This is the post where I end up really flipping my shit. There's just something about the way that the later films try and copy what some people call the DreamWorks formula that ticks me off. This so-called formula involves celebrity voice actors, pop-culture references and crude jokes, as exemplified by DreamWorks movies such as Shrek and Shark Tale.
Ice Age was released a year after Shrek, a film that had a major effect on the world of animation. It introduced a more snarky sense of humour to animated films, along with jokes based on pop-culture, toilet humour and anything that would fly over the heads of kiddies. It also relied on casting people for their fame and star power rather than simply because they were good for the role they were in, though previous films of DreamWorks and some 90s Disney films had started to do that too.
Since Ice Age came out shortly afterwards, it obviously had a few DreamWorks elements to it. However, as I said before, it primarily comes off as a Don Bluth movie in CGI, or even a Pixar movie, just with a bit of a DreamWorks vibe. Unfortunately, by the time the sequels rolled around, the Don Bluth and Pixar elements were gone and instead they solely tried to copy DreamWorks. Not helping was that even DreamWorks ended up having problems when Shark Tale and Shrek the Third failed, causing them to go in a different direction afterwards and making the Ice Age films come off as incredibly dated in response.
This article will explore three things that the Ice Age sequels tried to copy from DreamWorks - the use of celebrity voice actors, the use of pop-culture references and the use of "mature" or toilet humour. The latter two will be explored in the same section since they overlap in some ways.
Questionable Casting Choices
Again, another issue that is more to do with the marketing and had its roots in the first film. The first Ice Age has a great voice cast consisting mostly of comedy actors in the lead roles. Same with the next two films. Though I highly agree with the statements of Billy West and Tara Strong that professional voice actors get the short end of the stick when it comes to animated films nowadays, keep in mind that film actors specialised in live-action used to get roles in animated films. Take George Sanders for instance. He was a live-action actor who got the role of Shere Khan in The Jungle Book and he absolutely nails it. Additionally, many comedy actors are good at doing impressions, thus making them perfect for roles where a particular voice is required (unlike what Chris Rock claims, voice acting does require a lot of effort and there are normally talented actors like Sandra Bullock whose talents don't translate well to voice casting – I'm thinking about Scarlet Overkill from Minions here).
However, the fourth film is when things get ridiculous. Oh sure, they end up with more talented comedy actors like Wanda Sykes and Nick Frost and even managed to get Peter Dinklage to voice Captain Gutt. Okay, maybe Keke Palmer and Jennifer Lopez have done some acting before (and even then J-Lo's acting record is extremely spotty, considering she has the occasional good film like Selena or Hustlers but the rest of her films aren't so hot). But then some "bright spark" decided "Oh hey, let's cast rappers Nicki Minaj and Drake in this film! And then market the shit out of them!".
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| Shame on you for that scandalous outfit! I mean seriously, what's the money bag supposed to be hiding?! |
I don't care if Drake was in Degrassi beforehand. I don't care if Nicki Minaj is trying to get an acting career going. THEY ONLY APPEAR FOR A FEW SCENES. Maybe Drake's Ethan character has some kind of role in being a potential love interest for Peaches, but Nicki Minaj's main role is of some bitchy valley girl mammoth who could easily be removed from the film without making any difference to it whatsoever. And yet because of them being famous celebrities, marketing clearly thought it was worth marketing them over Peter Dinklage (whose character is the main villain for Pete's sake!), Wanda Sykes (who gets a lot of enjoyable scenes as Sid's filthy and cantankerous grandmother – a major supporting character and a brilliant one too), Keke Palmer (who voices Peaches and gets a major character arc in the film), Josh Gad (who voices Louis, a good friend of Peaches and a better partner than Ethan) and just about everyone who voiced members of Captain Gutt's crew (Aziz Anzari as Squint, Nick Frost as Flynn, Rebel Wilson as Raz, Alain Chabat as Silas and Kunal Nayyar as Gupta).
This is not the first time in the franchise that a major star has been credited over another actor with a more important role. That would be in the first film, in which Jack Black was credited above Goran Visnjic in marketing despite the latter voicing the main villain Soto and the former voicing one of his henchmen Zeke. But two things make this less irritating. First of all, they still credited Goran Visnjic as one of the lead voice actors. Secondly, Zeke still has a somewhat important role as he could be seen as an evil counterpart to Sid, similar to how Soto is an evil counterpart to Manny. As a result, it's easy to overlook the billing displacement as a result. The fourth film doesn't have these saving graces. Ethan and Steffie are just minor characters who only got marketed because of who voiced them.
The second film is also the first time in which they hire someone who is mostly known for singing, and that would be with regard to Queen Latifah voicing Ellie. That said, she already made herself well-known for acting earlier on in films like Chicago, and Ellie is an important character in the plotline. She essentially serves as Manny's future partner for the next few installments. Contrast that with Ethan and Steffie, who probably don't need major stars voicing them due to how little screen-time they have.
The fifth film continues the issue of voice casting. First of all, they hire pop star Jessie J to voice Brooke despite the fact that said singer has a “tough girl” image, something that Brooke herself does not project. And then (and this is the really stupid part) they hire Neil DeGrase Tyson to voice…wait for it…Neil DeBuck Weasel.
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| He even has the same facial structure and moustache that the real deal does. |
Well that's certainly some originality, isn't it?! You get the scientist guy with barely any acting experience to voice what is essentially just himself as a weasel and…I'm not even going to try and add further comments. It's just bloody stupid.
