Ice Age: Collision Course is a 2016 American computer animated fantasy adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios. It is the fifth installment in the Ice Age film series and the sequel to Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012). It was directed by Mike Thurmeier and co-directed by Galen Tan Chu, and written by Michael Wilson, Michael Berg and Yoni Brenner.
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Chris Wedge, Simon Pegg, Keke Palmer, Wanda Sykes and Jennifer Lopez again all reprise their roles from the previous films. They are joined by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adam DeVine, Nick Offerman, Max Greenfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Rauch, Michael Strahan, Jessie J and Neil deGrasse Tyson, who voice the new characters introduced in this film.
In this film, while trying to bury his acorn, Scrat discovers a UFO and launches it into space and accidentally sends thousands of deadly meteors to earth, causing problems for The Herd. When Manny and the others meet up with Buck and learn that a very deadly meteor is coming to earth, they must go on a life or death mission to find a way to stop it.
The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on June 19, 2016, and was released in the United States on July 22, 2016, by 20th Century Fox. The film was negatively welcomed from both audience and film critics, but it was a good box office success, grossing $408 million worldwide on a $105 million budget.
Plot[]
Scrat, trying to bury his acorn, accidentally activates an abandoned alien ship that takes him into deep space, where he unwittingly sends several asteroids en route to a collision with Earth. Meanwhile, Manny is worried about the upcoming marriage between Peaches and her fiancé, Julian. Diego and his wife Shira want to start a family, but their fierce appearance tends to scare kids. Sid is dumped by his girlfriend, Francine, just as he is about to propose to her, and he laments his solitude. During Manny and Ellie's wedding anniversary party (which Manny had forgotten prior to the event), some of the asteroids strike the place and The Herd barely escape with their lives. Meanwhile, at the underground cavern, Buck returns a dinosaur egg back to its rightful owner after it was stolen by a trio of dromaeosaurs[1] named Gavin, Gertie, and Roger. Buck discovers an ancient stone pillar and takes it to the surface, where he meets Manny and the others.
Buck explains to The Herd that according to the pillar, the asteroids had caused several extinctions in the past and with a massive one still incoming, he believes that the only place they could find a clue to stop it is on the site of the impact of the previous ones, as according to its engravings, they always fall at the same place. However, the three dromaeosaurs overhear their conversation, and Gavin and Gertie decide to stop them, believing that they could be safe from the impact, as they can fly, thus not only getting their revenge on Buck, but also killing all mammals and securing domination over Earth for their species. Roger is reluctant, but Gavin and Gertie strong-arm him into cooperating.
As The Herd travels to the crash site, they discover that the asteroids have electro-magnetic properties. Buck theorizes that if a huge quantity of smaller asteroids should be gathered and launched into orbit, they could attract the main asteroid as well and prevent it from falling on Earth. After facing several obstacles and the interference of the dromaeosaurs, The Herd arrives at "Geotopia", a community of immortal animals formed inside one of the asteroids that have fallen long ago, where Sid meets Brooke, a female ground sloth who falls in love with him. However, Shangri Llama, the leader of Geotopia, refuses to cooperate with Buck's plan to send the city's crystals into space in order to prevent the imminent impact, as they are the key to the residents' longevity. Sid inadvertently destroys the entire city when he attempts to remove one of the crystals to present Brooke with, immediately aging them to their real ages and revealing their true crone-like appearances.
Once Brooke convinces the Geotopians that preventing the asteroid's fall is more important than their lost youth, they and The Herd help with Buck's plan, which is to fill up a geyser with the crystals so that the pressure launches them into space to draw the asteroid away. The dromaeosaurs attempt to intervene, but Buck convinces Roger that they will not be able to survive the asteroid, and he in turn convinces Gavin and Gertie to help. The plan works, and the asteroid is pulled back into space. The Herd then departs back home, including Sid, who parts ways from Brooke, but just after they leave, an asteroid piece falls inside a hot spring, giving it rejuvenating properties and making the Geotopians and Sid's grandmother, who stayed behind with them, regain their youth. After The Herd returns, Manny reconciles with Julian, Peaches and Julian celebrate their wedding, Diego and Shira become heroes to the kids who were scared of them before, and a rejuvenated Brooke appears during the ceremony to reunite with Sid.
In the film's epilogue, Scrat keeps struggling to control the alien ship until it crashes on Mars, destroying all life on the planet.
In a mid-credits scene, Scrat finds his acorn, but gets beaten by some doors.
Voice cast[]
Main characters[]
- Ray Romano as Manny, a woolly mammoth, the leader of The Herd and Ellie's husband.
- John Leguizamo as Sid, a ground sloth, the founder of The Herd, the love interest of Brooke and Granny's Grandson.
- Denis Leary as Diego, a saber tooth tiger, the member of The Herd and Shira's husband.
- Queen Latifah as Ellie, a female woolly mammoth, Manny's wife and Crash and Eddie's adopted sister.
- Simon Pegg as Buck, a one-eyed weasel and a dinosaur hunter who reunites with The Herd after his home is destroyed by the Drift.
- Jennifer Lopez as Shira, a female saber tooth tiger, Diego's wife and former first mate of Captain Gutt's pirate crew.
