HBO Max is best known for its collection of prestige TV and blockbuster films, but the streamer also boasts a strong and diverse collection of animated content, a lineup that just grew over the weekend. The start of November saw the streamer stock dozens of great films in its content catalog, including an absolutely absurd animated movie that is one of the highest-grossing animated sequels ever.
Ahead of Ice Age: Boiling Point next year, fans of the franchise can stream the series’ most bizarre entry, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The animated adventure comedy started streaming on HBO Max on November 1st, and you won’t want to miss it. The movie, the fourth Ice Age film, sees Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary reprise their roles as Manny, Sid, and Diego, who come face to face with a gang of pirates and other obstacles after Scrat mistakenly sends them on a seafaring adventure on an iceberg. Queen Latifah reprises her role as Ellie in a film that also features Jennifer Lopez, Drake, and Nicki Minaj.
Ice Age: Continental Drift Is a Wild Film
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All of the Ice Age movies are fun and ridiculous, but Ice Age: Continental Drift takes ridiculous to a whole different level. The premise of the film alone is absolutely bonkers and greatly exaggerates scientific and historical facts, as the Pangea supercontinent breaks up within a matter of minutes as the result of a squirrel’s acorn, a hilarious idea that is scientifically absurd. But where the film really verges into the absurd is in the way that it combines the formation of the modern world and global warming with a story about pirates and sea travel and even adds a few musical numbers into the mix. At one point in the film, Captain Gutt and his crew break out into a boisterous “Master of the Seas.”
Whether all of that added up to a movie that works is debatable. The film holds a 37% critic score and 61% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the second lowest-rated movie in the franchise, with only Ice Age: Collision Course rated lower than it. Other than the scientific and historical inaccuracies, the movie received some flak for a weak and predictable plot, distracting 3D-focused animation, and distracting celebrity cameos. However, it still proved to be an entertaining film packed with family-friendly humor, ultimately resulting in Ice Age: Continental Drift pulling in over an $877 million worldwide box office haul, making it the highest-grossing animated film of 2012, one of the highest-grossing films of the year, and the 22nd-highest-grossing animated movie of all time.
What’s New on HBO Max?
Ice Age: Continental Drift isn’t the only film newly streaming on HBO Max. November 1st also brought titles such as Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Bride of Frankenstein, and Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. On the animated front, HBO Max subscribers can now also stream Happy Feet, Puss in Boots, and The Polar Express.
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