Ice Age: Collision Course

Ice Age: Collision Course One small step for Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox. One giant mess for the entire Ice Age franchise. 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

Ice Age: Collision Course, (also known in other territories on home video 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 the 2012 film Ice Age: Continental Drift.

The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival on June 19, 2016, and was released in the United States on July 22. Upon release, it was negatively panned by both critics and fans alike, with the film becoming the most negatively-received installment in the Ice Age franchise.

It is also the last film in the franchise to be produced by Blue Sky Studios, as The Walt Disney Company had shut down Blue Sky Studios on April 7, 2021. No theatrical film in the series has been released since.

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's An Absolute Collision Course

1. One of the main problems of the film is that it barely has any originality, with several scenes, characters, and concepts either being heavily clichéd or rehashed from the other films; granted, this can be executed well (even Star Wars, of all things, was influenced by The Hidden Fortress, plot-wise), but here they tend to feel quite hollow and unsatisfying, and even aside from that clichés do tend to be repetitive and tiring.
   • According to an interview, Collision Course was inspired by 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; this alone reinforces the 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. However, this one works since it does have to do with the ice age time period.
   • 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; as such, the audience pretty much acknowledges by now that Scrat will not succeed in getting his acorn, and here it does feel kinda 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 (since both of those shorts can change its formula to try something new).
     • Like the previous film, it full-on exaggerates the cartoony gags with his shenanigans(See #7). At one point, Scrat was SKINNED-ALIVE by the high gravity of the ship and fixed himself like it was nothing.
   • 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 that of Hotel Transylvania.
   • The film, overall, suffers from the "heroes embark to save the world from 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 the main character, who, in this case, is Sid, gets a love interest.
   • Manny is not only essentially has the "overly-clingy father" cliché for the second time in a row, 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.
2. The story tends to be rather predictable, as it is obvious the Herd will succeed in stopping the asteroid from hitting the Earth and eradicating the planet of its lifeforms; thus, it becomes a bit difficult to become emotionally invested in the story due to its outcome being quite obvious.
3. Even though the animation is a step up from the previous four films, it can be over the top with its movement being way too fast in specific scenes and usually acts and feels as though it is the kind of animation style 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.
   • On a similar topic, there is an overuse of disgustingly purple color filters and schemes throughout the film, notably inside the UFO, scenes set during the evening, on the asteroid and its pieces themselves, and even inside Geotopia.
4. It follows up on one of the flaws Continental Drift suffered from in that it scarcely feels like an Ice Age film at times, mainly due to its 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 it 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; this 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 the 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 or 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.
   • Like with the previous movie, 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 nether it ends with him screaming.
5. The film feels rather overstuffed when it comes to the characters, and as a result, the plot constantly has to sidetrack with subplots
   • Similar to the fourth installment or the sequel to Rio, the film is very saturated, since it has not 4 or 6 but 24 subplots, the most unfortunate thing is that it juggles each one of them, that at the end of all only 2 subplots are executed properly, these subplots include:
     • Manny and the pack seek to stop the asteroid, Scrat on his journey through space in search of the acorn, Sid depressed about having a girlfriend, Manny and Ellie with their dilemma that Peaches is getting married, The romance between Peaches and Julian, Julian trying to befriend Manny, Julian's relationship with the Pack, Diego and Shira are looking to have children, Sid's romance with Brooke, The pack celebrates the anniversary of Manny and Ellie, Manny forgets his anniversary with Ellie, Buck trying to stop the prophecy from coming true, Buck leading the pack to the volcano, The pack that seeks to steal the pink crystals of Geotopia, Buck tending the pumpkin, Buck with his existential trans on how to avoid the asteroid, The Dinobots getting revenge on Buck, Buck prevents the pack from knowing that the Dinobots are after them., Shangri Llama and the inhabitants of Geotopia refuse to save the world, The Secret of Geotopia's Fountain of Youth, The surrender of Shangri Llama and the inhabitants of Geotopia, Sid's grandmother's affair with Teddy, The Dinobots' plan to save themselves from the asteroid, and Roger's insecurity about being evil
     • In fact, one brief scene in the movie with Sid running out of fingers when he counts everyone to ensure they are present even takes a jab at the movie's huge list of characters.
6. The characters are even more intolerable than they were in Continental Drift, each of them having their own set of issues, 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, 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 is 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 jerk; basically, he has been Flanderized as a character. He even has a psycothic line of Ooh. I know! We destroyed the relationship, right? That we never have to let her go and she'll just stay our little girl FOREVER while sadistically laughing, almost reaching Modern Peter Griffin's level, even Ellie points that out. The way he acts in this film is also pointless and senseless, considering that he already reconciled with Peaches and accepts the fact that she wants independent and was also likable in ''The Great Egg-Scapade.'' Thankfully, he reverts back to his first three films self in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild.
   • Sid is also flanderized similarly to in Continental Drift, his stupidity having been exaggerated in comparison to in the first three films.
   • Ellie acts completely out of character since, instead of being Manny's voice of reason and Peaches' sweet mother who accepts and supports her desire to explore and meet new people as she was in the The Meltdown, Dawn of the Dinosaur, A Mammoth Christmas, Continental Drift and The Great Egg-Scapade, she was flanderized into a manipulative mother who lacks any interesting characterizations by simply siding with Manny on his 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. Thankfully, like Manny, she reverts back to her second-to-fourth films self in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild.