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| Hey, no offense against Ron Jeremy. He does what he does best. ¬_¬ |
Given that there is a feature on the fifth film's DVD involving Neil DeGrase Tyson, maybe they thought that they could show off about being scientifically accurate and impress the science community in the process. It…has not worked to say the least. Especially since he's a physicist more than a biologist and I already mentioned the poorly-handled volcano scene earlier on. Yeah, he was the one who mentioned the stuff about the "magnetic crystals" that I brought up in Chapter 1.
If you ask me, they should have just stuck with the comedy actors and professional voice actors. And sure, the original main cast weren't necessarily known for being that kid-friendly in the first place, but John Leguizamo and Denis Leary had their moments. And they have their families as well, which would obviously make them want to work on something their kids could watch. I don't know, are Nicki Minaj and Drake family people as well? I know Nicki was dating that registered sex offender, I can tell you that.
Memes & Crap In The Prehistoric Era
The first film isn't too heavy on the references. Sure, it has the aforementioned Star Trek reference with the Vulcan salute, as well as the usage of Rusted Root's "Send Me on My Way" (a song previously used in Matilda and Party of Five) for a travel montage and the dodos singing a cadence call (a type of military song that gets used a lot in the media), but they're in tolerable doses and don't overwhelm the plot as a result. And yes, they used Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" and Smash Mouth's "Why Can't We Be Friends?" for the trailers, but not in the films themselves. As a result, whilst having some elements of a DreamWorks movie, it ends up being its own thing.
As for the filthy humour, it can come across as immature at times (as well as out of place compared to the tragic deaths we witness), but it seems that the creators were aware of it. First there's the scene in which Sid steps in poop and rubs it on the salad of some grumpy brontotheres, thus resulting in them chasing him down and Manny having to step in. Then there's the scene where Sid pretends to lose control of the baby's nappy and throws it onto Manny's face - whilst it turns out to be empty, it's still treated as ill-advised and Manny and Diego rightfully slap him for his troubles. There's also a hilarious moment in which Diego snidely comments to Sid and Manny that they're looking after the baby because, "they can't have one of their own, so they want to adopt". Gets me every time.
However, the rest of the films try and copy the DreamWorks formula completely, making the films even less historically accurate in the process. The second film for instance has a scene where vultures sing "Food, Glorious Food" from Oliver! when taunting the protagonists about eating them, and then there's the infamous scene of Crash singing a butchered version of R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly" as he gets launched through the air and just before hitting a tree - a scene that got overused in many trailers promoting the movie. Though at least with the vultures scene, the heroes are just as confused as we are.
The third film isn't any better. Playing the Was (Not Was) song "Walk The Dinosaur" wasn't too bad (even though the song is actually an allegory for nuclear war), the two real life songs they use when Scrat falls in love are pretty good and having Momma T-Rex knock Rudy off the cliff as a piss-take to the infamous T-Rex vs. Spinosaur match in the goddawful Jurassic Park III was refreshing to watch, but the other memes just fall flat. Most notably, it has Crash and Eddie singing "Christmas (Don't Be Late)" by Alvin And The Chipmunks in helium voices for a quick gag, despite the fact that Christmas shouldn't technically exist at this time and neither should the chipmunks - not that it stopped them from making an Ice Age Christmas special featuring Santa Claus.
As for the "adult" humour, it piles on a lot more than with previous films and varies in quality. Anything that comes out of Buck's mouth for instance is just comedy gold, the scene with Manny and Diego trapped inside the plant is just priceless and Sid's apparent misunderstanding of genitals in two different scenes gets a chuckle out of me too. But the scene where Manny and Ellie have a talk and he awkwardly says that "round is foxy" just falls flat. I didn't even get what was supposed to be filthy about it the first time, and even now I still don't get it - and I'm an adult myself.
The fourth film, similar with the last few, tries to use modern pop songs and pop-culture references to varying effect. For instance, Manny sings "The Candy Man" from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory during the piranha scene, yet another song that didn't exist at the time the film is set. A song by boy band The Wanted is used as the theme tune (though the music video happens to be about vampire girls instead) and a Keke Palmer song is used for the first part of the closing credits. As for the crude humour, Sid using the phrase "holy crab" when the giant crab attacked was just too on the nose, even though the word "crap" is technically acceptable in PG-rated works.
The fifth film is the worst with handling pop-culture topics by far. I mean seriously?! Hashtags and profile pictures in prehistoric times?! And then the Fall Out Boy song "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark", and then a new song called "My Superstar" just so they can have Jessie J sing (in a particularly selfish move too, since she interrupts Peaches and Julian's wedding with it)?! At this point, they might have just called this installment Ice Age 5: #PieceOfShit.
The fifth film is the worst with handling pop-culture topics by far. I mean seriously?! Hashtags and profile pictures in prehistoric times?! And then the Fall Out Boy song "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark", and then a new song called "My Superstar" just so they can have Jessie J sing (in a particularly selfish move too, since she interrupts Peaches and Julian's wedding with it)?! At this point, they might have just called this installment Ice Age 5: #PieceOfShit.
All whilst this happens, the heart simply decreases until the films just become immature. They try and have an important message about family in each film, with the third film focusing on Ellie's pregnancy, the fourth film focusing on Peaches wanting to be more independent and the fifth film focusing on Peaches' upcoming marriage and Manny's conflicted feelings on the matter, but they now feel tacked on just to add a "heartfelt" story to what is essentially a montage of pop-culture references, crude jokes and Scrat failing to keep his acorn. In fact, I've seen plenty of negative reviews of the fifth movie that claim that they should have skipped the marriage subplot and just focused on the apocalyptic stakes. Compare with the first movie, in which the plight between animals and humans and the concept of mismatched strangers becoming like a family to one another take centre stage, whilst the "wacky" stuff is simply added for garnish.
