1. From The Director Of Ice Age: Continental Drift
It is often too easy to peg a director for bad films he's done, but this one was just too easy. Steve Martino's directorial work has been nothing if not didactic - His first feature, Horton Hears a Who, was well-recieved enough, and praised as a Dr. Seuss adaptation that stayed true to the spirit of its source material (a fact that almost landed this section in the "Good" category), but his second film was the atrocious fourth entry in the very overworked Ice Age series. Ice Age: Continental Drift is a film that contains within it the many cliches and pitfalls of modern animation that would only sink Peanuts if employed here: Irritating anachronisms, rehashed jokes, and an exceptionally contrived plot. The last of these is the most troubling, for Peanuts is a world that is simply content to live within little vignettes and small mundane stories. None of the plots before built up enough steam to exceed 20 minutes, so they never overstayed their welcome. It would be a challenge for even an established animation director to take on this material as a feature. As it is, the work of Steve Martino is too bipolar to judge right off, but like the writers' task in imitating Schulz's voice, the odds are mightily stacked against him. So what do you think? Should Peanuts be made into a feature length film, or is this just another cash grab from greedy studios? Let us know in the comments below!