Ice Age: Collision Course

Ice Age: Collision Course

"Kiss your ice goodbye" ended up being accurate, unironically.

Genre:	Animated Comedy Adventure Science-fiction
Directed By:	Mike Thurmeier
Written By:	Michael J. Wilson Michael Berg Yoni Brenner
Starring:	Ray Romano John Leguizamo Denis Leary Josh Peck Simon Pegg Seann William Scott Jennifer Lopez Queen Latifah
Photography:	Color
Cinematography:	Renato Falcão
Distributed By:	20th Century Fox
Release Date:	June 19, 2016 (Sydney Film Festival) July 22, 2016 (United States)
Runtime:	94 minutes
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$105 million
Box Office:	$408.6 million
Franchise:	Ice Age
Prequel:	Ice Age: Continental Drift
Sequel:	The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (in development)

"Fuck this movie. No, seriously; fuck this movie! Fuck this movie to hell and back, and fuck everything in it! It has been so long since a movie in theaters insulted my intelligence to such a pathetic degree. Ice Age: Collision Course is a goddamn, epic fail!"
— MisAnthro Pony

Ice Age: Collision Course, also known in other territories as Ice Age 5: Collision Course, or simply known as Ice Age 5, is a 2016 American computer-animated science-fiction comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox, the fifth installment in the Ice Age franchise and the sequel to Ice Age: Continental Drift.

The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on June 19, 2016^[1], and was released in the United States on July 22. Upon release, it was negatively panned by both critics and fans alike.

It is also the last film in the Ice Age franchise to be produced by Blue Sky Studios, as The Walt Disney Company announced on February 9, 2021 that the studio would be closing in April of that same year^[2]^[3].

Plot

Manny the mammoth starts to worry when his daughter Peaches announces her engagement. Still unlucky in love, Sid the sloth volunteers to plan the couple's wedding. To Manny's dismay, nothing can stop the upcoming nuptials, except maybe the end of the world. When Scrat accidentally launches himself into outer space, he sets off a chain reaction that sends an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. Now, the entire herd must leave home to explore new lands and save itself from Scrat's cosmic blunder.

