Words cannot express how sad I feel for this franchise, a franchise that I love with all of my heart and set me down the path of becoming a paleontologist (which, didn't work out but I have a bio degree at least). One of the first games I ever completed on the family PS2 was Ice Age 2: The Game, and its DS version was the first DS game I ever played. I remember eating the Kids Cuisine meals themed around the 2nd movie and buying boxes of Post cereal and begging to go to burger king to get the toys in the happy meals. Hell, even as I sit here typing this behind me sits a Manny the Mammoth plush that I bought from a Toys R Us when the 2nd movie was coming out.
I have watched every one of them (save for the 5th one) in theaters, and progressively liked them less and less.
The third one was okay, not a fan of the dinosaur stuff and the fact that they went out of their way to make the dinosaurs even more scientifically inaccurate just raises more questions. I know realism and faithfulness to actual prehistorical eras wasn't part of the plan from the get-go, but the first movie at least got SOME right.
the Christmas special is awful, don't bother watching it. Too much Crash and Eddie who are my least favorite characters in the franchise. And why the hell does Santa Claus exist in a world where humans haven't even fully evolved yet?
The fourth movie tried to be a return to form by separating the cast, but that only goes so far. At least Wanda Sykes owns a whale in this one.
The Easter special is, jeez I don't even remember the plot of the easter special, All I know is Gabriel Iglesias plays a Chalicothere and that high as a kite rabbit from the 4th one steals eggs.
The fifth movie was where I REALLY started to get irritated, too many fart jokes and potty humor. Yeah I know the original had a few of those but it had a lot more love, care and heart put into it. This was pointless and had no reason to exist.
And technically, this isn't even Ice age 6, That honor goes to the Disney+ exclusive The Ice Age adventures of Buck Wild, which is a movie that has only ONE original voice actor from the franchise (Simon Pegg) return, everyone else is replaced with VAs that don't even sound the same, the villain is lame and WE FOCUS ON CRASH AND EDDIE FOR MOST OF THE DAMN MOVIE!
And how did it manage to keep raking in the box office bucks??
Because the only other movies out were "Finding Dory," "Captain America: Civil War," "The Jungle Book," "The BFG," and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows", and even though Finding Dory was the much desired sequel, some people still went for the more established franchise as opposed to the other options. Besides, most of the kids who grew up with Ice Age are now adults, and as we all know, nostalgia is one hell of a drug.
Personally I think they should have stopped with 3, but hey, I guess folks really liked Scrat of all characters.
I agree, would've saved us all a lot of headache.
