Now in its fifth instalment, Ice Age: Collision Course sees Manny (Ray Romano) and his herd of misfits trying to outrun certain doom in the form of a gigantic asteroid that's plummeting towards Earth.
We talked to Galen T. Chu, the co-director, about trying to balance a somewhat dark story with a younger audience, working with Neil DeGrasse-Tyson on the physics of an asteroid and what's next for Ice Age.
Five films in, is it difficult to keep the stories interesting and fresh?
It's more about the characters, I think, than anything else. They've all got such a rich tapestry and interconnectedness that the stories just come together in a really unique way. This time out, it's about Manny dealing with his daughter moving on from him and the herd. Manny sees that as a threat. She’s not only getting married, she and her soon-to-be hubby Julian are moving away to begin their lives as a couple. So, for Manny, it's about him trying to come to terms with that and the impending asteroid - which, in a way, is the same as his own situation. It's looming over him constantly.
The idea of an asteroid wiping out all of Earth, that's pretty dark for a children's movie!
I think it's about tone, y'know? Trying to find the right tone to tell a story like this and not trying to become bogged down in it. We don't focus on the asteroid or its effects, we focus on the family coming together and that's what more important in terms of the story. We find a way to lighten it with a family supporting each other, protecting one another rather than they're all gonna die, that's really sad. No, it's got to be about how they'll survive and how they'll beat the odds.
Neil DeGrasse-Tyson has an extended cameo as, well, a weasel version of himself. How was that? Was he OK with the physics?
He's known for being a stickler, for sure. I think, in this instance, he knew that it was a cartoon and that there were a sense of surrealism about it so he was happy enough to go along with it. He cracked up the first time he saw the drawings we did of his character, I think we really nailed him and his image - right down to the waistcoat and everything. (laughs)
Working with such an ensemble cast, is it difficult to keep it cohesive?
Nah, not at all. These guys are all pros and a lot of them have been with us from the start. Ray, Dennis, they've all been with his from the very beginning so they're more than capable of working it out between them. Bringing in Adam Devine was a natural fit because he's got a great sense of improvisation and character building, so he was able to work with the guys on that.
I have to ask - and I've always wondered - why haven't you made a film about Scrat all on his own?
(laughs) That's a good question! I think it's because Scrat works best in small little doses. He's great as a character to flick back to every once in a while during a story, just to give the audience a breather and book-end a chapter. As a fully-fledged film, I'm not sure it has the legs to work. This film, we put him in a spaceship. There's actually a bit of lore around that spaceship, it was the same one in the very first Ice Age! We put it back in as a little callback to the first one.
