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Ice Age (franchise)

Related subjects: Films

Background Information

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Ice Age film series

Ice Age Collection R2 DVD set with all three films
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).

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