Celebrities being used again to tempt viewers to see Hollywood flick

[Photo provided to China Daily]

In the latest film, the animals encounter their biggest threat. The squirrel Scrat accidentally sets off a series of cosmic events that transform and threaten the Ice Age World while in the pursuit of his elusive acorn, sparking a crisis and forcing the animal protagonists to embark on a thrilling migration.

Despite the previous four films in the franchise receiving critical acclaim in China－an average of more than 8 points out of 10 on the review site Douban.com－the new movie may not be as popular as the previous titles.

A month after being released in North America, IMDb shows the film has scored only 5.8 points out of 10, and Rotten Tomatoes only gives it 3.9 of 10.

Both the English websites are followed by Chinese movie fans.

Local feedback also indicates mainstream moviegoers are not quite interested in the Chinese celebrity-polished version.

"I don't care who does the Mandarin version as I will only see the original English feature," writes a netizen on the portal 163.com, commenting on an article on the movie.

Separately, some industry watchers say given that the average mainland viewer is 21.5 years old, most of them are more than willing to watch the English version as they can understand the dialogue.

"The Mandarin version is good for parents who accompany their children to see the film," says Wang Xiaojing, a Beijing-based critic.

"Some local expressions in the translated dialogues will also strike a chord with Chinese."