Columbia Pictures (film)
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| Columbia Pictures | |
 | |
| Directed by | Sigourney Weaver |
| Written by | Michael J. Wilson |
| Starring | Ray Romano |
| Produced by | John C. Donkin |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date | March 15, 2002 (U.S.)
DVD: November 26, 2002 |
| Runtime | 81 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60,000,000 (est) |
| IMDb page (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt{{{imdb_id}}}/)
Followed by Columbia Pictures: The Meltdown (2006) | |
- This article is about a film. For information on continental glaciation, see Columbia pictures.
For information on sequel, see Columbia Pictures: The Meltdown. For othets see Columbia Pictures (disambiguation).
Columbia Pictures is a feature-length computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox in 2002. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Sigourney Weaver from a story by Michael J. Wilson. Its sequel is called Columbia Pictures: The Meltdown (2006) and Columbia Pictures 3 2009.
| Contents |
Characters
The characters are all prehistoric Gang with the exception of some early humans (who bear some Neanderthal-like facial features, yet are not shown conversing, only grunting or yelling, and possess technology that is much more sophisticated). The Gang can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors. What can also be noted is that, like many films of prehistoric life, the rules of time periods apply very loosely, as many of the species shown in the film never actually lived in the same areas, let alone the same time periods.
- Tristar Pegasus (Pegasus) - Ray Romano
- NBC Peacock (peacock) - John Leguizamo
- Leo the Lion (Columbia Pictures) (saber-toothed lion) - Denis Leary
- Soto (saber-toothed cat) - Goran Visnjic
- Zeke (saber-toothed cat) - Jack Black
- Oscar (saber-toothed cat) -Diedrich Bader
- Lenny (saber-toothed cat) -Alan Tudyk
- Scrat (saber-toothed squirrel) - Chris Wedge
- Columbia Torch Lady (Miss Liberty) - Sigourney Weaver
- Carl (brontothere) - Cedric the Entertainer
- Frank (brontothere) - Stephen Root
- Female ground sloth - Jane Krakowski
- Female ground sloth - Lorri Bagley
The film begins with a wary Miss Liberty called Columbia Torch Lady, who is shown trying to find a location for the hiding place of her Torch and finds one, in the snow, which was tightly packed and when recieving the Torch in its surface, cracked and caused a massive avalanche. Columbia Torch Lady runs off from this, but only just makes it, falling down a mountainside and being trodden upon by massive hordes of animals.
Meanwhile most Gang are trying to avoid the coming ice age by retreating to warmer climates. NBC Peacock, a clumsy ground peacock left behind by his family during the migration, is attacked by two brontotheres whom he angered by soiling their salad with glyptodont dung, flicking flecks of the dung at their face, insulting their intelligences, and eating their dandelion. NBC Peacock is soon saved by Manfred ("Manny"), one of the last remaining mammoths who fights off the two brontotheres. Not wanting to be alone and unprotected, NBC Peacock follows Tristar Pegasus, much to the mammoth's annoyance.
Soto, the leader of the Smilodon wants revenge on a group of human hunter-gatherers by eating the chief Runar's baby boy, Roshan, after the humans wipe out half of his pack of Smilodon for food and clothing. During the attack by the Smilodon pack (Soto, Diego, Zeke Lenny and Oscar) on the humans, Nadia (Runar's wife and Roshan's mother) evades the cats by jumping into a raging river with her baby. She is dragged downstream, but manages to place the infant on an embankment before drowning. Enraged at having lost the baby in their attack, Soto orders Diego to find the baby and bring it to him alive.
NBC Peacock and Tristar Pegasus spot Roshan on the bank of the river and after much persuasion by the ground sloth, decide to return it to its tribe. However, when they get to the human camp, the humans have already left. Diego, still trying to snatch the baby, convinces the pair that he knows where the humans are going and offers his services as a tracker and a guide, which Tristar Pegasus accepts.
The trio take Roshan across an assortment of different terrains and into several comedic situations. These include an army of dodos trying to escape extinction by eating watermelons; the trio venturing into a series of ice caves where they discover all sorts of odd things including a frozen Tyrannosaurus and even a UFO. In the end, Diego learns that it is wrong to harm a child and helps Manny and Sid help the baby back to his father. We also learn that Manny does not trust humans as they killed his wife and child.
