Latest kid-friendly 'Ice Age' sequel plays it safe

The animated 3-D comedy "Ice Age: Continental Drift" proves that the fourth time's fairly charmless.

Kids, the obvious target audience for this third sequel to 2002's far superior original "Ice Age," may enjoy the fast pace, cartoony slapstick antics, funny songs and ridiculously engaging plot twists of "Continental Drift."

But this latest sequel in the "Ice Age" franchise has again allowed its innovation to melt, along with its opportunity to impart important lessons to its viewers beyond the oft-repeated theme of "family and friends are really, really, really important."

(As if to prove the noninnovation point, the opening scene in "Continental Drift" consists of the recycled short "Continental Crack-Up," a stand-alone cartoon that played before the 2010 comedy "Gulliver's Travels.")

"Continental Drift" brings back Manny the woolly mammoth (Ray Romano) and his furry wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah). They must deal with their ever-so-slightly rebellious teen daughter Peaches (Keke Palmer), on the verge of discovering mammoth boys, such as the mohawked Ethan, and figuring out how to fit in with her woolly peers.

But before the real fur can fly, Mother Nature rocks the mammoths' world. Huge earthquakes split up the land and ice, putting Manny, Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) on a giant ice floe moving away from Manny's wife and daughter.

Manny vows to find them, no matter what.

Meanwhile, he's stuck on the ice floe with his two pals, later joined by Sid's comically cranky Granny (the incredible gifted Wanda Sykes), abandoned by her selfish family members who apparently never liked Sid, either.

The plot shifts into higher gear when the gang becomes accosted by a fierce band of prehistoric pirates, led by the scalawag orangutan Captain Gutt (a superbly cast Peter Dinklage, whose commanding voice was destined to bring animated characters to life).

Captain Gutt's first mate, a gorgeous white saber-toothed tiger named Shira (Jennifer Lopez), supplies some welcome romantic conflict when she meets Diego, who senses that Shira has a heart of gold under all that pirate fur.

Directed with accelerated verve by Steve "Horton Hears a Who" Martino and Michael Thurmeier, "Continental Drift" sacrifices nuance and depth for pacing and sitcom payoffs, resulting in a kid-friendly tale without much bait to hook adult viewers.

Just when this movie seems content with its superficiality, "Continental" drifts into unexpectedly dark waters worthy of a scary sequence from a classic Walt Disney film.

The animals confront a Ulyssean group of sirens, sinister troll-like critters that take the form of whatever desires the main characters possess. (These remain strictly PG-rated desires, by the way.)

This is the only part of "Continental Drift" - written by Jason Fuchs and Michael Berg - that bristles with danger and excitement.

Otherwise, whenever the movie needs a pick-me-up, Scrat the prehistoric squirrel pops up to continue his hunt for the elusive acorn, an eternal chase that supplies the franchise with its own version of the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. It's a reliable gimmick, but one used too often to keep it fresh.

Here's one movie that could have benefited from a little more complexity and a lot more Dinklage.

“Ice Age: Continental Drift”

★ ★ ½

Starring: Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, Denis Leary, Jennifer Lopez, Wanda Sykes, Peter Dinklage, Jeremy Renner

Directed by: Steve Martino, Michael Thurmeier

Other: A 20th Century Fox release. Rated PG. 94 minutes