Fourteen years ago we were introduced to this crazy group of friends who were just trying to make their way through the world with 2002s Ice Age. Like any film that makes money, especially animation it spawned an apparently unstoppable franchise with the sequels 2006s Ice Age: Meltdown, 2009s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and 2012s Continental Drift.  Now the gang is back again with the fifth installment of the series Ice Age: Collision Course, but does it offer up anything new or is it time for this series to go extinct.

 

Ice Age: Collision Course follows Scrat’s epic pursuit of the elusive acorn that catapults him into the universe where he accidentally sets off a series of cosmic events that transform and threaten the Ice Age World. To save themselves, Sid, Manny, Diego, and the rest of the herd must leave their home and embark on a quest full of comedy and adventure, traveling to exotic new lands and encountering a host of colorful new characters. All of the original cast return along with some new additions including Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Keke Palmer, Wanda Sykes, Jennifer Lopez, Stephanie Beatriz, Adam DeVine, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Max Greenfield, Jessie J, Nick Offerman, Melissa Rauch, Michael Strahan and Neil de Grasse Tyson. All the cast did a good job here with Romano, Leguizamo and Sykes being the standout of them all. When this series started it was about the crazy unlikely friends just trying to make their way through the world which was something we could all relate to, but instead through the lives of a mammoth, a sloth and a sabretooth tiger set in the ice age however, there was nothing really new or fresh in this movie. Children and die-hard fans of the films will enjoy this latest installment in the Ice Age series, but others, like myself, may find it to be a bit dull.  Maybe this is to be expected the longer a series goes on, but I found myself waiting for the collision to happen so that I could finally see something new!

 

Despite this films flaws the animation was amazingly beautiful!  There are some new characters introduced that offer  up some great detail and  really nice colors and designs.  It's great when you can watch a movie and see every hair (or in this case) every strand of fur. Overall, I felt the movie was fun, but just didn't do much to further this extinct franchise.