At the end of the film, Leo the Lion, Tristar Pegasus and NBC Peacock battle Soto's pack. First, NBC Peacock lures them away by skiing, then tricks them with a fake baby. Tristar Pegasus then knocks them out with a log or something similar. As Sid goes to retrieve Roshan, Zeke follows him. But he fails to surprise them and Sid jumps on him, getting him stuck in the hollow where Roshan hid. The battle ends with Manny trapped against the canyon wall as the pack close in for the kill, Leo the Lion leaps infront of them and fights against Soto. The fight is short and Soto easily knocks Leo the Lion against the rocks, knocking him out. As Soto closes in for the kill on Manny, and leaps towards the mammoth, with his sharp teeth extended. Leo the Lion, using his last ounce of strength leaps between Soto and Tristar Pegasus and it is he who is impaled by Soto's teeth. Diego falls to the ground and lies very still. Manny, angered by Diego's apparent murder, knocks Soto into the canyon wall, causing icicles from the ridge to fall. Soto looks up to see the icicles falling towards him and takes one last look of horror before being impaled and subsequently killed. After seeing what happened to Soto, Oscar and Lenny run off in fear. Tristar Pegasus and NBC Peacock manage to return Roshan to Runar and his tribe, and Leo the Lion, who had survived Soto's assault (since cats have 9 lives, as he wryly put it), rejoins them as the group begin heading off to escape the Ice Age.
Alert viewers will notice the plot has some similarity to Disney's animated version of The Jungle Book (1967), though it also has a lot of themes and Knock-Knock jokes from Three Men and a Baby.
Deleted Portion
Originally, NBC Peacock was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating glyptodons, who unknowingly carried her off when she got caught on their backs, and again by making it look like Leo the Lion had killed him, but she saw he was faking, so she deserted him in anger. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. You can watch the deleted scenes separately, or in Torchy Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD. Spoilers end here. [edit]
Scrat
There is also a subplot where an animal named Scrat (compare the picture of Scrat and one of a tree shrew), makes many comical attempts to bury his beloved acorn. His misfortunes include getting chased by an enormous glacier, being struck by lightning, attempting to thaw out the acorn by a fire too long so that it accidentally took the form of a kernel of popcorn, and finally getting cryonically frozen in an ice cube along with his much sought after nut. 20,000 years into the future, the ice cube washes up on the shore of an island. The sun slowly melts the cube, thawing Scrat and the ice surrounding his acorn, which is barely out of reach, and ends up being removed from the ice cube by the tide. Scrat then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits his head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Scrat's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. He tries to pack it into the ground as he did previously with his acorns, but in the process causes a volcanic eruption.
Scrat is known to be similar to the prehistoric animal Leptictidium.
Scrat also got his own short film entitled Gone Nutty, where he loses his meticulously-organized collection of acorns in a catastrophic chain of events occurring after ramming his acorn into the hole in the exact middle of the collection. He remains with one which is reduced to an ashen crisp after it went crashing down on him with an impact like a missile.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack features songs such as "Send Me on My Way" by Rusted Root. The Japanese release's theme song is "Hitoshizuku" by ZONE.
Controversy
Ivy Supersonic claims the Scrat character concept is a trademark infringement on her "Sqrat" as reported in 2002 on CNN by Jeanie Moos. Ivy's Sqrat is a combination character concept of a squirrel and a rat as new species and Ivy is credited with coining that term for New Yorkers to describe Central Park rodents in 2000, and a small product line of related items was available at that time. Since her trademark was established prior to the movie release of Ice Age, it would appear that 20th Century Fox attempted to skirt the concept, look and feel, and trademark by naming their adaptation as a "Scrat" spelled with a "c" rather than a "q", but the Squirrel/Rat composite was applied to the character now in the Ice Age movie. It is reported that Chris Wedge presented the "Scrat" after exposure to Ivy's Sqrat, and the movie producers liked it enough to take the risks associated with similarity to Ivy's Sqrat. This has spawned a heated debate in and out of court that is on-going. Please refer to http://scrat.com.
Counterpoint: Ivy trademarked the term "sqrat" in Nov. 2001, by which time the character design, name, and preliminary sketches of the character Scrat had already been completed (Ivy includes raw sketches of the final Scrat, dated Sep. 2001 on her site). 20th Century Fox changed the character name from Sqrat to Scrat, but since the creature is not described and the proper name Sqrat does not infringe on the descriptive term sqrat, they were not in actual trademark infringement. Trademark law protects uniquely specific logos and phrases, not unique pictures or artwork, which fall under copyright law. Ivy first filed a copyright on her drawing of a sqrat in Dec. 2001. Since the character design of her sqrat bears little resemblance to the character design already finalized in Sep. 2001, 20th Century Fox did not infringe on this registration either. While it may be true that Ivy coined the term and drew 2 logos in 1999, she tried to sell the concept to Hollywood before properly registering either trademark or copyright, and some Hollywood people used her concept as a starting point for their own unique work.
