Blog:Ice Age franchise review

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As a tribute to Blue Sky Studios, I will be reviewing the first five Ice Age films including this one. The very, very first one. Ice Age. Released in March 2022 (with the film being 20 years old), this film was the first Ice Age film and Blue Sky Studios' first feature film, which the studio would later go on to produce 12 more films before their unfortunate closure in April 2021. They even had a project in development at that time named Nimona which got cancelled due to the closure but thankfully, Netflix saved the film and now it’ll be released on the streaming platform in 2023. Still excited for that. Anyways, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah this film. The Ice Age franchise has been infamous for its mixed and negative reception starting with the second film. Many people believe the downfall of Ice Age started with the fourth movie and it got worse with the fifth movie. Let's review the franchise!

Ice Age (2002)
Starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary as an mammoth, sloth, and saber-tooth tiger, this film received positive reviews and was also a box-office success. So anyways, enough with small talk. The film was originally gonna be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman of All Dogs Go to Heaven and The Land Before Time fame as an 2D animated film but that did not come to the light. Let's do an review of Ice Age.

Ice Age's story revolves in the era of the Ice Age (cuz of the films title) and revolves around Manny, an mammoth who meets Sid, a dim-witted but friendly sloth. Manny and Sid come into an mother and her baby (which the mother presumably dies?) and now it's up to Manny and Sid to take the baby back to its home. They also come across a saber-toothed tiger named Diego, who helps them on their mission. But what Manny and Sid don't know that Diego is also on an mission…to capture the baby! In the third act of the film, Diego tells the duo the truth about him and they team up to stop Diego's team of tigers, killing one in the process. Diego is badly injured and dies because of this…or does he? Manny and Sid return the baby to the father and his tribe and Diego is revealed to be arrive cuz, ya know. CATS HAVE NINE LIVES! The trio then go off into the unknown for new adventures in five new movies.

The animation of Ice Age was decent enough. If you saw this in theaters in 2002, then you’ve might’ve thought that the animation was good-looking, but over the years as you watch the later movies, you’ll see that the animation definitely didn't age well. Ha! Get it? Age? Cuz the film is called Ice Age? Yeah, I'm not funny, I know. Anyways, You can't blame Blue Sky for this animation because this was their first theatrical film. I get it. But this is widely common with first films of popular animated franchises, such as Hotel Transylvania, which is the only example I sadly know.

The comedy of Ice Age is quite brilliant actually. I liked it. The writing is also very good, taking place before the technology era and after the era of the dinosaurs. I liked that one joke where a dodo bird said: "There goes our last female…", I don't know why, but that line was so hilarious that I laughed for a straight minute. Many comedy scenes are also nice, most notably with the Scrat scenes. Scrat and his acorn was the reason why 50% of this movie was comedic, hilarious, and amazing. The other 50% were the voice acting, comedy, and animation. The dodos bird scene was hilarious too.

Overall, Ice Age was a good, hilarious, and sad film which did so well at the box-office that it got renewed for five movies. One of which were not made by Blue Sky but by Disney, who would later own Blue Sky by owning 20th Century Fox, the owners of Blue Sky and Disney were also the ones who closed Blue Sky. Ice Age, I'll give it an 7/10.

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Many people, notably the critics, consider The Meltdown to be the start of the Ice Age franchise's mixed and negative reception. This movie also had a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes. But I liked this film too. The animation is in fact an improvement over the first one. Nonetheless, let's gets into Ice Age: The Meltdown, released in 2006.

Ice Age 2's story revolves around Manny, Sid, and Diego living perfect lives. An short subplot in this movie is about Sid feels like he isn't getting respect, even though he founded the herd. After finding out that the ice wall holds several layers of water that can get out and cause a flood because of global warming. The trio evacuate the animals and soon after, they meet another mammoth (which is surprising for Manny and the others since he was believed to be the final mammoth on Earth). That mammoth is named Ellie and her two possum brothers Crash and Eddie, who before, had annoyed Sid and Diego. However, Ellie thinks that she is a possum too and Sid invites them to come with them to survive the flood. There’s also another subplot involving Scrat and his acorn several times in this movie. Soon after an incident, Sid is captured by an tribe of sloths, believing him to be their "fire king”. And everything that Sid does, they do too! But the problem is, they wanna sacrifice Sid into the lava. However, Sid survives and is able to make it back safely to his friends. Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie, and Crash and Eddie make it to the boat which can save them from the flood but they run into hot geysers. Manny suggests to go forward and Ellie suggests to go back. Both of them disagree with their ideas and they separate. While Scrat tries to get his acorn back, the wall of ice tears open and water splashes everywhere causing a huge tsunami. Ellie gets trapped in a cave and sends Crash and Eddie out of the cave through a tiny hole. The possums go and warn Manny when the flood is getting closer and closer while Ellie is still stuck in the cave. Manny goes to save Ellie from the cave with a log sticking it between a rock in order to push the rock to free Ellie, but Manny is dragged underwater by two sea reptiles which I unfortunately forgot to mention earlier. Manny kills the two reptiles by crushing them with the rock underwater and frees Ellie. However, the flood is still rising and there are no chances of survival…until Scrat saves the day with his acorn by opening a large crack between the ice walls, which Scrat falls while water goes into the ice walls and the flood goes down. Sid meets the sloth tribe again and they suggest that he be their leader. However, after Diego makes an speech about him being a vital part of their herd, he decides to stay. A group of mammoths come out of nowhere, which reveals that Manny and Ellie aren't the last mammoths alive. Ellie, who initally decided to go with the other mammoths, decides to stay with Manny, Sid, and Diego (as well as Crash and Eddie), and their herd just got bigger. The film ends with Scrat in heaven, cuz he apparently drowned in the water. However, he is soon revived by Sid but Scrat is not happy about it and starts beating up Sid because of course, it was an acorn heaven.