   • Several returning characters, especially Diego and Shira, both of whom were major characters in the previous films, while still likeable and not flanderized, are heavily sidelined and barely do anything to move the plot forwards; the underutilization of Diego is even more insulting because Diego was one of the original main characters of the series. 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. While Crash and Eddie were meant to annoy the other characters with their Bart Simpson-like pranks and intelligence, their annoyance wasn't exaggerated in The Meltdown and Dawn of the Dinosaurs, not to mention that they were at least good friends, as they cared about Ellie and the main trio and always helped them out when they could. But in Continental Drift and here, it seems like the movie viewers are the target of the possums' annoyance rather them the other characters, making them unbearable, not to mention they are useless since instead of worrying about their friends and the possible deaths by the asteroid, they don't seem care for anyone, not even themselves, they are having fun with the destruction caused by the asteroid. In any moment of the flood in The Meltdown were they playing, having, or making fun of the situation? No, making this out of character for them. Their stupidity was also exaggerated, evolving from a Bart Simpson in Seasons 1-15, 31-present's intelligence to a Patrick Star in Seasons 6-8's intelligence. Even Sean William Scott's and Josh Peck's performances comes across as annoying as, while they still do decent jobs as always, for some reason, they put in a much goofier register to their voices and even uses their southern accents and higher pitches, which is more irritating than funny.
   • Peaches, while likeable and much more mature than in the previous film, can get annoying at times because of how much she complains about the possibility of not surviving to marry Julian and live her life, even though it's kinda understandable since that's a very scary thought.
   • Granny was also Flanderized, as she went from a crazy but conscious grandma that genuinely loved Sid and cared about her friends to just a senile old lady. At one point, after the Herd got out of an electric storm, she doesn't even care about Buck possibly dying when he came back to rescue a baby, easily moving on from it.
   • And speaking of Buck, he went from a fun and enjoyable comic relief to one of the most intolerable characters in the whole franchise. Everything that made him charming and funny in the third film is now all thrown away when the movie takes his crazy attitude way too far. As he tags along with the Herd to find a way to stop the meteors, his over-the-top wacky nature just dominates a good chunk of the movie and now he supplies the worst jokes of the movie, along with Crash and Eddie, as well as constantly spewing out exposition. Plus the fact that his humor only works when he is in the jungle in the Lost World, so bringing him to the icy surface wasn't a very good idea. And on top of that, instead of being treated like the Jack Sparrow of Ice Age, he is now turned into a Tony Stark-clone when he knows everything about space (you know, despite being a prehistoric animal that lived likely most of his life in an underground lost world of dinosaur) and even has a freaking robot on his mind, along with the fact that he is the leader of trying to make the movie as cartoony as possible, but now it becomes too cartoony to the point that it's more unbearable than fun.
   • The characters introduced here in Collision Course either barely have any personality, are forgettable, unfunny, one-dimensional (especially Brooke, even though she is more tolerable compared to all the other new characters), 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 afterward is never seen again), as if they just came out of thin air, which is jarring.
     • On the topic of Brooke, while not unlikable or annoying like almost everybody else, is overall 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 initial collision there would barely be any food for them to eat, which would result 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.
   • Julian is basically just a mammoth version Johnny from Hotel Transylvania, but without any of Johnny's likability or charisma. Even Adam DeVine, although he does a decent job, seems to be trying to impersonate Andy Samberg's voice. And on top of the fact that he never received a proper introduction on how he became part of the Herd's lives, his presence alone make the whole love-triangle subplot between Peaches, Louis and Ethan in Continental Drift even more pointless than it already was.
   • 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". Sure, it's just a reference to the story of Moses, but it paints the characters in a really idiotic way.
7. Specific scenes in the film are rather pointless and seem to only serve to pad out the length, as neither of them serves any real purpose in the story at all nor even explores 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.
8. 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 has somehow returned to normal without any explanation why.
9. 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 set at a rather "normal" speed, but at various points, its pace is slowed down due to filler and rather failed attempts at humor.
10. 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.
11. False advertising:
    • In some posters, it heavily advertise Scrat in space and him wearing a spacesuit, but in the actual 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 the film and even then aren't even given proper screen time and characterization.
    • The back of the Blu-ray and DVD calls it the best Ice Age movie when it's really not.
12. 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.
13. The use of the aforementioned "forgotten anniversary" cliché feels rather forced, and it is supposed to set up something so important when it comes to Manny and Ellie, but its payoff — during their reflection on themselves raising Peaches and coming to terms with her future — ends up being not too satisfying nor important.
    • The use of the "liar revealed" cliché runs into a similar issue, 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 real major way whatsoever.
14. 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. Say what you will about the fourth film, but at least Diego and Shira's romance sub-plot was well-written and natural, thus creating great chemistry between the two, despite it being pointless to the main plot of that movie.
15. It shares the problem of the previous four films 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.
16. Extremely cheesy dialogue, particularly the "That, however, is a turd!" line from Buck.
17. 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.
18. John Debney's soundtrack, despite being decent, is the weakest in the franchise, being inferior to that of the previous four movies by David Newman (Ice Age) and John Powell (The Meltdown, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and Continental Drift).
19. In a similar manner to how Seed of Chucky, Shrek the Third, Cars 2, Minions, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales negatively affected their respective franchises, this film heavily damaged the reputation of both the Ice Age franchise and Blue Sky Studios. As solidified Blue Sky's reputation as a studio that was unable to let go of the Ice Age franchise due to how much money the films made them. And this resulted in the company as a whole becoming widely unable to be taken seriously as a major animation studio by a large number of people (as great as the studio truly was despite a large amount of Ice Age films they made).