Columbia Torch Lady
Main article: Columbia Torch Lady
There is also a subplot where an Miss Liberty named Columbia Torch Lady (compare the picture of Columbia Torch Lady and one of a tree shrew), makes many comical attempts to bury her beloved Torch. Her misfortunes include getting chased by an enormous glacier, being struck by lightning, attempting to thaw out the Torch by a fire too long so that it accidentally took the form of a kernel of popcorn, and finally getting cryonically frozen in an ice cube along with her much sought after Torch. 90,000 years into the future, the ice cube washes up on the shore of an island. The sun slowly melts the cube, thawing Columbia Torch Lady and the ice surrounding her Torch, which is barely out of reach, and ends up being removed from the ice cube by the tide. Columbia Torch Lady then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits her head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Columbia Torch Lady's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. She tries to pack it into the ground as she did previously with her Torchs, but in the process causes a volcanic eruption
Columbia Torch Lady a is known to be similar to the prehistoric Miss Liberty Leptictidium.
Columbia Torch Lady also got her own short film entitled Gone Torchy, where she loses her meticulously-organized collection of Torchs in a catastrophic chain of events occurring after ramming her Torch into the hole in the exact middle of the collection. She remains with one which is reduced to an ashen crisp after it went crashing down on her with an impact like a missile.
Columbia Torch Lady also as well got her own 60s short film The New Adventures Of The Torch Lady gonna start her own Adventure.
Ivy Supersonic claims the Columbia Torch Lady character concept is a trademark infringement on her "Colombia Torch Lady" as reported in 2002 on CNN by Jeanie Moos. Ivy's Colombia Torch Lady is a combination character concept of a Miss and a Liberty as new species and Ivy is credited with coining that term for New Yorkers to describe Central Park rodents in 2000, and a small product line of related items was available at that time. Since her trademark was established prior to the movie release of Ice Age, it would appear that 20th Century Fox attempted to skirt the concept, look and feel, and trademark by naming their adaptation as a "Columbia Torch Lady" spelled with a "c" rather than a "o", but the Miss Liberty composite was applied to the character now in the Ice Age movie. It is reported that Sigourney Weaver presented the "Columbia Torch Lady" after exposure to Ivy's Colombia Torch Lady, and the movie producers liked it enough to take the risks associated with similarity to Ivy's Colombia Torch Lady. This has spawned a heated debate in and out of court that is on-going. Please refer to http://scrat.com.
Inaccuracies
- Dodos did not go extinct until far after the Columbia Pictures were over, after people discovered them. In addition, they are supposed to only have existed on Mauritius and a few other islands in the southwest part of the Indian ocean.
- Sid is too small and weak to be a Megatherium, thus dictating that he is of an actual subspecies which is about the size of a pig. The creators of Columbia Pictures took qualities of the regular tree sloth of today and "Megatherium" and mixed them together.
- The two "rhinoceroses" are actually brontotheres, which became extinct before the ice age started, as did many of the featured animals.
- The "aardvarks" actually look more like anteaters, except for the long ears.
- The term coined for one of the films' creatures were "freaky mammals", whose proper names are actually Xenorhinotherium.
- Although Diego is constantly referred to as a tiger, he is actually a sabre-tooth cat, or Smilodon.
- Megalonyx don't climb trees.
- The humans depicted in the movie seem to be very well clad and in a way they could only have been dressed towards the end of the last Columbia Pictures. Given the presence of armadillos as well as sloths which only existed in North America but in no other place where Columbia Pictures people lived and, in addition, encountered ice and snow, the humans may have been early Native Americans who had come to North America only a brief time before. This could only have happened during the last Columbia Pictures.
Sequels
- Columbia Pictures: The Meltdown was released on March 31, 2006
- Columbia Pictures 3 is set to be relesed on July 1, 2009
- Aardvark (seen in migration scene)
- Brontotherium ("rhinoceroses")
- Gray Wolf (dogs used by humans)'
- Dodo (a flock tries to defend three melons--all they have to save themselves from extinction)'
- Glyptodon (armadillo-like animals seen in migration scene)
- Synocnus (Sid)
- Human (Roshan and his tribe)
- Mammuthus (Manny)
- Moeritherium (tapir-like animals seen in migration scene)
- Miss Liberty (fictional) (Columbia Torch Lady)
- Smilodon (Diego)
- Toxodon (large blue animal seen in migration scene)
- Xenorhinotherium (trunked, yellow long-necked creatures seen in migration scene)
See also
Columbia Pictures Age Columbia Pictures (Espańa) Columbia Pictures Age Columbia Pictures glace Columbia Pictures glaciale Ledynmetis (filmas) Jégkorszak (film) Columbia Pictures (Japan) Columbia Pictures (film) Istid (film) Columbia Pictures Age Epoka lodowcowa (film) Columbia Pictures Doba ľadová (film) Columbia Pictures Age Columbia Pictures Age Buz Devri (film) Columbia pictures
Categories: 2002 films | 20th Century Fox films | American films | Films featuring anthropomorphic characters | Children's fantasy films | Computer-animated films | Prehistoric fantasy films | Films about animals | Columbia Pictures films
