The global hit Ice Age franchise marks a historic feat as being the first full-length animation to reach its fifth installment for theatrical release in the latest Ice Age: Collision Course. Co-directing for the first time with acclaimed filmmaker Michael Thurmeier is Filipino American Galen Tan Chu.
Galen Tan Chu, born in Cebu, spent eleven years in the Philippines before migrating to the US where he studied illustration and animation at Pratt Institute. Chu is a true veteran of the Ice Age franchise and Blue Sky Studios where he built his career as an animator on Ice Age (2002). He then became a lead animator on Blue Sky’s second animated feature Robots (2005).
In Ice Age: The Meltdown”(2006), he was promoted to supervising animator and then served as supervising animator on Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! (2008), Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Rio (2011) and Epic (2013). He also directed the direct-to-DVD short Surviving Sid (2008).
Audiences everywhere love the Ice Age films, one of the biggest animated motion picture series in the world. Each new story increases the stakes, scale, adventure, humor and heart—making Ice Age: Collision Course the biggest and most ambitious film of the series. Propelling audiences to new environments, like the cosmos and a crystallized world known as Geotopia, this is the defining chapter in the Ice Age “chillogy,” with many of the characters beginning new journeys.
Ice Age: Collision Course sees Scrat playing pinball with the planets chasing his elusive acorn, he creates the ultimate Scrat-aclysm, sending the mother of all asteroids hurtling toward Earth. Again, Scrat’s misadventures have life- and world-changing consequences for our sub-zero heroes on the ground. At the same time, there are earth-shaking events of an entirely different nature playing out for the gang. Manny and Ellie’s daughter Peaches is getting married, and to Manny that’s as unwanted a development as an asteroid landing in his backyard.
Ice Age: Collision Course sees Manny’s world changing—and he’s not happy about it. Peaches dropped a bombshell on her parents, and, says co-director Galen Tan Chu, “Manny sees that as a threat. She’s not only getting married, she and her soon-to-be hubby Julian are moving away to begin their lives as a couple.”
Indeed, the Ice Age films are also love stories: Manny has Ellie, Peaches has Julian, Diego has Shira. Even the crazy brotherly bond between daredevils Crash and Eddie is a kind of love story. But what about Sid the sloth? For Sid, romantic love has proven elusive, if not impossible.
It’s not that Sid isn’t deserving of finding that special sloth. As Thurmeier points out, “If Manny is the emotional core of the Ice Age films, then Sid is the comic conscience. He has a good heart, and, as we saw in the first film, he was instrumental in bringing the herd together and was the one who cracked Manny’s tough exterior.” And it’s not that Sid isn’t interested in romance; as Chu notes, Sid “wears his heart on his sleeve.”
Reflecting on the franchise’s global central theme, Galen Tan Chu notes, “What strikes a chord for audiences around the world is that the members of the herd look out for each other. They’ve grown up together as this family, and people really connect to that journey.”
Ice Age: Collision Course opens in cinemas (2D and 3D) tomorrow. It is from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.
★★★★★
GMA Network, Kapuso personalities at 2016 Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Awards
GMA Network, along with notable Kapuso personalities, was once again recognized by Reader’s Digest as among the Philippines’ most trusted brands during the awards’ ceremonies held last June 30 in Ortigas, Pasig.
A Gold award was conferred anew on GMA in the TV network category in recognition of its unwavering commitment to unbiased news and top-notch entertainment.
GMA News’ and Peabody award-winning broadcast journalist Jessica Soho’s winning streak, meanwhile, continues as she took home the Most Trusted TV News Presenter award for the sixth consecutive year.
Aside from Soho, another GMA News personalty, the highly regarded Mike Enriquez, who is also the Network’s Consultant for Radio Operations, became the first recipient of the Most Trusted Radio Presenter award.
Last but certainly not least, Filipino boxing hero and long-time Kapuso Manny Pacquiao was also again recognized as the country’s Most Trusted Sports Personality.
Winners of the Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand Awards were chosen based on a survey among approximately 8,000 consumers across key markets in Asia.
★★★★★
Genetically engineered superhuman in ‘Morgan’
Luke Scott, son of highly acclaimed blockbuster maker Ridley Scott (Alien, The Martian) debuts as director (full-length film) in the sci-fi thriller Morgan starring Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Paul Giamatti, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook and Michelle Yeoh.
Morgan tells the chilling tale of a creation that escaped in a tightly-guarded facility for artificial intelligence. A corporate troubleshooter, played by Kate Mara, is sent to the remote, top-secret location, where she is to investigate and evaluate the terrifying incident. She learns that the seemingly innocent “human” who escaped has both infinite promise and incalculable danger.
Scott, from his previous interview with EW reveals that Morgan eventually becomes greater than the scientists who created her. “What Morgan really alludes to is human beings becoming, in a sense, the creator. Not in a traditional religious sense, but an idea that we have the capabilities to become our own creator. And what I suspect could happen — we’ve seen it in all these movies, whether it’s Frankenstein or Metropolis — it’s the creation of a being that is greater than the creator. That is fascinating to me, and it definitely feels like a next stage of evolution in the real world.”
Produced by Ridley Scott, Morgan opens in cinemas nationwide on Sept. 7 from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.