When Alien: Earth debuted its first two episodes, there have been sure issues to anticipate. Xenomorphs, commentary on company greed, and deeper philosophical questions on synthetic intelligence. Perhaps even a Predator (no luck there… but). One factor I do not suppose anybody anticipated was Ice Age references. Sure, in Alien: Earth‘s first two episodes, there are a number of references to Ice Age. What makes this even odder is it isn’t even the primary Ice Age, essentially the most iconic entry within the franchise, and the one which was nominated for an Academy Award for Greatest Animated movie. It is Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth movie within the franchise, with a 38% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.
Alien: Earth makes use of Ice Age: Continental Drift to spotlight the bond between Wendy (Sydney Chandler), whose thoughts is that of a kid in an artificial grownup physique, and her brother Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther). The 2 watched Ice Age: Continental Drift collectively as youngsters and later shared an inside joke of Sid the Sloth saying “style my fury,” with the collection’ second episode even having a dissolve transition between Wendy’s face and Sid the Sloth that may be the wildest inventive selection within the collection. Since then, I have been asking myself one central query: why Ice Age: Continental Drift?
‘Ice Age’ and ‘Alien’ Connections
Why did Noah Hawley select to function a number of scenes from Ice Age: Continental Drift? Is he secretly attempting to inform us it’s the finest movie within the Ice Age franchise? The place most movie collection wrestle by their fourth entry, did Ice Age secretly peak, and can or not it’s thought to be an animated basic sooner or later? Does anybody within the Alien future have any ideas on the truth that Ice Age: Continental Drift options Drake voicing a (teenage) mammoth who’s courting Manny’s teenage daughter Peaches?
Now, one may marvel why Alien: Earth, set in 2120, incorporates a 2012 film. But when the enduring legacy of Disney Animated movies has proven us something, it is that they actually have a long-lasting legacy amongst youngsters. Alien: Earth options numerous scenes from Walt Disney’s Peter Pan, which might be 167 years faraway from the occasions of the collection.
Perhaps that is what all of it is, model synergy. Each Alien and Ice Age have been properties that Disney acquired in its acquisition of twentieth Century Fox. Disney is now trying to broaden each franchises. Alien: Earth is airing on FX, whereas they’ve an Alien: Romulus sequel within the works, and the upcoming Predator: Badlands is folding in additional overt references to the Alien franchise, presumably establishing a brand new Alien vs. Predator movie.
In the meantime, Ice Age 6 is slated for launch on December 18, 2026, arriving 10 years after the earlier movie, Ice Age: Collision Course, hit theaters. In contrast to the sooner movies, Ice Age 6 can be executed by twentieth Century Animation after Disney shut down Ice Age‘s authentic animated studio, Blue Sky, in April 2021. Does Alien: Earth use Ice Age as a result of each have been twentieth Century Fox properties that Disney acquired and at the moment are persevering with to take advantage of?
There’s the enjoyable Easter Egg that Ice Age: Continental Drift got here out the identical summer season as Prometheus, a prequel to Alien. With Noah Hawley implying Alien: Earth wouldn’t acknowledge the occasions of Prometheus, the inclusion of Ice Age: Continental Drift turns into even funnier. Of the 2012 movies that influenced Alien: Earth, it is not the Alien prequel however as an alternative the fourth movie within the Ice Age franchise.
Does the Reference Imply One thing Extra in ‘Alien: Earth’?
Given Noah Hawley’s work on collection like Legion and Fargo, the inclusion of Ice Age: Continental Drift must be one thing extra. The collection is, at its core, about kids retreating into one thing protected, so the inclusion of a youngsters’ movie like Ice Age is smart. Even the thought of a seemingly innocuous youngsters’ movie shared between two siblings is a pleasant contact, as even when it is not thought to be nice artwork by most, what issues is that it means one thing to somebody, and even years later, it had an influence on these siblings in a singular bond they share. Given the Peter Pan symbolism, if Alien: Earth have been to reference a Blue Sky Animation movie, why not Robots, which additionally connects to the Alien franchise’s theme of sentient machines?
Effectively, the Peter Pan references themselves may clarify why Ice Age: Continental Drift was chosen. The massive hook of Ice Age: Continental Drift is that the three lead characters, Manny, Sid, and Diego, discover themselves captive by a band of pirate-like characters led by Captain Glutt, a gigantopithecus. Ice Age: Continental Drift, that includes a pirate crew, attracts a small connection to each Captain Hook’s pirate crew from Peter Pan and the Alien franchise’s institution of pirates of their world in Alien: Resurrection. Captain Glutt’s crew within the movie is supposed to be a darkish mirror to Manny’s Herd, a bunch of outcasts that Glutt “rescued,” a parallel to Peter Pan’s misplaced boys, and in addition Prodigy’s CEO, Boy Chaviller, “saving” the kids from illness and placing them in these artificial our bodies. Nevertheless, very like Glutt, Boy Chaviller’s intentions are removed from noble.
There’s additionally the thematic connection between Alien and the Ice Age franchise… no, we aren’t kidding, roll with us on this. The Ice Age movies are, at their core, a collection a few altering world, one that’s seemingly ending for the principle characters. The ice is melting, landmasses are breaking up, and all of the species featured in Ice Age are depicted as finally going through extinction. The Alien franchise is in an analogous boat. The world in Alien is falling aside, with a lot of the franchise’s quest to colonize the celebs implied by Earth’s sources working out and the planet changing into unsustainable. Mix that with a world run by firms, the place they’ve management over total continents and even planets, and the world in Alien is extremely bleak, the place on a regular basis residents seemingly are going through the top of the world with out grappling with it.
Ice Age: Continental Drift incorporates a sea shanty titled “Grasp of the Sea” the place Captain Glutt says the road “In a world that is going underneath, to outlive you could be taught to plunder.” That feels eerily just like the world glimpsed in Alien: Earth, a world that’s dying, the place the central plot is kicked off by two competing firms, Prodigy and Weyland-Yutani, primarily waging a chilly struggle with each other. Prodigy goes to plunder the Weyland-Yutani vessel that crashed into considered one of their managed cities, not realizing the hazard they are going to unleash on the planet. In the meantime, Weyland-Yutani seems to be attempting to cease them, however not for the protection of humanity, however for his or her backside line. It’s certainly a world going underneath. The primary two episodes of Alien: Earth are streaming on Hulu.