The news of Ice Age 6 being in development at Disney has generated a great deal of excitement among fans of the beloved animated franchise. Originally produced by Blue Sky Studios for 20th Century Fox, the Ice Age series has had a long and successful run. However, following the 2019 Fox-Disney merger, the franchise’s future took an interesting turn. In 2021, Blue Sky Studios was officially shut down by Disney, but not before leaving behind a legacy of memorable characters and stories.
The franchise continued to live on through a series of animated shorts titled Ice Age: Scrat Tales, which debuted on Disney+ in 2022. Additionally, Disney+ released its own exclusive spinoff movie, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. This marked a new chapter in the franchise’s history, but it was met with mixed reactions. While Simon Pegg reprised his role as Buck Wild in the spinoff, the absence of the original voice cast for many of the main characters was a major disappointment for fans. Critics and general audiences alike condemned the recasting of roles previously played by Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Queen Latifah, and Denis Leary. The absence of the fan-favorite character Scrat was also a sore point, leading to the movie receiving the franchise’s lowest audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Now, with the announcement of Ice Age 6 at this year’s D23 Brazil, there is renewed hope for the franchise. The return of the original voice cast, including Romano, Leguizamo, Latifah, Leary, and Pegg, is a significant step in the right direction. This not only shows Disney’s commitment to the franchise but also gives fans a reason to be excited about the future of Ice Age. The new movie, set to arrive in theaters in 2026, holds the promise of further expanding the core storylines and bringing back the magic that made the first movie such a hit.
Comparatively speaking, the Ice Age franchise did seem to experience a decline in quality even before Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Looking at the franchise’s overall ratings, it’s clear that each subsequent movie suffered incremental declines. Only the 2002 original earned a fresh critical rating, and subsequent outings struggled to live up to the high expectations set by the first installment. The franchise is long overdue for a major course correction, and audiences have been clamoring for a movie that can match the quality and charm of the first entry. Whether Disney can achieve this with Ice Age 6 remains to be seen, but bringing back the original cast is a promising start. It gives hope that the movie will be able to recapture the essence of what made the franchise so popular in the first place and deliver an unforgettable adventure for fans old and new.
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