I've seen many animated sequels as a critic. Some of them good, some of them bad. Most of the time though, animated movies typically don't reach the fifth movie. When animation studios make sequels to their popular films, most of the time they typically make only one or two sequels. For some reason though, "Ice Age" reached movie number five. My only guess to why it reached that number is due to how much money the previous films made. When it comes to the previous film, I enjoyed the first, thought the second was okay, thought the third film was decent, and thought the fourth was really bad. Now, Blue Sky has delivered their next installment in the epic series, "Ice Age: Collision Course", and to put lightly, it was simply unbearable to watch. It scrapes the bottom of the barrel when it comes to sequels resulting in one of the most agonizing experiences I've had in quite some time. Not only does this amount to being the worst in the franchise and the worst film Blue Sky has made, but it's also one of the worst animated movie sequels I have ever seen. It's that bad.
Years after the events of the last film, our heroes consisting of Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), Diego (Denis Leary), Ellie (Queen Latifah), Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), Peaches (Keke Palmer), Shira (Jennifer Lopez), and Granny (Wanda Sykes) are preparing for the upcoming wedding of Peaches and her fiancé Julian (Adam DeVine). While Manny is a little reluctant on letting her daughter go, everyone else seems to be very happy for the upcoming event. However, an incoming meteorite is heading towards Earth and is preparing to wipe out life as we know it. During their journey to find safety, they run into their old friend Buck (Simon Pegg), the crazy weasel from the third film. Claiming he discovered an old tablet that shows a prophecy about the incoming meteorite and predicts that they could stop it. Hoping to save their lives and the fate of the world, the Herd sets off on an epic quest hoping to stop the doomed meteorite.
This whole film is seriously embarrassing. I have no idea how anyone at Blue Sky thought this movie would be a good idea, but here we are. It seriously is that embarrassing. If this film was forced upon the studio by 20th Century Fox just because of how much money was made from the previous two movies and Blue Sky decided to deliver their worst product yet just to show that even they were done with the series, I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest. The story is completely idiotic and makes no sense whatsoever. I thought the fourth film was pretty stupid, but this takes the stupidity up to a whole new level. I have no idea how a series went from three unlikely heroes delivering a young baby back to his clan to prehistoric animals trying to stop an impending meteorite. Even the Scrat subplot in this film did not work for me at all in the slightest. The idea of him being in a flying saucer in outer space is a funny concept for a short film, but for an "Ice Age" movie, it's too ridiculous. He's essentially what causes this giant asteroid to head toward Earth in this film. It's unbelievably stupid. As far as the animation goes, it's really good but it's unfortunately totally wasted on this movie. I'll give it credit that it really has come a long way since the first film back in 2002, but even by saying that, it shows that this series should've ended a very long time ago. Though the thing that I hated the most about this movie apart from the idiotic story were the characters. Every single character in this movie is awful including the ones from the previous films. The trio from the first film doesn't work. Manny comes off as too overprotective and irritating, Sid is just obnoxious, and Diego is underutilized and isn't relevant. Even the others don't work either. Ellie isn't giving interesting, Crash and Eddie are still annoying as they were in the fourth film, Granny still got under my skin, Peaches was still a blank slate character, and Shira was completely pointless and isn't even developed in the slightest. Though the character I was most disappointed in was Buck. He was easily the scene-stealer of "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" due to having some pretty funny moments, but in this film, he was so annoying and stupid that it really frustrated me. While he was crazy in the third film, at least he was still funny and was aware of the world he was in. In this film, he gets obsessive over a baby pumpkin and starts treating it as his offspring. If that's supposed to be comedy, then it failed to make me laugh in the slightest. These characters seriously are former shells of their former selves and it's simply a tragedy to watch. Even then, there are also way too many characters to follow. Remember when the series just started with only three main characters? That felt like a long time ago now watching this film. Not only that, but it's also insanely unfunny. The comedy reeks of desperate and seems to try to appeal to kids by having modern-day references and jokes. There are jokes about hashtags and profile pictures in this movie and all it did was seriously make me groan. It was that desperate to try to connect with modern-day audiences. I don't think I laughed at all during this film. It was that awful. The only scene I found enjoyable was a scene where Buck is trying to retrieve a dinosaur egg from some predators while singing "Figaro's Aria" from The Barber of Seville. I have a soft spot for anything animated that uses the song since I saw it a lot growing up in old cartoons and it was impressive that Blue Sky did the whole two-minute scene in only one shot. I found that impressive. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save the rest of the movie. It probably would've been a lot better had Blue Sky made that scene a short instead.
In total, "Ice Age: Collision Course" is simply a disaster from start to finish. The story was idiotic and completely ridiculous, the animation while good is wasted, and the characters are all unlikable and shells of their former selves. This film is one of the worst animated movie sequels ever made and I cannot recommend it in the slightest. Hopefully, this will be the last film in the series and Blue Sky will finally move on to other projects. It's honestly for their best if they do end it. I can guarantee that this point onwards, no one is going to be asking for another "Ice Age" film. Also, if you're curious about watching any of the "Ice Age" films in general, then just watch the first three. The first film is probably the only one in the series you definitely should watch, but the second and third aren't bad and have their moments. The fourth film and especially this film, on the other hand, don't even bother. It's best to leave them extinct.
