WhenAlien: Earthdebuted its first two episodes, there were certain things to expect. Xenomorphs, commentary on corporate greed, and deeper philosophical questions about artificial intelligence. Maybe even a Predator (no luck there… yet). One thing I don’t think anyone expected wasIce Agereferences.Yes, inAlien: Earth’s first two episodes, there are multiple references toIce Age. What makes this even odder is it’s not even the firstIce Age, the most iconic entry in the franchise, and the one that was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated film. It’sIce Age: Continental Drift, the fourth film in the franchise, with a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Alien: EarthusesIce Age: Continental Driftto highlight the bond between Wendy (Sydney Chandler), whose mind is that of a child in a synthetic adult body, and her brother Joe Hermit (Alex Lawther). The two watchedIce Age: Continental Drifttogether as kids and later shared an inside joke of Sid the Sloth saying “taste my fury,” with the series' second episode even having a dissolve transition between Wendy’s face and Sid the Sloth that might be the wildest creative choice in the series. Since then, I’ve been asking myself one central question: whyIce Age: Continental Drift?
‘Ice Age’ and ‘Alien’ Connections
Why did Noah Hawley choose to feature multiple scenes fromIce Age: Continental Drift? Is he secretly trying to tell us it is the best film in theIce Agefranchise? Where most film series struggle by their fourth entry, didIce Agesecretly peak, and will it be regarded as an animated classic in the future? Does anyone in theAlienfuture have any thoughts on the fact thatIce Age: Continental Driftfeatures Drake voicing a (teenage) mammoth who is dating Manny’s teenage daughter Peaches?
Now, one might wonder whyAlien: Earth,set in 2120, features a 2012 movie. But if the enduring legacy of Disney Animated films has shown us anything, it’s that they certainly have a lasting legacy among kids.Alien: Earthfeatures various scenes from Walt Disney’sPeter Pan, which would be 167 years removed from the events of the series.
Maybe that’s what it all is, brand synergy. Both Alien andIce Agewere properties that Disney acquired in its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Disney is now looking to expand both franchises.Alien: Earthis airing on FX, while they have anAlien: Romulussequel in the works, and the upcomingPredator: Badlandsis folding in more overt references to theAlienfranchise,possibly setting up a newAlien vs. Predatorfilm.
Meanwhile,Ice Age 6is slated for release on June 04, 2025, arriving 10 years after the previous film,Ice Age: Collision Course, hit theaters. Unlike the earlier films,Ice Age 6will be done by 20th Century Animation afterDisney shut downIce Age’s original animated studio, Blue Sky, in April 2021. DoesAlien: EarthuseIce Agebecause both were 20th Century Fox properties that Disney acquired and are now continuing to exploit?
There is the fun Easter Egg thatIce Age: Continental Driftcame out the same summer asPrometheus, a prequel toAlien. With Noah Hawley implyingAlien: Earthwould not acknowledge the events ofPrometheus, the inclusion ofIce Age: Continental Driftbecomes even funnier. Of the 2012 films that influencedAlien: Earth, it isn’t theAlienprequel but instead the fourth film in theIce Agefranchise.
Does the Reference Mean Something More in ‘Alien: Earth’?
Given Noah Hawley’s work on series likeLegionandFargo,the inclusion ofIce Age: Continental Drifthas to be something more. The series is, at its core, about children retreating into something safe, so the inclusion of a kids' film likeIce Agemakes sense. Even the idea of a seemingly innocuous kids' film shared between two siblings is a nice touch, as even if it isn’t regarded as great art by most, what matters is that it means something to someone, and even years later, it had an impact on these siblings in a unique bond they share. Given the Peter Pan symbolism, ifAlien: Earthwere to reference a Blue Sky Animation film, why notRobots, which also connects to the Alien franchise’s theme of sentient machines?
Well, thePeter Panreferences themselves might explain whyIce Age: Continental Driftwas chosen. The big hook ofIce Age: Continental Driftis thatthe three lead characters, Manny, Sid, and Diego, find themselves captive by a band of pirate-like characters led by Captain Glutt, a gigantopithecus.Ice Age: Continental Drift, featuring a pirate crew, draws a small connection to both Captain Hook’s pirate crew from Peter Pan and theAlienfranchise’s establishment of pirates in their world inAlien: Resurrection.Captain Glutt’s crew in the film is meant to be a dark mirror to Manny’s Herd, a group of outcasts that Glutt “rescued,” a parallel to Peter Pan’s lost boys, and also Prodigy’s CEO, Boy Chaviller, “saving” the children from disease and putting them in these synthetic bodies. However, much like Glutt, Boy Chaviller’s intentions are far from noble.
There is also the thematic connection betweenAlienand theIce Agefranchise… no, we aren’t kidding, roll with us on this. TheIce Agefilms are, at their core, a series about a changing world, one that is seemingly ending for the main characters. The ice is melting, landmasses are breaking apart, and all the species featured inIce Ageare depicted as eventually facing extinction. TheAlienfranchise is in a similar boat. The world inAlienis falling apart, with much of the franchise’s quest to colonize the stars implied by Earth’s resources running out and the planet becoming unsustainable. Combine that with a world run by corporations, where they have control over entire continents and even planets, andthe world inAlienis incredibly bleak, where everyday citizens seemingly are facing the end of the world without grappling with it.
Ice Age: Continental Driftfeatures a sea shanty titled “Master of the Sea” where Captain Glutt says the line “In a world that’s going under, to survive you must learn to plunder.” That feels eerily similar to the world glimpsed inAlien: Earth, a world that is dying, where the central plot is kicked off by two competing corporations, Prodigyand Weyland-Yutani, essentially waging a cold war with one another. Prodigy is going to plunder the Weyland-Yutani vessel that crashed into one of their controlled cities, not knowing the danger they will unleash on the planet. Meanwhile, Weyland-Yutani looks to be trying to stop them, but not for the safety of humanity, but for their bottom line. It is indeed a world going under.The first two episodes ofAlien: Earthare streaming onHulu.
