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The Ice Age franchise has been a long and profitable series of films for Blue Sky. The first one was released 14 years ago and each new film has been a commercial success, making the Ice Age movies the second highest-grossing animated franchise after Shrek; so it makes sense Blue Sky is going forward with Collision Course, the fifth film in the saga; with the risk of producing a tiresome and overcrowded movie. Watch the new trailer below.
Ice Age: Collision Course,the 5th film in the famous Blue Sky franchise will be released this summer. A few teasers starring Scrat were shown before, but this is the first time we see what's happening with Manny, Sid, Diego & co. Watch the trailer below.
This news is sure to draw collective groans from animation fans, particularly given the rate at which the quality of the films is plummeting (just have a gander at their Rotten Tomatoes scores), but so long as they keep bringing in the mammoth (no pun intended) numbers that they are doing (Continental Drift, the fourth film in the series, made almost $875 million worldwide), Fox and Blue Sky will keep making Ice Age films. And the fifth one is coming in 2016.
Blue Sky Studios' fourth instalment in the Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift has been out here in Europe for over a week (although, despite a few early screenings this weekend, isn't open here in England and Wales until 13th) and will open stateside in just under a week, but how's it faring so far? It should come as no great surprise, given how hugely successful Ice Age 3 was, that Continental Drift has done fantastically well at the worldwide box-office - despite non-too strong performances overall in the UK. The film, coming a whole decade after the release of the original Ice Age, opened at number 1 in all of the 34 territories, taking over $80 million and setting many opening-day and opening-weekend records in those territories. The film's current takings (remember, it hasn't opened in the US yet) are an impressive $118,677,915 (via Box Office Mojo).
The critical response, however, is far less enthusiastic. Ice Age: Continental Drift currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 54% from 24 reviews. It's hardly surprising given that the response for the third Ice Age was far from enthusiastic and sequels rarely maintain the critical adoration of the originals - especially to 4 films. THR's Megan Lehmann sums up her review by saying "[Ice Age 4] Has the goods for kids but fails to break new ground for the series." But, on the positive side, Den of Geek's Simon Brew says "the team behind it have delivered something worth cherishing: an immensely good fun summer movie, warts and all. It might not win bags of awards, but for a family movie, you most certainly get your money's worth."
It shouldn't come as any great surprise that critics are less than enthusiastic in general about the film, I can think of very few franchises that maintain critical praise this far in - Toy Story, Lord of the Rings and The Godfather are some of the few that survived 3, let alone 4! But a strong box-office performance and Blue Sky's consistent standards should mean it's enjoyable anyway.
Ice Age: Continental Drift opens in the remaining UK countries and in the US on 13th July,
The official Ice Age Twitter feed has introduced us to a bunch of the new characters that we'll be meeting in the fourth entry in the Ice Age series, Ice Age: Continental Drift. The new characters range from members of the pirate crew (top) that we've seen in the trailers and clips thus far, to new members of Manny and co.'s group.
We've been introduced to self-appointed Master of the Seas, Captain Gutt (Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones), the main antagonist of the film, and his pirate crew, consisting of:
Shira (Jennifer Lopez) - Captain Gutt's saber-toothed first mate, and presumably a later love-interest for Diego.
Flynn (Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz) - "a British elephant seal with a heart of gold".
Raz (Rebel Wilson, Bridesmaids) - "a prehistoric kangaroo" and the ship's weapons expert.
Squint (Aziz Ansari, 30 Minutes or Less) - a prehistoric rabbit, and a valued member of Gutt's crew.
Silas (Alain Chabat) - a 'Blue-footed Booby' that "flies ahead of the ship to ensure smooth sailing".
Gupta (Kunal Nayyar, The Big Bang Theory) - "the Bengali badger" who acts as the ship's Jolly Roger.
There are a bunch of other characters joining the franchise as well, including some new Mammoths - Ethan, his posse and Louis - and some new sloths - Sid's absent family who show up to dump his elderly Granny on him.
In addition to this huge glut of new characters, iTunes Movie Trailers have the second trailer for the film for us, which you can watch here. It certainly enforces the epic feel of the film, as well as Blue Sky Studios' usual comedy; Ice Age 4 is certainly looking good so far!
Ice Age: Continental Drift arrives in cinemas on 13th July.
After many clips and short films, both online and preceding films, we finally get the first full-length, theatrical for Ice Age: Continental Drift. The fourth installment in the ever popular Ice Age franchise is due for release on 13th July.
Whilst I'm not overly sold on the idea of a fourth Ice Age - the third, after all, was rather trite and cheesy - I have faith in Blue Sky Studios and there'll always be a place in my heart for Manny and friends. Also, the trailer doesn't look half bad; reasonably funny, what seems like the next logical step in terms of plot, and some truly stunning animation.
Ahead of a new trailer being released (on 5th March) for the fourth installment in Blue Sky Studios' much loved Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift, the studio have rolled out a parody of Oscar frontrunner, The Artist.
The video (above) is a black-and-white montage of clips from previous Ice Age films and shorts, showing the love between Scrat and the acorn that was such a popular side-story in the first 3 films, and it seems only topical given that the Oscars are this Sunday, and The Artist is almost a certainty.
Ice Age: Continental Drift is due for release on 6th July.
You may recall a while back, I told you all about a clip from a planned Blue Sky Studios short film, Srat's Continental Crack Up, starring Scrat from the Ice Age franchise. The clip garnered attention as many thought it a teaser trailer for Ice Age 4, rather than a short film, my theory was that it was both, and I appear to be right.
The full short, embedded above, premiered with select showings of Guilliver's Travels and Rio and acts as a promotional trailer for Ice Age: Continental Drift, due out in July of next year.
Most recently, artist and animator Ric Sluiter (who was part of the team for the original Circle 7 planned Toy Story 3) posted the above picture on his blog, citing it as "Scrat Continental Drift Colour Key"... What?
This seems a tad conflicting, as this appears to be a shot from the above short film, called "Scrat's Continental Crack-Up", whereas Ice Age 4 is to be subtitiled, "Continental Drift", the title on this colour key is a combination of both. This could be an error on Ric's part or perhaps, if the short film really is nothing more than a teaser trailer, a hint that scenes from the short will feature in Ice Age 4.
This latest review is of a film that, as regular blog followers will know, is one of the animated films I have been most looking forward to this year, Rio. Rio is the sixth film from Blue Sky Studios, the animation company famous for the Ice Age trilogy, however Rio is far removed from director Carlos Saldanha's more comedic Ice Age films and is a far more musical endeavour than Blue Sky Studios' previous films.
Blue Sky Studios' sixth animated feature film, Rio, is released today over here in the UK. As regular blog readers will know, Rio is one of the animated films that I am most looking forward to this year and I am still very hyped for it. Rio currently holds an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (100% from Top Critics) and the positive reviews are making me want to see it even more.
Unfortunately audiences in the US will have to wait until the 15th to see the film. Personally, I will be going to see the film this weekend so keep an eye out for the review.
Blue Sky Studios just now uploaded the above video, our first proper look at the main villain of their upcoming animated film, Rio. As regular readers of the blog will know, Rio is one of the films I am most looking forward to this year and this gave us our first proper look at its villain, Nigel. It also provided another full glimpse at the musical aspect of the film.
Stay tuned for more updates as the film's release next month draws ever closer.
The above trailer, of Blue Sky Studios' upcoming animated film, Rio, aired at yesterday's Superbowl. Whilst the Superbowl isn't particularly important to anyone outside of the States, having a commercial spot in the Superbowl is a big deal in America and this is certainly great for the publicity of Rio - but from the studio behind the box office smash series, Ice Age, they don't necessarily need it.
The trailer looks great, showcasing more of the musical elements we saw in the first 2 minutes last week. It shows more of the musical sides, as compared to the comedy shown in the first couple of trailers.
Thoughts about the new trailer, comment or use the reaction feature.
Blue Sky Studios recently uploaded the first 2 minutes of their upcoming animated film, Rio, (above) onto the film's official YouTube page. The film looks absolutely beautiful, the animation is stunning, bright and vibrant, and as previously reported the film is a heck of a lot more musical than director, Carlos Saldanha's other films - Ice Age and Robots.
The film looks good so far and is far removed from all other Blue Sky Studios films.
Over the years, the big animation companies in the business have had story staff, animator and director losses left, right and centre, some of them more devastating than others. Here is a breakdown of some of the big losses, for the big companies:
The Big Blue Losses
Perhaps no company has suffered bigger losses than Blue Sky Studios, it recently lost a large amount of important staff members:
Chris Meledandri, perhaps the biggest hit to Blue Sky Studios, one of their former big players decided to take a page out of Jeffrey Katzenberg's book and set up shop for himself, with the help of Universal Studios Meledandri went on to form Illumination Entertainment. The company behind Despicable Me really made a mark for themselves on the box office and audiences alike, Illumination Entertainment and Chris Meledandri could really make BSS pay and knock them off their 3rd place spot and close on Pixar and DreamWorks.
