back for a fourth installment of the Ice Age franchise and this time, their mischief and shenanigans are on a continental per portion when they get separated from their family.  Using an ice berg as a ship they try and get back while running into dangerous sea pirates.


SPOILER ALERT - THE FOLLOWING REVIEW IS AWESOME...........
AND MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS


I have never really loved the ice age series.  I thought the films have always been good or OK but it isn't one of the better animated series.  With this film it was exactly what I expected from it, a few laughs, not amazing, not terrible but just good. This time it was better than average to be honest.


There were some entertaining bits but again the stars of the film weren't shown enough and these were some island hamster-like creatures who didn't talk, were cute as hell, and were absolutely hilarious.  Whatever they did was just funny, especially there Brave Heart impression. If these had their own film I would watch it, so I was sad and annoyed that similar to characters in the Lorax that  had a lot of potential they weren't in the film for that long. Another good performance is from Game of Thrones legend, Peter Dinklage who was a master sea pirate, Captain Gutt, and he made a convincing villain. He had a particularly good scene when he did a  song about himself which I thought was a pretty decent scene, probably one of the best in this film. I also enjoyed the scene with Scrat and his last nut scene which I just enjoyed. I have always loved the metaphor for Scrat, no matter how hard you try - YOU WILL NEVER GET WHAT YOU WANT!!!!!!!!!!


The three main characters were the same and I can't make my mind up if that is good or bad.  I mean they were exactly the same.  The only one who has ever changed is Diego in the first film who became part of the group it just seems like they didn't want to try anything new with them. I think a lot of the characters were predictable including the new daughter, Peaches and her best friend. And I had a hatred for the granny character, who is a stereotypical grumpy, disgusting old person who has a "made up" pet which turns out to be real.  SHOCK, SHOCK, SHOCK.  I knew  from the start that they would do this.


Overall, it's the same as the others. If you like the three others then go see this film as it's the same format, but if you were hoping for something different then brace yourself for nothing different. Again tho, it is worth a watch just for the brave heart hamsters (my new official name for them) and the menacing pirate Captain Gutt.




The Good: The Brave Heart Hamsters
The Bad: GRANNY = POINTLESS
The Ugly: The Brave Heart Hamsters Didn't Get More Time

Rating: 2.5*