Ice Age (film series)

ICE AGE (U)

D: Chris Wedge & Carlos Saldanha

20th Century Fox/Blue Sky (Lori Forte)

US 2002

81 mins

Animated

W: Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson & Peter Ackerman

Mus: David Newman

voices of: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Goran Visnijc (Soto), Jack Black (Zeke), Diedrich Bader (Oscar)

During the prehistoric ice age, a woolly mammoth, a sloth and a sabre-toothed tiger become friends and aim to return an infant child back to its tribe. Meanwhile, a squirrel is on it's own quest to find some nuts.

The filmmakers did a good job with this, keeping it fun for kids (and, of course, adults who are kids-at-heart) when they could have taken the ecological sermon route. The subplot involving the squirrel is the main comic relief and the animation is as good as can be expected.

6/10

ICE AGE 2: THE MELTDOWN (U)

D: Carlos Saldanha

20th Century Fox/Blue Sky (Lori Forte)

US 2006

90 mins

Animated

W: Peter Gaulke, Gerry Swallow & Jim Hecht

Mus: John Powell

voices of: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Seann William Scott (Crash), Josh Peck (Eddie), Queen Latifah (Ellie)

The main storyline in this first sequel to Ice Age gets a little annoying at times, as Manny the Mammoth discovers a female of his species- the problem is that she thinks she's a meerkat, and is hesitant to leave her 'family' when the ice shelves begin to break due to a warming climate.

Scrat returns as the nut-seeking squirrel, and once again provides the film's much funnier moments.

6/10

ICE AGE 3: DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS (U)

D: Carlos Saldanha & Mike Thurmeier

20th Century Fox/Blue Sky (Lori Forte & John C. Donkin)

US 2009

94 mins

Animated

W: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss & Yoni Brenner

Mus: John Powell

voices of: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Queen Latifah (Ellie), Seann William Scott (Crash), Josh Peck (Eddie), Simon Pegg (Buck)

Clearly dinosaurs make an appearance in this Ice Age adventure, which isn't anywhere near as fun as the previous two movies (mostly because Scrat the Squirrel doesn't feature as heavily).

Enjoyable enough for youngsters, but a little on the annoying side for an older audience, especially with the addition of a new character (voiced by Simon Pegg).

5/10

ICE AGE 4: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (U)

D: Steve Martino & Mike Thurmeier

20th Century Fox/Blue Sky (Lori Forte & John C. Donkin)

US 2012

88 mins

Animated

W: Michael Berg & Jason Fuchs

Mus: John Powell

voices of: Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Queen Latifah (Ellie), Jennifer Lopez (Shira), Nicki Minaj (Steffie), Drake (Ethan)

Although ecologically-aware themes were only on the periphery of the first three movies, the theme is completely cast aside for this fourth Ice Age movie, easily the weakest of the franchise, as it seems happy to settle on being a pirate movie. Kids will love it, but with each film in the series, the interest for adults will wane.

Personally, I could watch the adventures of Scrat, the nut-seeking squirrel for ages and am secretly demanding a "Scrat: The Movie". All the Ice Age movies would be far less entertaining if it weren't for his shenanigans.

It also has to be mentioned that the closing credit song in this film contains possibly the worst use of autotune ever. It may actually want you to tear your ears off!

Dear Ice Age producers, put the mammoth, sloth and sabre-tooth tiger out to pasture and give us a full-length squirrel movie!

4/10

ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE (U)

D: Mike Thurmeier

20th Century Fox/Blue Sky (Lori Forte)

US 2016

94 mins

Animated

W: Michael J. Wilson, Michael Berg & Yoni Brenner

Mus: John Debney

Ray Romano (Manny), John Leguizamo (Sid), Denis Leary (Diego), Simon Pegg (Buck), Adam DeVine (Julian), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Shangri Llama)

It may well be time for 20th Century Fox animation studios to give up on this. It's clear that all avenues have been exhausted when this fifth Ice Age movie opens with Scrat the Squirrel finding a spaceship and launching himself into outer space, subsequently creating the Big Bang (don't think about it too much, the writers obviously didn't.)

The opening mischief sets up a domino effect, causing a deadly meteor to career towards planet Earth, and it's down to Manny the Mammoth and his chums to stop it.

The horse is being well and truly flogged here. There isn't even any ice in this movie. Even the target audience of the under-sixes might become restless by this one. Unfortunately, it was a hit at the box office, so it's likely that a sixth will be scraped from the barrel. Some things really need to be extinct at this point.

3/10