Ice Age (franchise)
Background Information
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| Ice Age film series | |
|---|---|
|
Ice Age Collection R2 DVD set with all three films |
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| Directed by | Carlos Saldanha Chris Wedge (Ice Age) |
| Produced by | John C. Donkin Lori Forte Chris Wedge |
| Written by | Michael J. Wilson (story, screenplay, Ice Age) Ice Age\Dawn of the Dinosaurs Michael Berg Peter Ackerman The Meltdown Peter Gaulke Jim Hecht Gerry Swallow (also story) Dawn of the Dinosaurs Mike Reiss Yoni Brenner Jason Carter Eaton (story) Gerry Swallow |
| Starring | Ray Romano John Leguizamo Denis Leary Chris Wedge Queen Latifah Sean William Scott Josh Peck |
| Music by | David Newman (Ice Age) John Powell (2 and 3) |
| Studio | Blue Sky Studios |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | March 15, 2002 — present |
| Running time | 265 minutes |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $229 million |
| Box office | $1,917,447,945 |
Ice Age is a series of animated films produced by Blue Sky Studios, a division of 20th Century Fox, and featuring the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, and Chris Wedge. Three films have been released in the series thus far, which follow a group of mammals surviving the Paleolithic ice age. In January 2010, Blue Sky Studio stated that it was working on a fourth film, and was in negotiations with the voice cast.
Films
Ice Age (2002)
Sid, a sloth who never stops talking is left behind sleeping while everyone else begins the journey to the south. Awaking, he meets Manny, a mammoth who travels to the north, and decides to follow him. When a humans camp is attacked by tigers, a woman takes her baby and jumps into a river and falls off a waterfall. Before she disappears, the baby is rescued by Manny and Sid. The two animals decide to search for the father and return the baby to him. Diego, one of the tigers that attacked the humans, comes also claiming the baby.
Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Manny, Sid, and Diego are currently living in a large valley surrounded by an enormously high ice wall on all sides. When a water park begins to form, the trio discovers that the ice wall is actually a wall that is barely holding a massive body of water that could flood the valley to nearly a mile underwater. A vulture tells them that there is a boat at the other end of the valley that may save them all, but they only have 3 days to make it or die. Manny is having trouble facing the fact that he may be the last mammoth left. Along the way, they meet Ellie, a mammoth who thinks she is a possum, and her possum brothers Crash and Eddie. As they begin to travel together, Manny learns, with help from Diego and Sid, that having this new mammoth with them, may not be as bad as Manny makes it out to be while they try to escape the oncoming and continually threatening flood. During their journey, Scrat the sabre-toothed squirrel has his own adventures that eventually leads to something else entirely.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)
Life begins to change for Manny and his friends: Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid becomes jealous of Manny and Ellie and begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with an insane one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently.
Future
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)
A fourth film was announced by Twentieth Century Fox on May 5, 2010 with the tentative title Ice Age: Continental Drift. It is scheduled to be released in 3D on July 13, 2012.
Short films
Blue Sky also produced four short films set on the Ice Age world, mostly focused on Scrat.
- Gone Nutty (2002, directed by Carlos Saldanha): originally released on the Ice Age DVD.
- No Time for Nuts (2006, directed by Chris Renaud and Mike Thurmeier): originally released on the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown DVD
- Surviving Sid (2008, directed by Galen Tan Chu and Karen Disher): originally released on the Horton Hears a Who! DVD.
- Scrat's Continental Crack-up (2010, directed by Steve Martino and Mike Thurmeier): originally released before Gulliver's Travels in theaters.
Cast and characters
- Manny, the Woolly Mammoth.
- Sid, the Megalonyx, a giant ground sloth.
- Diego, the Smilodon.
- Ellie, the mammoth.
- Crash and Eddie. the Opossums.
- Scrat, a sabertooth Squirrel.
- Scratte, a female sabertooth squirrel, both Scrat's love interest and rival.
- Buck, the Weasel, helps the gang along their journey in the third film.
- Peaches, Manny and Ellie's daughter, born in the third film.
| Character | Ice Age films and shorts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice Age ( 2002) | Gone Nutty ( 2002) | The Meltdown ( 2006) | No Time for Nuts ( 2006) | Surviving Sid ( 2008) | Dawn of the Dinosaurs ( 2009) | Scrat's Continental Crack-up ( 2010) | Continental Drift ( 2012) | |
| Manny | Ray Romano | Ray Romano | no voice actor | Ray Romano | Ray Romano | |||
| Sid | John Leguizamo | John Leguizamo | no voice actor | John Leguizamo | John Leguizamo | |||
| Diego | Denis Leary | Denis Leary | no voice actor | Denis Leary | Denis Leary | |||
| Scrat | Chris Wedge | |||||||
| Ellie | Queen Latifah | Queen Latifah | Queen Latifah | |||||
| Crash | Sean William Scott | Sean William Scott | Sean William Scott | |||||
| Eddie | Josh Peck | Josh Peck | Josh Peck | |||||
| Buck | Simon Pegg | |||||||
| Scratte | Karen Disher | |||||||
| Peaches | no voice actress | TBA | ||||||
Reception
Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Budget | Reference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Foreign | Worldwide | All time domestic | All time worldwide | ||||
| Ice Age | March 15, 2002 | $176,387,405 | $206,869,731 | $383,257,136 | #133 | #125 | $59,000,000 | |
| Ice Age: The Meltdown | March 31, 2006 | $195,330,621 | $460,057,537 | $655,388,158 | #102 | #36 | $80,000,000 | |
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | July 1, 2009 | $196,573,705 | $690,112,575 | $886,686,280 | #101 | #15 | $90,000,000 | |
| Total | $568,291,731 | $1,357,039,843 | $1,925,331,574 | $229,000,000 | ||||
Critical reaction
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Yahoo! Movies | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | Cream of the Crop | |||
| Ice Age | 77% (163 reviews) | 82% (11 reviews) | 60% (31 reviews) | B- (9 reviews) |
| Ice Age: The Meltdown | 58% (142 reviews) | 57% (7 reviews) | 58% (29 reviews) | B- (14 reviews) |
| Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | 45% (146 reviews) | 64% (11 reviews) | 50% (25 reviews) | C (13 reviews) |
Video games
A Game Boy Advance game by Ubisoft released as a tie in for the first film. In 2006, Sierra Entertainment released a video game based upon the second film for Wii, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Xbox, and PC. Dawn of the Dinosaurs was made into a video game by Activision released June 30, 2009 for the seventh generation systems (Wii, DS, PlayStation 3, PSP, and Xbox 360) besides the PS2 and PC. Video games allows characters to play as Manny (all games), Sid (all games), Diego (all games), Scrat (second and third movie game), Scratte (debut in third movie game), and Buck (debut in third movie game).
