Ice Age Forever After (2022)

Ice Age Forever After is a 2019 American 3D computer-animated family adventure film directed by Mike Thurmeier and Galen T. Chu and written by Michael J. Wilson. It is the sixth installment in the Ice Age film series and a sequel to 2016's Ice Age: Collision Course.

The film is scheduled for release in the United States on August 16, 2019 by 20th Century Fox in 2D and 3D. It received generally negative reviews from critics but has grossed over $126 million worldwide.

Taking place after Ice Age: Collision Course, Manny is now a family man and beloved among the local animals. Yearning for the days when he thought he was the last mammoth, he makes a deal with Herobrine, and accidentally wipes out his entire existence. To restore his existence, Manny has to regain Ellie's love and kiss her before the sun rises, or he will disappear forever.

Ice Age Forever After is also the first Ice Age movie to be a crossover.

Plot
The film opens with a wizard named Abraham going to see Herobrine (a time traveler from the present day Minecraft) before visiting Ellie. In exchange, he agrees to sign over his Ice Age kingdom to him. But before he signs the contract, an enderman tells the two that Manny has met Ellie, upsetting Herobrine. We are brought back to the present (in the Minecraft world) where Herobrine is tearing pages out of a book in a library telling this story, angry that he didn't get the ice age world. The Angry Birds and Pink Sheep kick him out of the store after he tries to offer them a deal to make them his servants. He angrily wishes Manny was never born.

We cut to Manny and Ellie and their daughter Peaches and their friends Sid, Diego, Crash, and Eddie, living a happy and content life in the Ice Age world. Or so it looks at first. But we soon see that it’s the same routine for Manny day after day with no rest or time to himself. Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie, Peaches, Crash, Eddie, Louis, Buck, Shira, Granny, Brooke, Gavin, Gertie, Roger, and Titanoboa (Sid's new pet) go to the valley to celebrate 1 month of Peaches and Julian's wedding by going to the Icy Cavern, which has became a family restaurant. All the animals (including present-day animals and Purple Shep from ExplodingTNT's YouTube channel) who used to call him "the last mammoth" (in Ice Age: The Meltdown) are now clamoring fans and treat him like a celebrity. After Purple Shep eats the birthday snow cake (as well as a backup cake and a set of cupcakes) and an annoying beaver named Bob bothers him about doing the elephant noise, he unleashes a mighty elephant noise and smashes the new cake, as the cake has a glittery "cute" mammoth on it, which simply serves to remind Manny of what he has lost. Manny and Ellie go outside to talk. Manny is angry that he is no longer called "the last mammoth". He wishes his life were how it was before he met the Herd. Ellie is hurt and tells him he has everything but Manny is the only one that can’t see that. Meanwhile, Scrat accidentally summons Herobrine using his acorn on a Nether portal, releasing Herobrine to the Ice Age world.

On his long trek back home, Manny passes by a fallen over car (Herobrine also brought his car into the Ice Age world) and lifts it to find Herobrine and the Wither. Manny fixes his car (he thinks that it is an animal he has never seen before) and in exchange, Herobrine offers Manny to follow his car and get some drinks. During the ride, Manny tells him he wishes he could be a lonely mammoth for just one day. Herobrine offers him a contract offering him just that. In exchange, Manny is going have to give up a day: they agree it will be a day from his childhood, a day he wouldn't even remember, when he was an "innocent, mindless little baby". Manny signs the contract and everything around him swirls around and disappears landing him in the center of the winter forest. Herobrine is wrong about this being an alternate reality- there was no possibility that the creators would have never have had Manny in the series.

