>>STEVE MARTINO: Our biggest challenge was to create something unique in this picture
and for us we wanted it to be an epic story.
Let’s make it feel big, let’s make the stakes high for our characters.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>>: Every step of the way as we were working with camera, as we were working with effects,
everything was to serve, and it’s bad, it’s a big world, they’re on a tiny little piece
of ice.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>>NASH DUNNIGAN: In the storm sequence of course it’s very tense and very ominous
and they’re in peril the entire time and so the colors reflect that, the lighting reflects
that, everything’s dark, subdued with flashes of light.
It’s like turquoises and dark greens and dark blues and so that we have a palette to
work with at least color wise.
When the previous team gets in there and they start blocking out the cinematic beats of
the big moments, we’re actually figuring out wave heights and we’re figuring out
basically when we put the character, the boat, or the glacial ship in the middle of this
environment, what’s going to help convey scale in those really big shots.
One funny thing about that sequence, we had to run a sea sickness test.
We can’t have everybody in the theatre barfing to their neighbor if the seas are too rough.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>>STEVE MARTINO: This is the first movie we’ve had in a long time in Ice Age where there’s
a true villain for Manny and our guys and Captain Gutt is that character, voice by Peter
Dinklage.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>>NICK BRUNO: To be able to have the flexibility of what a real orangutan will do, it’s like
if you watch them they can go “ooh” but they’re lips will pull off of their denture.
>>JIM BRESNAHAN: We had to go back into that muzzle and add I think extra, what we call
controlled points to just be able to get those gummy shapes the way we wanted.
>>NICK BRUNO: To be able to not only do that but then control some of the weight moves
around that and still gets expressions is a real testament to the strength of our team.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>> NASH DUNNIGAN: One of the biggest challenges seems really small and innocuous but Granny’s
neck was really tough to get to look like an old baggy neck.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>>NICK BRUNO: We’ll say some of the technology to line up with each other was a little difficult
and Sid had some great solutions to allow us to do that and it’s a lot of fun to watch
in the movie.
It’s a subtle thing but if you’re looking for it, it’s disgustingly awesome.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
>> STEVE MARTINO: I think what makes the Ice Age movies work, and we tried to pay very
close attention to this in this movie, is that these characters we relate to almost
like human beings.
They have to connect with us in a way that I see Sid do something goofy or make a big
mistake, I’ve been there myself.
[MOVIE PLAYING]
And then we set it in a world that we don’t get to live in every day.
We get to take the audience back to an Ice Age, take them out into the high seas, seeing
a world rip apart in a huge and dramatic way that we don’t experience.
But at the core, we connect with the characters on a human level because we’re doing and
living the same kind of experiences that they are.