- Seann William Scott and Josh Peck as Crash and Eddie, two opposums and Ellie's adopted brothers.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson as Neil deBuck Weasel, a weasel astronomer who exists in Buck's mind.
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Shangri Llama, a yoga-loving llama and the spiritual leader of Geotopia.
- Jessie J as Brooke, a ground sloth who is a resident of Geotopia and the love interest of Sid.
- Keke Palmer as Peaches, a young female woolly mammoth, Manny and Ellie's daughter and Julian's wife.
- Adam DeVine as Julian, a woolly mammoth and Peaches's husband.
- Wanda Sykes as Granny, an aging ground sloth, Sid's grandmother and Teddy's girlfriend.
- Melissa Rauch as Francine, a ground sloth who has a close relationship with Sid as she is his ex-girlfriend and the minor antagonist.
- Michael Strahan as Teddy, a fearless rabbit, a resident of Geotopia and Granny's boyfriend.
- Nick Offerman as Gavin, a Dino-Bird of the herd and the father of Roger and Gertie.
- Stephanie Beatriz as Gertie, a Dino-Bird of the herd and Gavin's daughter.
- Max Greenfield as Roger, a Dino-Bird of the herd and Gavin's son.
- Chris Wedge as Scrat, a saber tooth squirrel.
Reception[]
Box office[]
Despite almost being a box office failure in the United States, the film grossed more in other countries, becoming a good box office success.
General response[]
Differently than the other films, the film was negatively welcomed by both audience and film critics.
It was criticized for the laterization of several of the fan favorites characters, the humor, the childish tone, the exaggerated expressions of the characters in the new animation style, the fact that Sid and Diego were reduced more to supporting characters than true protagonists, the saturation of Manny and Ellie's characters, the villain Gavin, the fact that the new characters were underexplored and almost useless (especially Shangri Llama), the fact that Buck's character took too much space in this film and the lack of John Powell's themes, despite it was praised for Scrat's subplot, the fact that Scrat, Sid and Shira weren't slenderized and some funny scenes.
Standalone sequel[]
On July 2016, Galen T. Chu said that there were some ideas for a sixth film. However, due to the negative backlash that the fifth film hard, the sixth film was cancelled.
At least that is until 2022 when Disney, after buying Fox and Blue Sky Studios in 2018, decided to revive the franchise and to make the spin-off film. The film gets called The Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild, and it will focus on Buck, Crash and Eddie. It will also work as a soft reboot completely ignoring Collision Course, thus resulting in a standalone sequel.
Simon Pegg is the only voice actor to reprise his role as Buck, while the rest of voice actors are replaced with new voice actors.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The fifth Blue Sky Studios film to be produced in 2.35:1, after Rio, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Epic and Rio 2.
- The second Ice Age film to be shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio after Ice Age: Continental Drift.
- This is the second Ice Age film not to be scored by John Powell after the original 2002 film (which was scored by David Newman), as it is instead scored by John Debney. It also the fourth Blue Sky Studios film to be scored by a different composer than John Powell, the other two being Epic (which was scored by Danny Elfman) and The Peanuts Movie (which was scored by Christophe Beck).
- Ice Age: Collision Course is the sixth Blue Sky Studios film to have non–humans cast, after Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Ice Age: Continental Drift
- The only real antagonist in the movie was the asteroid.
- Josh Gad was supposed to reprise his role as Louis, but he didn't make it. Drake and Nicki Minaj were supposed to reprise their roles as Ethan and Steffie, but they couldn't make it. Louis makes an appearance in the film as a cameo.
- Ethan, Steffie, Katie, Meghan and Precious are the only characters from the fourth film that don't appear in the fifth film.
- When Scrat flies the flying saucer in the beginning, he flies away from Earth, which resembles the same shot from "Phineas and Ferb" when Candace wears the Pick 'em Up Inator.
- This is the only Ice Age film to have a post-credit scene since the first Ice Age film.
- The seventh Blue Sky Studios film to be rated PG by the MPAA, after Ice Age, Robots, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Epic.
- This is the second movie of Blue Sky Studios to be released in IMAX 3D.
- This film is considered the worst film of the Ice Age franchise and from Blue Sky Studios.
- Scratte was originally going to appear as a Space Alien but it was cut, though in Scrat: Spaced Out the Scratazons look similar to Scratte. Also she made a cameo in the end credits.
- This is the third piece of the Ice Age media to feature eggs, the first two were The Great Egg-Scapade and Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
- Louis, the character from Ice Age: Continental Drift, makes a cameo appearance in the film. His voice actor Josh Gad was very busy with film projects.
- The fifth animated sequel to be produced in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio, unlike the previous installments which were produced at 1.85:1, after Rugrats Go Wild, Shrek Forever After, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Planes: Fire & Rescue.
- This is the last Ice Age film to be distributed by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios; the next film The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild would instead be distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, due to Disney's completed acquisition of 20th Century Fox (now known as 20th Century Studios).
References[]
- ↑ "Ice Age: Collision Course", The Huffington Post (July 20, 2016). Retrieved on November 12, 2016.
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