Ice Age: Collision Course – a movie review by Roz Tarszisz
When my favourite plus1 was not available for a preview of the fifth outing of this animated anthropomorphic franchise, I took a friend and her grandson. I need a little tacker for feedback.
He’s only four and there was an expectation that he wouldn’t last very long. Did he get it? Well not really, but there was enough funny bits, cute animals and explosions to keep him still and quiet to the end.
I liked the original and this is more of the same. The gang of disparate mammals are all there plus a few new characters. Peaches (Keke Palmer), the spunky daughter of Manfred the mammoth (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah,) is engaged to Julian (Adam DeVine) a sweet dude who tries hard, without much success, to impress his future father-in-law.
Sabre tooth tiger Diego (Dennis Leary) has mellowed somewhat and he and partner Shira (Jennifer Lopez) are thinking of starting a family.
In the original film there was a scene in a museum with a spacecraft encased in ice and it’s this conceit that provides the story setup. Scrat, still chasing his giant acorn, finds and locks himself in a spaceship which has been hidden in ice. In his constant and single-minded pursuit of the acorn, he manages to set off a cosmic disaster of flying asteroids and exploding planets.
On the ground, skinny one-eyed Buck (Simon Pegg) works out how to divert the incoming giant asteroid – it’s complicated– and the gang have only a short time get to the estimated and distant crash site to achieve this monumental task or lose their planet. Along the way, Sid (John Leguizamo) finally finds his true love.
It is clever and funny but probably too complicated for very young children. There’s no villain, just an approaching vast mass of magnetic matter. Sure there are three large birds following the troupe who are bent on revenging themselves on Buck but one of them is a vegetarian pacifist. So that kinda balances out the evil intent.
The message is clear. Let’s all work together to save our world from disappearing. With non-stop action and sophisticated concepts, it might work best for children 5+.
3.5/5 2016 Rated PG 94 mins Released June 23
Starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez
Directed by Mike Thurmeier, Co-Director Galen T. Chu
Written by Michael Berg, Yoni Brenner, Aubrey Solomon, Michael J. Wilson
