Ice Age

[James]

Going to the theatre this weekend and trying to decide between Ice Age 5 and something else? Let me save you some money and aggravation. See something else!

Review coming soon.

[EricJ]

Well, Ice Age is the Warcraft of CGI comedies--They stopped making them for the US audience, what, three sequels ago?

[James]

Review up:

http://animatedviews.com/2016/ice-age-c ... urse-film/

Well, Ice Age is the Warcraft of CGI comedies--They stopped making them for the US audience, what, three sequels ago?

I'm assuming they stopped making them for the over-preschool-age audience at this point!

[Dacey]

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it here, but the original Ice Age became one of my favorite movies of all time as a teenager, and I developed a profound emotional connection to it. If I had heard at the time that there would be four sequels in my future, I almost certainly would've been ecstatic.

Too bad the best of the sequels they've made so far is easily the one with the dinosaurs (which was, to be fair, genuinely fun!). I will see this entry eventually, but with so much other stuff playing right now, it will probably be on disc.

[Bill1978]

I haven't seen it yet, but my friend took her 6 year old to see it. She said that he absolutely loved it, but she was really disappointed in it. She said, this may sound silly based on previous movies but she felt #5 was realistic enough and thus was just too silly. I kinda checked out of Ice Age with the last one due to the inclusion of pirates and ships.

My main issue with the sequels is that the world is presented as a Zootopian world, a world without humans. Even though the first one made it clear humans existed. I keep hoping with every sequel that the little baby will make some sort of appearance even if it is a random one. I will see this one, eventually, but my expectations will be super low. And I hope they do not go down the path of a 5th sequel like the news has mentioned.

[EricJ]

My main issue with the sequels is that the world is presented as a Zootopian world, a world without humans. Even though the first one made it clear humans existed. I keep hoping with every sequel that the little baby will make some sort of appearance even if it is a random one. I will see this one, eventually, but my expectations will be super low.

As discussed earlier, think the sentimental "baby" story thread was the cute-kid aspect Chris Meledandri took with him to Universal. That's why everyone loves the first one, and the others....not so much. (And why the "Studio that brought you Ice Age!" isn't, anymore.)
Now Fox is just stuck with their foreign-appeal piece of the wisecracking-sitcom-animal pie, fueled by audience's demand for More Scrat Shorts, which of course are mandatory previews to the next sequel story.

And I hope they do not go down the path of a 5th sequel like the news has mentioned.

Lately, with Franchises (and house-brand franchises at that, seeing as Fox hangs its entire animated shingle on Ice Age) being at such a priority, some have been suspecting that all the "Talks of a sequel in the works!" before any movie's big opening lately is a deliberate ploy to try and stake their "validated" claim on a franchise strategy before the audience even has their say--
Like the Justice League movie at Warner, or Fox teasing one more X-Men, they want to get the discussions of "Sequel in the works" established in industry/press discussion as such a pre-accepted fact, it almost overrules any discussion of whether US or even worldwide box office deserved it--"It's in the works, so there!"

Sony's Ghostbusters started the "Sequel and Sony tie-in" talk even before the movie opened hoping we'd be fooled, and...we weren't.

[Ben]

I really liked the first Ice Age too, and think I wrote a fairly positive review of Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, Dacey, even though the franchise had pretty much gone off track even by that third film.

I don't think there's going to be a sixth film. Even with international numbers they'll be hard pushed to make the figures work, unless they can churn out a stripped back "final adventure" at a lower budget just to wring the last few pennies out of the series.

[Daniel]

Batu Sener scoring Adventures of Buck Wild.

[Ben]

So Blue Sky/Ice Age lives!?

Strange they would complete this and not the 75% finished Nimona, especially as there’s been little/no mention of anything other than Spies In Disguise as their last film…

[Dacey]

Maybe Blue Sky doesn’t have anything to do with it? Kind of like how Pixar has nothing to do with the current Monsters series?

[Daniel]

Pixar was involved in a small way.

[Ben]

So I just read that whole article to see how Pixar was involved in the new Ice Age film. And then I realised that Dan was answering Dacey's point on Monsters. Hey! It’s near 2am here and I’m drifting off…give me a break!

[Daniel]

Teaser trailer for The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild:



Looks poorly, but hey more Buck!

[Ben]

So Blue Sky/Ice Age lives!?

Strange they would complete this and not the 75% finished Nimona, especially as there’s been little/no mention of anything other than Spies In Disguise as their last film…

I’m still lost over this.

This last Ice Age was animated, but not finished. That post work was completed in the past few months, likely at either the skeletal bones of what was left of Blue Sky, or at another Disney facility. Sounds like it was mostly sound effects and mixing work was done, so likely Buena Vista Sound.

They obviously didn’t want to go theatrical with it — not even an early Feb "home video" slot — so the drop to D+ in almost the same timeframe is a slight ignominious end to the studio, even if there’s *some* poignancy in ending with a final Ice Age outing.

[James]

D+ is an insatiable monster that must be fed content! And if Disney can get an entire film from a popular franchise and just have to pay a fraction of the cost of starting from scratch, seems like a no brainer from their pov.