Why It Sucks

One of the core problems of the film is its near-lack of originality, with several scenes, characters and concepts either being clichéd or recycled from pre-existing films; granted, this can be executed well, but here at least a lot of them seem to be executed in a way they feel quite hollow and unsatisfying, and even then clichés are pretty much repetitive and tiring.
- According to an interview, Collision Course was inspired from a scene in the first Ice Age film where the Herd and Roshan (the baby) are walking inside an ice cavern, during which a UFO is briefly shown encased within ice^[4]; this alone reinforces the near-lack of originality the film has, in fact, this feels as though the filmmakers had run out of ideas.
  - It should be noted that Dawn of the Dinosaurs was similarly based on a shot during the sequence in which a Tyrannosaurus rex is shown encased in ice^[5].
- The basic concept of Scrat trying to get his acorn is tired and overused, especially considering how it has been done over and over again for the past four films up until this point; because of this, the audience pretty much acknowledges by now that Scrat is not going to succeed in getting his acorn, and here it feels a bit predictable.
  - One might compare this to most Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry shorts, but at least those were executed in a much better way in comparison to the storyline with Scrat here in Collision Course.
- The subplot of Manny not only being emotionally overly-clingy towards Peaches to the point where he refuses to let her leave and explore but also seeming to dislike and refuse to do anything to do with Julian, her fun-loving fiancé who is reasonably nice, is basically a carbon copy of Hotel Transylvania.
- Crash and Eddie dressing as and pretending to be babies in one scene is an obvious rip-off of Top Cat Begins.
- The film, overall, suffers from the "heroes embark to save the world to prevent impending doom" cliché.
- In addition, it completely rehashes the plots of The Meltdown and Continental Drift of the heroes embarking on an adventure as they struggle to survive in a catastrophic disaster and a main character, who, in this case, is Sid, gets a love interest.
- Manny not only essentially has the "overly-clingy father" cliché once again, but also has the "father who hates his daughter's boyfriend" cliché.
- One sequence near the end of the first act revolves around the "forgotten anniversary" cliché.
- Peaches has the "grown-up character who wants to see the world" cliché.
- Sid has the "loser who gets the girl" cliché.
- Julian has the "future son-in-law who is trying his best" cliché.
- Buck has the "liar revealed" cliché.
- Gavin, Gertie and Roger all have the "redeemed villain in the end" cliché.
- The film has the "ominous and ancient prophecy about something coming" cliché.
- It also has the "ending with a party around which everyone dances to a song" cliché.
The story is a bit predictable, as it is obvious the Herd will succeed in stopping the asteroid from hitting the Earth and eradicating its lifeforms; thus, it becomes a bit difficult to become emotionally invested in the story due to its outcome being quite obvious.
Even though the animation is an improvement in comparison to in the previous four films, its movement is way too fast in specific scenes and usually acts and feels as though it is the kind of animation used in the production of a Hotel Transylvania film; this is also even more jarring when taking into consideration as to how most of the non-Scrat animals in the previous four films moved quite similarly to animals in real life.
- There is one scene in the film which seems to be pretty much a jab at its own animation's over-the-top nature, the scene in question has Manny mocking the way Julian walks during the travel.
It follows up on the flaw Continental Drift suffered from in that it scarcely feels like an Ice Age film at times, mainly due to how there is a usage of... things which feel rather out-of-place in an Ice Age film; in fact, it feels more like an entirely different movie but of which happens to have characters and settings from the Ice Age franchise.
- The film feels the apparent "need" to be hip and cool, seemingly to pander to 2010s' audiences; this is obvious in scenes with dated references to 2010s' popular culture which feel as though they fail to fit in with the time period the films are set in; blatant examples of this include Crash and Eddie constantly referencing hashtags in one scene, as well as Francine criticizing Sid for looking "nothing like [his] profile picture".
- It features five rather odd and pointless cameos from Neil DeGrasse Tyson (the first one being a narration in the opening scene), who also literally serves as a scientific consultant... for an Ice Age film.
- The pillar itself which describes the prophecy, alongside UFOs, magical crystals that grant eternal youth and other sci-fi and fantasy elements all feel rather out-of-place in a series revolving around prehistoric animals, it would essentially be what would happen if there were another sequel to Finding Nemo in which the characters embark on an adventure in outer space of all things.
  - Now, one could argue that there was a shot in the first Ice Age movie where a UFO is shown encased in ice, but this was not exactly a major focus of said film and seemed to be more of an in-joke, and even then none of the previous movies had storylines that were majorly either sci-fi-themed nor fantasy-themed.
- There is a presence of out-of-place cartoon-ish sound effects throughout the film, the most blatant example of this being when cartoon-ish "squawking" sound effects are inappropriately plopped into a brief scene where a series of asteroids are literally annihilating a flock of birds.
- Some of the song choices are rather questionable for an Ice Age film, with blatant examples including "Fireball" by Pitbull briefly playing during the first interaction in the film between Buck and the Herd, as well as "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright playing when Brooke meets Sid for the first time.
- In the scene where Crash and Eddie are inside Buck's mind, there is literally a robot version of the latter... even though robots are pretty much non-existent in the time period the films are set in, especially considering how no such human technology existed yet at that point; it is also even more bizarre when taking into consideration as to how Buck should be unfamiliar with robots for obvious reasons.
- Unlike in the previous four films, Scrat never loses his acorn in the ending.
The film feels rather... overstuffed when it comes to the characters, and as a result not only does the plot constantly has to sidetrack with subplots but the film also seems to struggle in deciding as to who the main focus is supposed to be — it has to shift around from Manny and Ellie struggling to come to terms with Peaches' decision to move out, Sid looking for a love interest, Diego and Shira wanting to raise children, the misadventures of Scrat and his acorn in his UFO, Manny having to get along with Julian, the Dino-Birds plotting to kill Buck and allow the asteroid to hit the Earth, and Buck raising a small pumpkin.
On the topic of the characters, there are several problems with them, including but not limited to:
- Scrat is ruined as a character altogether; he seems to be the antagonist (it should be noted that an antagonist does not necessarily need to be [knowingly] evil, as an antagonist is typically a character or force that opposes a protagonist^[6], basically the thing that causes the conflict) as he is not only responsible for the catastrophe, but also causes a storm on Jupiter to end up on the Earth, pushes the asteroid headed towards the Earth further during his attempt to return and literally eradicates all life on Mars; this could be compared to his actions in Continental Drift, but at least that did not have the potential to eradicate all life on Earth.
