Some franchises run on spectacle. The Ice Age herd runs on something better. On February 5, 2027, Disney and 20th Century Animation bring the mammoths, sloths, and saber-tooths back to theaters with Ice Age: Boiling Point, and the news lands like a warm blanket on a cold night. When so much animation keeps getting louder, the return of cinema’s coziest found family feels like an act of generosity.
Two Decades of Showing Up
Quick appreciation, because the numbers deserve it. Since 2002, these films have earned billions worldwide and raised roughly two generations of kids. Manny, Sid, Diego, Ellie, and the possum brothers aren’t characters at this point. They’re old friends. And the series has always understood the thing that actually matters: family isn’t species or blood or competence. It’s showing up when the ice cracks under someone you love.
This will be the first theatrical Ice Age made without Blue Sky Studios, the beloved animation house that closed its doors in 2021. The torch passes to 20th Century Animation, with longtime series producer Lori Forte joined by Patrick Worlock. There’s real tenderness in that handoff. This crew grew up inside these movies, and the mandate is clearly continuity of spirit, not reinvention.
The Voices Are the Franchise
The cast list is a comfort in itself. Ray Romano’s big-hearted Manny. John Leguizamo’s gloriously unhinged Sid. Queen Latifah’s warm, wise Ellie. Denis Leary’s gruffly lovable Diego. Simon Pegg’s swashbuckling Buck. Try imagining anyone else in those roles. You can’t. Two decades of chemistry will do that.
The reunion started as a whisper. Back in September 2024, Leguizamo let it slip on the Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! podcast: “We’re about to do Ice Age 6!” That November, Disney made it official, confirming all five leads were returning. These performances never feel like voice acting. They feel like friends talking, and hearing them riff again is going to be pure comfort. It’s a strong season for beloved returns, with Star Wars: Starfighter and The Hunt for Gollum also on the way, and the herd is happy to lead the parade.
Scrat’s Back, and He Brought Backup
And then there’s Scrat. The saber-toothed squirrel and his eternal, doomed pursuit of the acorn. Wordless, timeless, funny in every language on the planet. One of the great running gags in film history.
At CinemaCon this past April, Disney showed the film’s opening scene: Scrat and Baby Scrat, escaping a volcanic eruption together. Read that again. Baby Scrat. The little guy who debuted in Scrat Tales now gets the big screen, and a new generation of acorn-chasing chaos. We’re already laughing.
Sincerity Is the Superpower
Here’s the larger story, and it’s worth telling. Modern animation keeps sprinting toward two extremes: photorealistic spectacle or meta-comedy winking at the grown-ups. Ice Age never played either game. Its charm is old-fashioned in the best way. Expressive animation, sincere feeling, jokes built on timing instead of references. In 2026, that sincerity reads as quietly radical. Kids deserve stories that believe in friendship without footnotes. Parents deserve movies they can enjoy without decoding three layers of irony.
The series is also a stealth argument for an unfashionable idea: franchises can age gracefully. More than twenty years in, the herd hasn’t been rebooted, deconstructed, or grimly reimagined. It’s just continued, kinder if anything than before. There’s a lesson there for an industry addicted to reinvention. Sometimes the bravest move is to keep being yourself, only better.
One scheduling note, for the planners: Boiling Point was originally set for this December 18, but shifted to February 5, 2027, after Avengers: Doomsday claimed the holiday slot. The upside? A February family event all to itself, no competition, the whole month to belong to the herd. John C. Donkin, a longtime Ice Age producer, steps up to direct, and the first teaser this past June showed Crash and Eddie back in the mix alongside the whole gang.
Verdict
Ice Age: Boiling Point arrives this February as the ideal winter gift: familiar, funny, full of feeling. Gather the family, grab the popcorn, and let the mammoths remind you what the movies are for. More than two decades on, the ice has never felt warmer.
