What began as an unlikely friendship between three misfit creatures — a sloth, a mammoth believing he was the last of his kind and a saber-toothed tiger that doesn’t want to be violent — in “Ice Age” (2002) has stretched into a storied saga of the trio’s journey through all kinds of realms as warming slowly melts their world across five “Ice Age” movies and one spinoff.
The three friends are brought together by a human baby, whose mother drowns after saving him from saber-toothed tigers trying to hunt her and her child. Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) find the child, and Diego the sabertooth (Denis Leary) joins them on their quest to return him to his father, abandoning his own pack who hunted the kid in the first place.
Later, love interests Ellie (Queen Latifah) and Shira (Jennifer Lopez) enter the picture for Manny and Diego, with many more special guest voices starring in the various installments. Keke Palmer voices Manny and Ellie’s daughter Peaches, who survives bloodthirsty dinosaurs on the day of her birth. In the second film, Josh Peck and Seann William Scott join the herd as Eddie and Crash, the possum twins who grew up alongside Ellie. Bill Hader voices a wary gazelle, Joey King a Beaver and Jane Lynch a Diatryma in “Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” which features Simon Pegg as Buck who helps the herd navigate through the subterranean prehistoric world that fosters the fossil creatures. “Continental Drift” welcomes Aziz Ansari as Squint, Joy Behar as Eunice, Peter Dinklage as Captain Gutt, Drake as Ethan and Josh Gad as Louis to the wild ride.
The fifth and final movie in the main series has quite the lineup with Stephanie Beatriz voicing Gertie, Neil deGrasse Tyson voicing Neil deBuck Weasel, Adam Levine voices Julian, Jesse Tyler Ferguson voices Shangri Llama, Max Greenfield voices Roger, Jessie J voices Brooke and Nick Offerman voices Gavin.
And then Pegg’s Buck got his own spinoff with “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” in 2022, starring Justina Machado and Utkarsh Ambudkar.
With six films in total and no numbers in the titles, we’re here to help you keep straight how to watch the “Ice Age” movies in order.
How to Watch the “Ice Age” Movies in Chronological Order:
The chronological story of the “Ice Age” films follows the order in which they were released, so the “Ice Age” movies in release order and in chronological order are one and the same.
It all starts with the original film in 2002 all the way to “Collision Course,” which culminates in an asteroid heading for Earth to complete all the other final events that have been hinting at the conclusion of the franchise from the first cracks in the glaciers to the splitting up of Pangea.
- “Ice Age” (2002)
- “Ice Age: The Meltdown” (2006)
- “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” (2009)
- “Ice Age: Continental Drift” (2012)
- “Ice Age: Collision Course” (2016)
- “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” (2022)
Do You Have to Watch the “Ice Age” Movies in Order?
Not necessarily, though if you want the full story, this might be the best move, since the background of the three main characters gets established in the first film. “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” and “Continental Drift” take on the most different world settings and new faces. You also can’t miss Manny meeting Ellie, who thinks she’s a possum until “The Meltdown.” Luckily, Scrat and his acorn thread through all five films.
Where Are the “Ice Age” Movies Streaming:
The following “Ice Age” movies are streaming on Disney+:
- “Ice Age”
- “Ice Age: The Meltdown”
- “Ice Age: Continental Drift”
- “Ice Age: Collision Course”
- “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild”
And “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” — the third film in the franchise — is streaming on Starz.
