just found out about the blue sky studios thing and all i wanna say is that. ice age was a big childhood favorite of mine, absolutely, but rio. man, rio
i was so used to brazil being used as a joke in movies that i was scared to go to the theatre that day. and the movie starts. and slowly, scene by scene, i relax. and i start to laugh. and i point at all the references, all the little things i recognize, all the relatable jokes. i was just a kid, but rio really changed things for me, to finally have a movie that i can point to and say “that’s how we are, that’s how i am”, and that’s why blue sky studios was a studio that i was very fond of for years
this is a very silly post but i have a lot of emotions right now. obrigado, blue sky studios, e até a próxima
I think a lot about how in Ice Age 1 a huge theme is the slow but unstoppable advancement of the human species as they start to threaten previously unchallenged megafauna (hunting the pack of the antagonist sabertooth and killing Manny the mammoth’s family) and then in all the sequels they just fuckin disappear
I think a lot about how the first movie was actually pretty somber and dark with moments of lightheartedness and comedy, about three animals who had lost their own families finding family in each other while trying to return this baby to his own family… The first sequel, while wackier, touches on the existential dread and loneliness Manny feels at being the apparent last of his kind, his exhilaration at meeting another like him, and the question of “be together because we want to be, or we HAVE to be?” as well as Ellie having been part of a found family herself…
….and then the franchise from then on out turns into “wacky animal hijinks.”
“There are so, so many ghosts,” he says. “Like this shade of a squirrel.” He hunkers down, sets a nut on the pavement and kills it with fire. It lingers, briefly, just long enough for the squirrel to find it, and be released. He smiles and looks at me. “Now, how can I help you?”