  - In addition, the scale of his antics are upped to such an absurd degree his comedic nature is tarnished, and Scrat is also affirmed as the equivalent of God, the latter of which is mainly due to how he is responsible for the creation of the entire Solar System; in fact, his antics seem to be even more over-the-top and absurd in comparison to especially in Continental Drift.
- Manny has been reduced from a slightly standoffish, but lovable grump to a whiny and moping jackass; basically, he has been flanderized as a character.
- Sid is also flanderized similarly to in Continental Drift, his stupidity having been exaggerated in comparison to in the first three films.
- Even Ellie lacks any interesting characterizations; at one point she is simply there to agree with Manny's overly-clingy attitude towards Peaches, and at another to set up the forced "forgotten anniversary" plot point that is resolved as quickly as it shows up.
- Several returning characters, especially Diego and Shira, both of whom were major characters in the previous films, respectively, are heavily sidelined and barely do anything to move the plot forwards; similarly, Louis from Continental Drift is reduced to nothing more than a background character who barely appears in two shots.
- Crash and Eddie are very annoying, as most of their scenes consist of them spewing out horrendous dialogue and rather unfunny attempts at humor; they hardly even work off of the other members of the Herd properly.
- Buck, the come-back character returning to have his first major role in the films since Dawn of the Dinosaurs, is reduced to an overly-wacky and -awkward character who constantly spews out exposition; one could argue he was a little... crazy in Dawn of the Dinosaurs, but he was neither this wacky nor this awkward.
- The characters introduced here in Collision Course either barely have any personality, are forgettable, unfunny, one-dimensional (especially Brooke) or, in the cases of Roger, Shangri Llama and Julian, annoying; in addition, Julian, Francine and the Dino-Birds never receive a proper introduction as to how they came into the other characters' lives; we just randomly start off with them from beginning to end (though, in the case of Francine, she breaks up with Sid in her only scene in the film and afterwards is never seen again), as if they came out from nowhere, which is jarring.
  - On the topic of Brooke, she, overall, is a one-dimensional love interest who simply... falls for Sid.
- The Dino-Birds are forgettable antagonists with lame motives, consisting of them intending to fly out of range as high into the atmosphere as possible as the asteroid hits and eradicates all other lifeforms, making it impossible to take them seriously when the audience knows their own idiocy is only going to result in their deaths, and even if they do survive the collision there would barely be any food for them to eat, resulting in them starving to death; in fact, the presence of a real antagonist is rendered redundant by the fact that the asteroid is basically the main threat of the film.
  - In fact, there are at least two scenes where the film is self-aware of how stupid their motives are; however, stating the problems of a film does not automatically erase them.
- At one point, the Herd and Buck come across a river and at no point does anyone think it to be a good idea to cross it, to the point where Buck literally demands said river to "let his mammals pass"; this, therefore, paints the characters to be this idiotic.
Specific scenes in the film are rather pointless and seem to only serve to pad out the length, as neither of them serve any real purpose in the story at all nor even explore the relationships between characters in a way it pays off story-wise; one example is the small subplot of Diego and Shira wanting to raise children, which does nothing to move the plot forward and seems to be only there for the sake of having both characters actually getting to do something in the film.
- Even the side of the story with Scrat falls prey to this, with some of his individual scenes seemingly being longer than in the previous films, seemingly for the sake of padding out the runtime.
Plot hole: In one scene Scrat causes the internal gravity of the UFO to decrease, inadvertently flattening him and rendering it impossible for him to do specific actions such as jumping, and the next time he is shown the gravity of the UFO is somehow back to normal.
The pacing during the travel is very inconsistent, with the filmmakers seemingly being unable to decide as to how fast or slow the travel should progress; most of the time the travel seems to be in a rather "normal" speed, but at various points its pace is slowed down due to filler and rather failed attempts at humor.
As stated, much of the attempts at humor fail and either come across as awkward, predictable, immature or suffer from botched timing; some even remove suspense and tension within the film, since it barely seems to take itself seriously; Crash and Eddie provide some of the worst attempts at humor here, consisting of either gross-out or toilet humor.
- On the topic of toilet humor, there is even one scene where actual animal feces are shown, which Eddie almost licks under the assumption that it is a clue for something until Buck points out otherwise.
False advertising:
- In some posters, Scrat is seen wearing a spacesuit, but in the film he is only seen wearing it in three scenes.
- Despite being heavily advertised on movie posters, neither Brooke nor Shangri Llama appear until the final act of film and even then aren't even given proper screen time and characterization.
There are several cringe-worthy, awkward and disturbing shots present in the film, such as one where the low internal gravity of the UFO causes Scrat's skin to fall off and thus expose his skeleton right before he pulls it back up, as well as another in which he lifts up his skin to reveal his nipples have been briefly transformed into acorns.
The use of the aforementioned "forgotten anniversary" cliché feels rather forced, especially considering how it is resolved as quickly as it shows up; it is also supposed to set up something important for the relationship between Manny and Ellie, but is not paid off in any proper way and is not brought up again aside from one scene in which they reflect on themselves raising Peaches and come to terms with her future, and thus it feels pointless when it comes to more specifically the relationship between the two.
- Similarly, the use of the "liar revealed" cliché is rather pointless, as it never changes nor develops the characters nor even moves the plot forwards; to recap, during the travel, Buck discovers he is being followed by the Dino-Birds and is hiding this from the Herd, and before they arrive at Geotopia, the Herd, particularly Diego, discover what is really going on and realize that Buck was being dishonest about this; one would think this would set up some sort of conflict between Buck and the Herd, but this is not paid off in any major way whatsoever.
The subplot involving the romance between Sid and Brooke feels rather rushed; this is clear when Brooke proposes to Sid... even though they have only known each other for twelve in-universe minutes and thus barely had any chemistry.
It shares the problem of the previous four films of featuring historical inaccuracies; for example, Buck remarks how an asteroid would hit the Earth every one hundred million years, as if it were some sort of tradition, even though the asteroid that eradicated the non-avian dinosaurs hit around sixty-five million years ago, while the prior mass extinctions weren't caused by (an) asteroid(s) hitting the Earth.
Extremely cheesy dialogue, particularly, "That, however, is a turd!", from Buck.
Several characters from the previous four films, specifically Rudy and Ethan, no longer seem to even exist anymore without any given reason whatsoever as to why; it feels jarring and questionable.
John Debney's soundtrack, despite being decent, is the weakest in the franchise, being inferior that of the previous four movies by David Newman (Ice Age) and John Powell (The Meltdown, Dawn of the Dinosaurs and Continental Drift).

