ICE AGE – COLLISION COURSE (USA 2016) **

Review by Gilbert Seah

Saving the world is a common theme in action hero and animated movies these days. The same is applied in the latest and 5th instalment of the ICE AGE franchise, appropriately called ICE AGE – COLLISION COURSE as the planet is about to be destroyed by asteroids, according to the reading of the pillar by Buck (Simon Pegg).

The film has its signature ice age segment of Scrat (Chris Wedge) chasing his runaway acorn which somehow always gets away. It’s a mostly silent segment and has grown in popularity just as Beep Beep and the Coyote are now famous in the Looney Tunes world. Popular as they are, these antics grow tiresome. I am not a fan of either Beep Beep or Scrat’s acorn antics. In ICE AGE COLLISION, the antics lead to an almost destruction of the planet by an steroid, unless the hero can save the world.

The story goes on like this. While trying to bury his acorn, Scrat accidentally activates an abandoned alien ship that takes him into deep space, where he unwillingly sends several asteroids en route of collision with Earth. Not very original a premise of an alien ship hidden in the Arctic or Antarctic! Meanwhile on the planet Earth, Manny (Ray Romano) is worried about the upcoming marriage between Peaches (Keke Palmer) and her fiancé, Julian (Adam Devine), while Sid (Joh Leguizamo) is dumped by his girlfriend, Francine (Melissa Rauch), just as he is about to propose to her. During Manny and Ellie’s (Queen Latifah) wedding anniversary party, some of the asteroids strike the place and the herd barely escape with their lives. Meanwhile at the underground cavern, after stealing a dinosaur egg from a trio of Dromaeosaurs, Buck discovers an ancient stone pillar, which he takes to the surface, where he meets Manny and the others.

The story is nothing really original nor does it contain a lot of comedic potential. What follows is a rather lame series of mildly funny at best, incidents that lead to a climax that is also not particularly exciting.

Actors from the other ICE AGES movies, Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Keke Palmer, Jennifer Lopez, Simon Pegg and Chris Wedge all reprise their roles while new additions Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adam DeVine, Nick Offerman, Max Greenfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Rauch, Carlos Ponce, Michael Strahan, Jessie J and Neil deGrasse attempt to breathe new life into the franchise.

The film is again directed by Canadian Mike Thurmeier of Blue Sky Studios, who did a few of the other ICE AGES films.

The ICE AGE series were never that funny or inventive compared to other animated series like SHREK, TOY STORY or MONSTERS INC. But they somehow found themselves into the hearts of many, which has resulted in a total of 5 films. I am hoping this will be the last as the series. Scrat chasing his and his acorn has become terribly tedious.

Costing a frugal $50 million to make compared to other more expensive animated features, there should be enough ICE AGE followers for Fox Studios to make their money back. Hopefully, Blue Sky Studios will come up with more original animation as their next project.

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