Strong and Moving!

A Disappointing Continuation

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade" is a 25-minute animated short film from this year and the title already gives it away. This is the Ice Age franchise's official take on the Easter holidays. Now, occasionally here in Germany, there is actually snow during Easter, but it is an exception. usually, it is spring already and the weather is getting warmer. That is why I found it a really challenging task to make this film work. And even if they got the original voice actors (almost all of them), then this is nothing more than a mediocre appetizer for the next full feature Ice Age film, the fifth already. I think this little special here is only a good watch for the most hardcore fans of the franchise. Everybody else can skip it because the story and the Easter Bunny character just weren't interesting enough. Not recommended.

Of course I realize Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade is an attempt to cash in on a popular film franchise by taking advantage of a major holiday (Easter this time, comparable to the previous 2011 Yuletide special Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas). It's easy to be cynical about the idea, and having a bad cough when I watched this, it hurt to laugh. Yet in spite of myself- I ended up chuckling anyway.There is some definite cynicism in the hollow Ellie/Peaches subplot, a typical bit about a teenager drifting from family, but that's a tiny part of the short. The bulk draws on the pirate rabbit from Continental Drift returning, seeking revenge for his lost ship. Surprisingly, using a pirate treasure map story to explain the origins of the Easter egg hunt works out well. There is a genuine chuckle in Manny expressing outrage someone would paint and hide an egg, as if it were a heinous criminal act. The Raiders of the Lost Ark parody we get during the egg hunt is a definite highlight. Scrat's latest mishap with his acorn is worth a chuckle too. A thankfully brief, but still entertaining, Easter special is a worthy addition to the list of Ice Age shorts.

In Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade harried prehistoric bird mom Ethel (Taraji P. Henson, EMPIRE) entrusts her precious, soon-to-hatch egg to Sid (John Leguizamo). When she recommends him to her neighbors – a condor mom (Wendy Williams), Cholly Bear (Gabriel Iglesias) and Gladys Glypto (Lili Estefan) – business booms at his new egg-sitting service. However, dastardly pirate bunny Squint (Seth Green, FAMILY GUY), who is seeking revenge on the ICE AGE gang, steals, camouflages and hides all the eggs. Once again, with Squint's twin brother, Clint (Blake Anderson), assisting, Manny (Ray Romano), Diego (Denis Leary) and the rest of the gang come to the rescue and take off on a daring mission that turns into the world's first Easter egg hunt.