A tour group walks by and they react by calling Manny "a lonely mammoth". The animals call him a lonely mammoth again as shown in a montage of Manny happily showing up in front of animals. As Manny walks through the forest, he notices that the wanted posters are not just pictures of him but pictures of the Herd as well. He runs back to his home in a cave to find it has never been excavated from the hill it was into the cave it should be. An army of Minecraft monsters, Ender Dragon, and the Wither appear in the area and see him. They attack, knocking him unconscious and capturing him. He wakes up in a trolley cage being driven by Minecraft monsters and dragged by Sid and Diego. Manny tries to ask them what is going on but Sid and Diego don't know who Manny is. Manny eventually gets the information out of Sid and Diego that he is being taken where every mammoth is taken, to Herobrine.

The Ice Age world has become rundown and decrepit except for Herobrine's enormous castle. Inside the castle, it’s like a dance club as Manny in chains is marched across the dance floor to the throne of Herobrine. A giraffe begs Herobrine to stop being mean but he gets dragged away, thanks to Manny, the far more important animal to deal with at that time, being dragged in. Herobrine sees Manny and thanks him for making everything around him come true. He reveals that the contract that the wizard signed ended up having his existence taken away when they signed away the world to Herobrine as he had wished for his worries to disappear. He reveals to Manny that the childhood day that he took away was the day Manny was born, and as such, when the day ends, Manny will disappear forever as in this new reality he has never actually existed; ultimately, his daughter doesn't exist. Manny, in anger, breaks free and steals one of the witch’s flying potions and escapes with Sid and Diego, against his will. A Minecrafter named Steve then comes with them as well.

Manny, Sid, Diego, and Steve crash land in the woods somewhere. Sid and Diego, fearful of mammoths just as any other animal would be, attempt to flee, but Manny stops them from successfully running away. Manny tries to convince Sid and Diego to trust him by poorly singing a showtune and smiling, but the attempt fails. Sid and Diego run away screaming. Manny explains to Diego and Sid about his past (including the death of his previous family) and starts crying. Having never seen a mammoth cry before, they choose to trust him. Manny tells them that he signed a contract with Herobrine, which Sid and Diego say he should never have done. Steve also explains to Sid and Diego that Herobrine and his minions are actually evil. Sid and Diego then tell him about the exit clause which used to be guessing Herobrine’s name but they don’t do that anymore since everyone knows his name now. Sid and Diego show Manny the hidden exit clause in the contract by folding the contract in a certain way - at least in this case, as an origami heart. The way to break the contract is to share true love’s kiss, which will render the contract null and void. Manny has to share a kiss with Ellie but doesn't know where she is so he gets lost and the trio run into the Angry Birds. Red (the leader of the flock), wondering why Manny is lost, decides to help him find Ellie, but none of the Angry Birds know where the rest of the mammoths are hidden. The three mammals accept Red's favor, so they travel to the middle of the forest, where Red introduces the three mammals to Pink Sheep. Pink Sheep gives Manny, Sid, Diego, and the birds directions to where the mammoths are hidden - Geotopia. Pink Sheep and his prankster gangsters join the gang, and they all travel to Geotopia.

Before the heroes reach Geotopia, Sid and Diego see a plate of waffles. Manny and Steve try to stop them, telling them how obvious of a trap it is, but Sid and Diego taste it anyways. Licking the syrup caused the trap to trigger as a log forces Sid and Diego into the door through Geotopia. Manny and the gang follow Sid and Diego through it, where he finds an entire community of mammoths who make up the resistance to free the valley and mammoths everywhere. The warrior leader of this group turns out to be Ellie. As one might expect (except for Manny himself) she doesn’t recognize him. He tries to explain the situation to her but he does it poorly. Before he can continue, Herobrine's army patrol by Geotopia. Herobrine has a meeting with his minions, including the Ender Dragon and the Wither. He threatens them with a goblet of water in order to get Manny before he kisses Ellie. They decide to hire a professional bounty hunter. Ellie tells her meeting of mammoths that Herobrine will lead the Mammoth Hunt himself. They plan to ambush him now that he’s out of the safety of his castle, something he has not done before. Manny plans to get Ellie to fall in love with him all over again so she will kiss him. When Manny goes to Ellie's room (there is a large door because he wouldn't fit in smaller doors), he finds a morbidly obese Scrat, who has retired and since gone soft, becoming, in effect, Ellie's pet. Ellie finds Manny in her room. Manny gives her a gift basket in order to woo her. It doesn’t work and she kicks him out. The bounty hunter Herobrine has hired is Leonard from The Angry Birds Movie. Using his flute, he is able to manipulate any animal he sets his flute to, demonstrating by setting the flute to creepers and making the creepers break dance against their will.