Redeeming Qualities

The animation, alongside the visuals, is an improvement from the previous four Ice Age movies.
Decent voice acting, partly due to most of the cast returning to reprise their roles.
Peaches and Julian, while parts of their storyline do revolve around clichés, are the most tolerable of the characters, as all they intend to do is to survive the incoming asteroid and live happily married lives together; a far better motivation than those of the other characters.
Decent soundtrack from John Debney, despite being the weakest in the franchise, as stated before.
The "Figaro" sequence is enjoyable.
Some scenes here and there are worthy of a laugh, such as when Scrat is about to smash one of the remaining teleportation devices with his acorn right when he is teleported to the bathroom, at which he unintentionally throws his acorn, the one thing that was so valuable to him, everything he stood for, into an actual toilet.
There are some emotional scenes in the film, particularly Manny and Julian struggling to get the biggest crystal to land into the volcano and they allow it to roll into said volcano on its own.

Reception

Ice Age: Collision Course was heavily panned and criticized by both critics and fans alike, aimed at the screenplay, plot, humor, inconsistent tone, lack of originality, and character development while praising its animation and John Debney's musical score.

It currently holds a 17% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an average rating of 4.1/10, with the site's critical consensus reading, "Unoriginal and unfunny, Ice Age: Collision Course offers further proof that not even the healthiest box office receipts can keep a franchise from slouching toward creative extinction." It also has a 34 out of 100 on Metacritic and a 5.7/10 on IMDb.