Redeeming Qualities

1. The animation, alongside the visuals, are beautiful to look at and is an improvement from the previous four Ice Age movies, despite the overuse of disgustingly purple color filters throughout the film and the movement being too fast in certain scenes.
2. Decent voice acting, partly due to most of the cast returning to reprise their roles. Even the new cast, Adam DeVine, Stephanie Beatriz, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Max Greenfield, Jessie J, and Nick Offerman were decent choices.
3. Peaches, Diego and Shira are the only likeable characters in this movie, along with Brooke and Teddy who, while poorly written, are tolerable compared to everyone else. While Peaches' storyline with Julian do revolve around clichés, all she intends to do is to survive the incoming asteroid and live her happily married life with him; a far better motivation than the rest of the other characters, even if it causes her to get a little annoying at times. Peaches is also significantly more mature here than she was in the previous film. She is also right about Manny and Ellie's attitude, since she is already an adult and she decides what to do with her life.
   • Roger, while annoying, at least has some common sense, unlike his father and sister.
4. Even though it was poorly executed, Sid finding a love interest is a pretty good concept, especially how nobody in his biological family, but Granny loved or even cared about him, and this could have been his chance to start a better family himself.
5. Decent soundtrack from John Debney, despite being the weakest in the franchise, as stated before.
6. The "Figaro" sequence is very enjoyable.
7. 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.
8. Like in the previous four movies, the designs for all the characters are incredibly beautiful to look at.
9. There are some emotional scenes in the film, particularly the one with Manny and Julian struggling to get the biggest crystal to land into the volcano and they allow it to roll into a said volcano on its own. As well as the scene where Manny and Ellie, believing that all hope to save the Earth from the meteor was gone, reflect on the life they've spent together, and how they wish Peaches could've lived a life like that with Julian.

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 derailment while praising its animation and John Debney's musical score. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 18% based on 118 reviews and an average rating of 4.15/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "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.". Rotten Tomatoes also ranks Collision Course as the worst-reviewed of all the five films in the Ice Age franchise. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100 based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. The film has a rating of 5.7/10 on IMDb.

Box Office

The film, while still technically a hit at the box office, made nowhere as much as the previous films did. It grossed far less than its predecessor Continental Drift did by a large margin. It grossed 408.6 million dollars at the box office, and while it's still very successful, it was nowhere as much as the previous film did. Not helping that it didn't meet Fox's expectations of the box office record they were hoping for the film to make, thus it caused the film to be a box office disappointment, which was a low sign for the series. It caused the franchise to nearly go on a hiatus for 6 years and ended up being a major factor to Blue Sky's closure in 2021, likely as a result of the film's underwhelming performance at the box office for the franchise's standards.

Trivia

• A spin-off titled The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, focusing on the characters Buck, Crash, and Eddie, was released for Disney+.

External links

• Ice Age: Collision Course at the Internet Movie Database
• Ice Age: Collision Course on Rotten Tomatoes
• Ice Age: Collision Course on Metacritic

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