Manny finds out from the other mammoths at dinner that the usual romantic gestures won’t work with Ellie and that the only thing she really cares about is getting rid of Herobrine. Manny tries to get closer to Ellie by feigning interest in the armory weapons. They end up sparring and having a good time with each other. Before he can get too close, she snaps out of it and orders him to get ready for the mission. Scrat catches up to Manny telling him that he saw a spark in Ellie that means Manny is truly Ellie’s true love. Manny tells Scrat to get help from the Angry Birds, Pink Sheep, and the rest of the gang.

At the ambush, the mammoth band disguise themselves to wait for Herobrine's caravan to pass by while Ellie moves to and lookout post to provide the group with the signal they will use to attack. However, Manny ignores the plan and instead follows Ellie up to her lookout, where he proceeds to tell Ellie everything he knows about her including the day he met her. With Ellie distracted, the signal never comes to the rest of the mammoth band, and Jim grows impatient, and takes it upon himself to issue the order. The mammoth band rush out to take down the carriage only to find it empty. It turns out that the caravan is a trap laid by Leonard, who proceeds to force the mammoths into a dance number (of which only Billy enjoys). Meanwhile, Manny and Ellie start dancing randomly, unknowing of what has occurred. Sid, Diego, the Angry Birds, Pink Sheep, Purple Shep, ExplodingTNT, Scrat, and Pink Sheep's prankster gangster ride down the hill and grab Manny and Ellie (they are unaffected by Leonard's magical flute because it must be attuned to a specific type of being to function against them, and it is currently on an mammoth setting which only affects mammoths). They try to ride them away from the music but end up falling into the river.

On snowy land, Ellie tries to go back to her friends but Manny insists that she kiss him in order to save her friends. She kisses him but it doesn’t work. Nothing happens. Ellie tells him she got herself out of the great flood. She leaves. Manny realizes that the kiss doesn’t work because Ellie is not in love with him in this reality. She was never met like she was supposed to be, and became disheartened and stopped believing in love.

Herobrine takes to the airwaves across all of the valley and tells the populace that he will give them their wildest dreams in exchange for Manny and Ellie. Manny finally realizes that he didn’t realize how perfect he had it until it was all gone. Buck tries to collect his bounty from him and tells him about the deal. This gives Manny an idea, but before he can ask Buck an important question, the Angry Birds and Steve throw him out. Manny turns himself in, in order to get the deal of a lifetime, which Herobrine offered to whosoever turned Manny in. He makes a deal with Herobrine to free all the mammoths. He keeps Ellie, however, because mammoths are supposed to be extinct. Herobrine keeps them chained in the same room but across the room, relishing his victory. They are incapable of reaching each other because they are chained through the walls to one another, so if one person pulls forward, the other person is dragged back. Ellie is very enthralled by Manny's attempt to save her.

Sid, Diego, Steve, the Angry Birds, Pink Sheep, Purple Shep, Crash, Eddie, Louis, Buck, Shira, Granny, Brooke, Gertie, ExplodingTNT, Failboat, Scrat, and the mammoths make a plan on how to free Manny and Ellie. Meanwhile, in the large room that Manny and Ellie are chained up, Herobrine unleashes Titanoboa. The heroes break in and cause chaos as they try to save Manny and Ellie. The giant snake attempts to eat Sid; however, Scrat saves Sid by stabbing Titanoboa with his acorn, while Diego bites its neck.

