Ice Age, made by Blue Skies Studios is in some regards comparable to Carl Douglas. This artist scored a hit in 1974 with the song Kung Fu Fighting. After that he kept making songs with the same theme, hoping he would be able to have the same success as he had with the original. A couple of years ago I saw a documentary where he was saying he was making a new remix, still trying to make money on that one good idea he once had during pop history. When you look at Ice Age, the first movie was successful both financially as critically. And although the sequels still made enough money, the scores on Rotten Tomatoes tell another story how critics received it. The original had a score of 77%, but the sequels that followed scored 57%, 45% and 37%. Of course Blue Skies has made other movies besides Ice Age (Rio, Epic and the Peanuts movie), but would it be better that the studio faces reality and let these prehistoric animals go extinct?
The characters from the previous parts all return and this time the earth is threatened by a fast approaching meteorite. They have to think of a plan in order to stop it. Mammoth Manny also has to deal with his daughter´s boyfriend and Sid is still looking for a new love.
But there is one character everyone is always looking forward to in these films (because he is the best thing about them): Scrat. I was really looking forward to the short bits where we see this rat-like animal go after his favorite food. Unfortunately Blue Skies has decided to use all the footage from a short they have already released, Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe, and sprinkle it throughout the film adding little to nothing new starring the character.
The only thing that remains is the story about stopping the meteorite and that is anything but suspenseful or logical. There isn’t a moment where you get a sense of the characters being in real danger. The solution for their issue is also something they just happen to run into. For kids there are enough fart jokes to get them to laugh, but as a parent it is a real challenge to sit through. With a score of only 18% on Rotten Tomatoes this is the worst Ice Age movie in the series and if would have been better if they hadn’t been able to stop the meteorite. Maybe then I might have felt some emotion (probably joy though). Blue Skies Studios, think of Carl Douglas and stick to making something new instead of trying to keep this franchise alive.
The first one was kind of cute, but each successive sequel I’ve had less and less interest. Hopefully, this closes out the franchise.