The Ice Age franchise, despite being one of the most financially successful animated film series, has recieved mixed to negative reviews with each passing film. Specifically, while the first film recieved positive reviews from critics and audiences, the reactions to the sequels were mixed at best with the last film getting the most negative reviews in the franchise. Having rewatched all the films not so long ago, I find myself in the minority that find genuine enjoyment out of these film and think they have some merit to them. In this post, I'd like to explain why I like the Ice Age sequels despite their reputation.
The most common complaint regarding the Ice Age sequels is that they rely more on comedy than telling a story. This is understandable as the best moments from all the Ice Age films, including the first one, were the comedic ones. This is especially true with the character of Scrat, who is always a riot because he just can't keep hold of that one nut. The filmmakers knew that these films make the audiences laugh and kept coming back for the comedy aspect. This is not to say that the films don't have stories to tell though as each film continues the ongoing journey of Manny, Sid and Diego.
The Meltdown is about the herd treking to a boat when they see that the ice is melting and could flood the entire valley. Along the way, they encounter Ellie, a mammoth who believes she's a opposum. I think The Meltdown is the best of the sequels and is of similar quality to the first. In addition to being very funny, there are also moments where the visuals speak for themselves. I also really like the character of Ellie and just how fun and sassy she is. Crash and Eddie made for a funny duo and Sean William Scott and Josh Peck do great work voicing them.
Dawn Of The Dinosaurs follows up The Meltdown by focusing on Manny wanting to make sure everything is safe for his soon to be born child. In the midst of this, Sid adopts 3 baby T-Rexs and is promptly kidnapped by their Mom. Now Manny and the rest of the herd have to save him while treking through the dinosaur work with their weasel guide, Buck. This film is kinda underrated IMO because of who understandable Manny's motivation for wanting his unborn child to be safe. If you recall ftom the first movie je lost his family once and he's not risking that again. It's also no secret that Buck is the MVP of the entire franchise next to Scrat. He's wild, fun, a bit of a loon, but a master survivalist; and Simon Peg gives a magnificent performance of this character.
Continental Drift is about Manny, Sid, and Diego treking to reunite with Ellie and Peaches (who's now a teenager) after a powerful earthquake separates them. Along the way, the trio encounter pirates who are nothing but trouble. I like how the filmmakers decided to have pirate be the antagonists of the film as this just make the journey Manny, Sid and Diego have to go through more perilous. I also like Sid's Granny (played by the brilliant Wanda Sykes) and just how sassy she is.
Collision Course finds the herd treking to a volcano to redirect an oncoming comet that could bring them to extinction. All the while, Manny has to cope with the fact that his daughter is getting married and could potentially move away. I like how Manny and Ellie are still concerned for their daughter's well being and the filmmakers made a great decision in bringing Buck back. I also really enjoyed the Shangri-Llama and just how loose and bouncey he is.
One element that many people agree about these films is that there's a noticeable upgrade in quality when it comes to the animation. The team at Blue Sky Studios always strived to improve their animation quality with each passing film. Each film explores new environments for our characters to go through and many of them are gorgeously rendered and feel lived in. The dinosaur underground in DawnoOf The Dinosaurs looks amazing and feels like a luscious land full of towering dinosaurs. The character animation also became looser as the filmmakers doubled down on slapstick and visual gags. In addition to that, the textures of the characters looked more real and flowed more naturally.
The characters themselves grow and change with each passing film, yet are still as fun and as entertaining as they were when we first met them. Manny has becoming more willing to interact with others and his past trauma has effected how he acts as a father to Peaches. While many grew tired of Sid's antics with each film, I found myself always laughing at him because he tries so hard to belong and be respected because his own family doesn't respect or care about him. Truthfully underneath his silly and inept exterior is a very lonely sloth who just wants companionship. Diego, once a ruthless predator, now serves as a good ally who's always got his friend's back. His arc in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs felt natural and had a satisfying payoff in the end. Ellie went from being a mammoth who believed she was a opposum to a great wife for Manny and a good mother for Peaches.
Another element that I don't think is talked about enough is how good the voice acting is. Each of the actors give very good performances and have at least one moment in each film to truly shine. Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary all still do wonderful jobs voicing Manny, Sid and Diego respective. I like how Manny slowly looses his depand tone and becomes more eccentric, showing that he's not as depressed as he was in the first film. Sid squealing like a girl always has me in stitches and the tribal sloth number from The Meltdown is still one of my favorite scenes in the series. Diego leaving was handled brilliantly and he sounded both sad and sincere. I think Queen Latifah was perfect as Ellie, as she brought the right amount of sass and nuance to the character while also giving her some genuinely funny moments. Her shouting "Yabba-Dabba-Do!" as she rides down a branchiosaurus in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs gets a laugh out of me every time. Major credit should also go to the first film's director and Blue Sky's co-founder Chris Wedge for voicing Scrat. He's a real trooper having to scream and yell in the recording booth for hours voicing this character and none of them were in vain. KeKe Palmer did a really good job voicing Peaches, making her sound sassy like her Mom but also resourceful and fun. Peter Dinklage gave a stellar performance as Captain Gutt, making him sound charsmatic, intimidating and firece.
All that said though, there are a few elements about the sequels that I don't think quite worked. I found Cretaceous and Maelstrom (the antagonists from The Meltdown) to be serviceable predators but not particularly interesting villains. The most interesting things about them are their names and designs, but they were never referred to by names in film nor did they even talk. While I like all the Scrat segments in these movies, I thing the stall the pacing in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs. Had they been removed, I thing more time could've benefited Sid's arc in the film. Did anyone else find it jarring that Peaches went from a baby at the end of Dawn Of The Dinosaurs to a teenager at the start of Continental Drift? I feel like we missed an entire movie focusing on Manny being protective of his daughter when she was still a child. Then there's the character of Louis, a molehog who has a crush on Peaches but is friendzoned for most of Continental Drift. He had a good arc in that film and was generally a likable character. Yet Collision Course did him dirty by reducing him to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it background cameo. Why? Maybe Josh Gad (who voiced Louis) chose not to return or the filmmakers thought it wouldn't feel right if Peaches ended up with someone outside her own species. I disagree with the latter strongly because if a mammoth can be raised by opposums, why can't a mammoth and molehog be a couple. Also, I found the dinobirds to be serviceable, but not as interesting as the main cast. The most egregious problem I have with the sequels though is that the humans are nowhere to be found. Why? Well apparently the filmmakers were going to reintroduce the humans in one of these films, but that never happened because they didn't serve a purpose to the story. It's unfortunate, but I still think it was a missed opportunity to have Manny, Sid and Diego reunite with the baby from the first movie now all grown up. Other factors I didn't think wrked that well include Crash and Eddie not developing as characters, Sid's family being the absolute worst (I know that's the point, but still), Julian just appearing in the last film already in a good relationship with Peaches.
Despite their faults, I still enjoy the Ice Age films as a whole. They're all wonderfully animated, funny and engaging films with fun characters and excellent voice work. I think these films, like the first, are fun for the whole family to enjoy and I expected nothing less from these films. It's unstandable these films aren't for everyone, but I still have fun watching them nonetheless.
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