Clearly, the makers of the “Ice Age” series are running out of ideas for the main trio. They have to maintain the resonating, heartfelt premise—you don’t have to be related or even the same species to be a family—that is primarily responsible for the previous four flicks grossing an astonishing $2.8 billion worldwide total. But “Collision Course” attempts to solve its sequel fatigue by giving more screen time to side characters from previous chapters and promoting Brit wit Simon Pegg’s hyperactive one-eyed swashbuckling weasel Buck into a breakout status, as he and a trio of nefarious flying dinosaurs escape from the lost world featured in the third “Ice Age” film.
Not only does Buck come bearing an ancient, carved column that holds the key to halting the asteroid, but he pulls a Kate McKinnon here in the weirdness department. The impish Ghostbuster is probably kicking herself that she never thought of toting a pet pumpkin around in a Baby Bjorn or launching into Figaro’s aria from “The Barber of Seville” in a robust performance worthy of pint-size Pavarotti.
Other distractions that offer varying levels of amusement arrive in the form of goofy opossums Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck), the type who giggle when they say the word “duty,” and Sid’s feisty Granny (Wanda Sykes), who is given to such observations as, “That plan is so dumb I wish it had a face so I could smack it!”
But what appears to be an anything-goes philosophy when it comes to the narrative suddenly takes a turn at the cross section of Incense and Peppermints when we arrive in Geotopia, a hippie-dippy domain of perpetual youth maintained by the presence of magic crystals, which are the key to stopping the asteroid. Probably the weirdest conception is the Shangri Llama (Jesse Tyler Ferguson—apparently, there now is a law that at least one major cast member from “Modern Family” is required to be a voice in every animated film this summer), the spiritual leader of this tribe of yoga enthusiasts who exhibits the spitting prowess of a major league pitcher as he presides over his tribe.
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