7. Ice Age
At present there seems to be only two ways to do childrens animations; put loads of time and effort in creating believable characters and touching stories or just throw in bright colours and tired pop culture references. The first Ice Age is most certainly in the former camp; heart-warming and one of the few non-Pixar successes from the early days of computer animation. And then the aftermath of Shrek took hold. The subsequent entries in the series slowly succumbed to unfunny characters and ludicrous plots, but most noticeable was the increasing reliance on pop culture jokes. This wasn't enough to damage The Meltdown or Dawn of the Dinosaurs, but with this years awful Continental Drift (an entry so bad even the Scrat segues weren't funny), they definitely went too far. At one point in the film, theres a tribe that is an obvious Ewok rip-off, with the leader wearing Braveheart face paint who leads a charge down a sunbathed hill akin to Gandalf in The Two Towers. Then the movie continues without a single comment or witticism made on the references. Theres no attempt to make a joke about the source for adults to enjoy, or to make the scene worthwhile for kids. Its lazy, unfunny comedy, but more on that in a much worse franchise later. At some point, Ice Age, a good natured series, became so lacking in identity that it is now nigh time that it was put to rest. And dont even get me started on the time line of events.