Ice Age: Continental Drift (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film score to the 2012 film Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth instalment in Ice Age franchise and the sequel to Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009). The film score is composed by John Powell and released through Varèse Sarabande and Fox Music on July 10, 2012.
Contents
Background
John Powell, who previously composed the second and third installments, returned for Continental Drift. In addition to Powell's original score, the film features Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Powell explained his decision: "At the beginning of the film, the creation of the geographical world as we know it seemed just such an immense idea to musically convey, that I gave up entirely and used Beethoven's Ninth Symphony instead. With a bit of obscenely crass re-orchestration and blatantly cheap arranging tricks normally associated with strippers, we got it to fit the action perfectly. But the cost that I must now bear is having to live forever in hiding, since the 'Beethoven Society' issued a 'fatwa' on me."
Powell used 20 bass accordions for the score with the decision to mess with the pirate clichés. Instead of using the squeezeboxes, Powell decided to use a large group of accordions in place of trombones, to make it a frightening instrument. He added, "There were so many accordionists in one room that they had to close all the Italian restaurants in a fifty-mile radius. And they were all looking at each other like "Whoa, I thought I had this gig, who the hell are you!?" They hadn't played with any other accordionists since they were kids in Mrs. Henkel's 200-piece accordion orchestra."
Release
The soundtrack album was released on July 10, 2012, by Varèse Sarabande.
Reception
Filmtracks wrote "there's a point at which the composer's sense of humor in this kind of assignment ceases to appeal to anyone outside of his dedicated fanbase, and Ice Age: Continental Drift is straddling that line." Peter Debruge of Variety and Megan Lehmann of The Hollywood Reporter "exciting" and "enjoyable".
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes: