Ice Age - Collision Course review: Skating on thin ice

The fifth installment of the franchise is a let-down.

ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE

With its generic plot and slapstick shenanigans, Ice Age: Collision Course depends far too heavily on the affability of its A-list voice cast. If you’re looking for a bit of weekend cheer, look elsewhere.

Direction: Mike Thurmeier and Galen T Chu

Voices: Ray Romano, Simon Pegg, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lopez

Rating: 1.5 / 5

The law of diminishing returns appears to have caught up with one of the biggest franchises in animation history. So if you’re looking for a bit of weekend cheer along the lines of the earlier installments of the Ice Age series, you will need to look elsewhere.

The people behind …Collision Course have clearly run out of ideas and are merely attempting to cash in on a tried-and-tested formula.

This time around, Scrat, the franchise’s bulge-eyed mascot ventures into outer space and sets off events that hurl the plot towards its climax.

In the fifth go-around, the focus is on the danger posed to the family of the woolly mammoth (Romano, reprising his voice role) and their prehistoric cohorts by a giant asteroid hurtling towards their habitat.

The generic plot is set in motion by the franchise’s bulge-eyed mascot. In his dogged pursuit of an ever-elusive acorn, the unnamed squirrel-rat hybrid is catapulted into outer space, where he accidentally sets off the series of cosmic events responsible for the herd’s eventual dilemma.

Read: How Arjun Kapoor re-discovered his talent by dubbing for Buck, Ice Age’s one-eyed weasel, in Hindi

Aside from the antics of the silent squirrel, British actor Simon Pegg, who voices the resourceful one-eyed weasel, provides the only moments of delight in an otherwise dull comedy.

Co-directors Thurmeier and Chu rely too heavily on slapstick shenanigans to keep the proceedings clipping along. Despite their combined efforts, the film never achieves the sense of fun or genuine excitement that marked some of the earlier editions.

Read: Why American scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson is tipping his hat to this film

The filmmakers depend far too heavily on the affability of the A-list voice cast, which includes John Leguizamo as the lovelorn sloth, Queen Latifah as the mammoth’s missus, and Jennifer Lopez in the role of the middle-aged white tigress.

All things considered …Collision Course barely manages to skate by on increasingly thin ice.

Read: Ray Romano admit that Manny the mammoth is a lot like the TV character on his show

Watch the Ice Age: Collision Course trailer here