The animation for Ice Age 2 was great and was better then the first film. Three years after Ice Age released, Blue Sky then released Robots which was an huge improvement in animation shich is probably why Ice Age 2's animation was better. The details are fabulous and the lighting is more clearer which is definitely two of the main highlights of this film. This is an example of an franchise which shows animation improvement with their second movie, an example being Hotel Transylvania 2 which I sadly do not have anymore examples, again.

Ice Age 2 is very underrated in my opinion and deserves more respect and recognition. It marked the debut of three characters (Ellie, Crash, and Eddie) who would still be in other movies. So that means there are four more movies to go. Ice Age 2 released in theaters worldwide on March 31, 2006 and received mixed reviews from critics but was more successful then the first film. I think this was because of the marketing in this movie. Some marketing had Sid say quotes from FOX TV shows. The only one I notably remember is Sid quoting the first lines of the Family Guy intro. I watched that over a million times. I rate this an 8/10.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
In my opinion, this film is the final good film of this franchise before it really started to rot with the fourth movie, then the fifth, then the sixth (the Buck Wild spin-off). Many people think that Dawn of the Dinosaurs should've ended the franchise, and I totally agree, considering the franchise's reputation of reception. The movie's reception started to get really low despite this being an MASSIVE box office success. This movie is also considered by several fans to be the best film of the franchise. I highly agree with that too. Let's get into Ice Age 3! The final good Ice Age film!

The story around Ice Age 3 involves an important subplot where Scrat tries to get his acorn but several times, is foiled by an female squirrel named Scratte. We then get to our main plot which Manny and Ellie are having a baby. Diego leaves the herd because he isn't meant for family life, he thinks and Sid wishes for a family but has no one. After finding three eggs in an ice cave, he takes the eggs with them, draws faces on them, and names them as his own children. Eventually after some slapstick events, the three eggs hatch the next day and they are revealed to be baby dinos which call Sid their mama. Sid takes them to Manny's forbidden park (which he set up for he and Ellie's baby), which several kids enter and the dinos play messy with them eventually destroying the park. Manny urges Sid to return the baby dinos to wherever he got them from but Sid denies. A large dino comes in and is looking for her kids which Sid has. The dino takes Sid and her three babies while Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie go to rescue Sid, with Manny being very worried because of the baby he and Ellie are going to have. They get chased by an dinosaur in an dino world and reunite with Diego again, who is coincidentally also looking for Sid. They run into an weasel named Buck who knows a lot about the dinosaur world and offers to help them find Sid. Meanwhile, Sid tries to feed the baby dinos vegetables but they deny while the mother T-Rex gives them a turkey which they eat in five seconds. After hearing a roar, the mother T-Rex takes her three babies with her and leaving Sid behind. Sid follows them up to a large cave which the mother T-Rex brings Sid in with her tail. Meanwhile, Buck tells the story of how he lost his eye by a dinosaur named Rudy, and that Rudy's tooth is also his knife that he carries with him throughout the film. Manny then haves an nightmare about Ellie getting attacked by Rudy. Scrat and Scratte dance with each other also fighting over the acorn to which Scratte kicks Scrat in the _ _ _ _ _. Scratte attempts to fly away but Scrat holds on to her, distracting her, which causes her to bump into an edge of a cliff and Scrat grabs onto Scratte and the acorn hanging over the cliff. One hand holding on for dear life, one hand holding his future wife (cuz ya know, Scrat has a kid in 2022), and one foot holding onto the acorn. Scrat stares at the audiences and goes back to the herd leaving the scene on an cliffhanger. HA! Get it? A cliffhanger? Cuz ya know, Scrat is on an cliff and he’s hanging onto the cliff? Get it? The herd goes into an area called Lava Falls. Ellie then goes into labor while a pack of Guanlongs attack them. Diego stays with Ellie, Manny holds off the pack while Crash and Eddie go with Buck on his Harpactognathus flight. Sid runs into Rudy and tries to hide but he ends up on a river of lava. Soon after, Sid is saved by Buck, Crash, and Eddie and the baby is born, being named Peaches. Sid comes back and finds out about the baby's birth. The herd run into Rudy and Buck holds him off while Ellie stays with the baby. The mother T-Rex and her three kids come in and the mother plunges Rudy off a cliff, leaving Rudy presumably dead. The herd exit the jungle and Diego requests for Buck to come with them to grow their herd. Buck agrees to this, but hearing a roar from Rudy (revealing Rudy is still alive), Buck goes back into the jungle. I forgot to mention this but Scrat saves him, Scratte, and the acorn but Scratte and him fall in love, leaving behind the acorn. The endings involves Scrat and Scratte making their new home where Scrat sees the acorn. Scrat goes to the acorn and spins around with it until Scratte catches him. They fight over the acorn again but are launched all the way back up into the ice world. Scrat ends up getting back into the ice world with his acorn leaving Scratte in the dinosaur world but a large block of ice ends up bringing the acorn back down into the dinosaur world. Scrat screams in anger, ending the movie.

The ending of Ice Age 3 was a great ending and again, it should've ended the franchise. I mean, the ending is perfect for a trilogy. Manny and Ellie have a baby, Diego joins the herd again, and everyone is happy, putting the whole dinosaur business behind them. But somebody at Blue Sky or 20th Century Fox decided that due to the success, they convinced Fox and Blue Sky to renew another movie, Ice Age: Continental Drift, which would be released three years later in 2012.