Chris Renaud, another big loss, the acclaimed director of short film No Time For Nuts and a story artist on Robots, Ice Age 3 and Horton Hears a Who, Renaud went on to direct Illumination Entertainment's debut film, Despicable Me, another shot to BSS.
Daisuke "Dice" Tsutsumi, formerly a colour key artist and animator at Blue Sky, Dice moved to Pixar in 2007 and made a big impact as the art director on Toy Story 3, helping to infuse a lot of the film's heart, warmth and charm.
The Cheese That Evaded the Mouse
Disney, perhaps the best known animation company of all time, has not been without losses, one of these some of the most devastating we've ever seen for a company:
Jeffrey Katzenberg, the big one, a former Disney head honcho, left Disney on quite bad terms and decided to try his own hand at running an animation company, out of that desire DreamWorks Animation was born. Katzenberg deserves a lot of credit for creating an animation company out of nothing, that has been huge competition for Disney and Pixar for the last 15 years. Whilst I don't always agree with Katzenberg and his insistence on innuendo, pop culture jokes and sequel after sequel, DreamWorks has made some amazing animated films - Shrek, Shrek 2, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon - and that's a big feat. However, he's also created a lot of poor filler (*ahem* Bee Movie *ahem* Shrek the Third), regardless DreamWorks great commercial success shows that Disney's letting go of JK may have been a crucial loss.
Chris Sanders, another big loss, the co-writer and co-director of Disney's Lilo & Stitch also left the Mouse House on bad terms after being relieved of his position on Bolt (then American Dog) by the Lasseter Disney regime due to an alleged inability to listen to the Pixar Brain Trust. However, Sanders went on to DreamWorks and made a huge splash co-directing the fantastic How to Train Your Dragon, stiff competition for Toy Story 3.
The Bulbs that Broke the Lamp's Shine
Arguably the biggest animation company in the game today is Pixar, the studio that delivers hit after hit has suffered very few setbacks over the years, however there are two staff losses that really stand out:
Doug Sweetland, a massive player at Pixar over the years, an animator on every Pixar film up until Cars, he then directed the fantastic Presto short film (my second favourite Pixar short), however he decided he wanted to be a bigger player. As such, Sweetland left Pixar and went off to Sony Pictures Animation - the studio behind the great Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - to direct his own feature film, the Familiars, based on the book series by Adam Jay Epstein and Andrew Jacobson. Not a devastating loss, but a pretty big one all the same.
Rodrigo Blaas, a former Pixar animator who up and left the Toy Story studio to move to DreamWorks Animation and direct his own film. Blaas is to direct Alma, a film based on his independently created and eerie short film, whilst this doesn't sound too bad, factor in that movie legend Guillermo Del Toro is set to produce, and you have a potential pay-day for DreamWorks and stiff competition for Disney and Pixar
Only Once in a Full Moon
Over the years, DreamWorks haven't had that many losses in terms of staff, however they have had one big loss in terms of creativity:
Aardman Animations, the company collaborated with DreamWorks on many films over the years, Chicken Run, Wallace and Gromit and Flushed Away, all great films, however they didn't make quite as much money at the Box Office as DreamWorks would've hoped, that and Aardman weren't happy with the credit DreamWorks took for their films. However Aardman have gone on to other partners, Sony Pictures Animation to be precise, and Arthur Christmas (their first collaborative film) looks great, so DreamWorks may rue the day they let Aardman slip away.
I've no doubt that there will be lots of losses on every front to come, however only time will tell what repercussions will come as a result of this.
Recently, the video embedded above made its way online. The video is believed to be a trailer for the upcoming Blue Sky Studios short film, Scrat's Continental Crack-Up, however many claim it is a teaser trailer for the upcoming 2012 feature film, Ice Age: Continental Drift (or Ice Age 4). However, it may well be both...
A short, starring Scrat (a staple of the Ice Age movies), this far into work on Ice Age 4, and concerning continental plates moving, like the film, is surely linked to it.
Regardless of the mystery and speculation, the clip looks great (I am still concerned about the film as a whole though after the cringe fest that was Ice Age 3), however we also have this screenshot of the film to fuel the fire that this is indeed a trailer, as both debuted within weeks of each other.
Don't forget Blue Sky Studios' next feature film, Rio, out next year, you can watch the trailer here.