Manny and Ellie work together to chain up and defeat Titanoboa. The heroes and the mammoths corner Herobrine but he tries to escape on his Ender Dragon and Wither. Manny lassos the two beasts and brings him down to the ground, while the Ender Dragon and Wither crash. The mammoths have won the battle. However, the battle is one at daybreak and as such, Manny begins to disappear from existence. Manny tells Ellie all about their life together and their daughter as he’s disappearing. He tells her how he’s enjoyed falling in love with her all over again. As the sun rises, Manny begins to fade from existence, but Ellie, having fallen in love with him all over again, kisses him just before he disappears completely, which nullifies the contract and restores Manny to his world just before he originally lashed out at everyone. Manny embraces his friends and family with newfound appreciation for everything he has, truly living happily forever after.

Cast

 * Ray Romano as Manny, a woolly mammoth and the leader of The Herd.
 * John Leguizamo as Sid, a ground sloth and the founder of The Herd.
 * Denis Leary as Diego, a saber tooth tiger and the member of The Herd.go
 * Queen Latifah as Ellie, a female woolly mammoth – Manny's wife.
 * Keke Palmer as Peaches, a young female woolly mammoth – Manny and Ellie's daughter.
 * Adam DeVine as Julian, a woolly mammoth and Peaches's fiancé.
 * Seann William Scott as Crash, a opossum and the other brother of Ellie
 * Nick Offerman as Gavin, a dinosaur bird who loves his kids
 * Stephaine Beatriz as Gertie, a dinosaur bird and Gavin's daughter
 * Max Greenfield as Roger, a dinosaur bird and Gavin's son
 * Scott Adist as Pink Sheep, a pink sheep who is a Minecraft YouTuber and is a prankster gangster, and Purple Shep, Pink Sheep's ugly son.
 * Alex Hirsch as Herobrine, a Minecrafter who is the ruler of the monster empire, and the main antagonist in the film.
 * Josh Gad as Louis, a molehog and Peaches' best friend next to Roger.
 * Alan Tudyk as the Wither, a three-headed flying beast who works for Herobrine, and the Ender Dragon, a black dragon who lives in the The End and works for Herobrine.
 * Keith Ferguson, Sam Riegel, Tom Kenny, and Frank Welker as Herobrine's minions such as creepers, zombies, seletons, endermen, spiders, witches, silverfishes, slimes, zombie pigmen, ghasts, blazes, magma cubes, shulkers, endermites, illagers, and guardians.
 * Alexander Gould as Steve, a Minecrafter who helps Manny, Sid, and Diego find Ellie. He also helps Sid, Diego, and the mammoths and YouTubers battle Herobrine.
 * Jessica DiCiocco as Alex, a female Minecrafter who is friends with Steve.

Box Office
Ice Age Forever After earned $126 million at the worldwide box office.

Critical Response
Ice Age Forever After received generally negative reviews from critics, with a 1/10 rating on IMDB, a 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 4/100 rating on Metacritic. Critics are upset about the fact that Blue Sky Studios ripped off Shrek Forever After, while some praised the animation quality.

Trivia

 * This is the only Ice Age movie to be a crossover.
 * Herobrine from the video game Minecraft is the main antagonist of the film.
 * The film is considered the worst Ice Age movie ever (even worse than Collision Course) because it ripped off Shrek Forever After.
 * In one scene, the show that everyone was watching before Herobrine took to the airwaves across all of the valley was the intro for The Loud House.
 * Blue Sky Studios borrowed characters from Rovio Entertainment, Mojang, ExplodingTNT's YouTube channel, while they borrowed the intro for The Loud House from Nickelodeon.
 * This is the second Ice Age movie to feature humans, the first being the original Ice Age.
 * The humans from the original Ice Age, however, are only Neanderthals, while the ones in this film are Minecrafters.
 * Some of the characters from the first five films have cameos in the end credits.

Poll
What do you think of this idea? Great idea! It should exist! Not bad. Horrible!