A co--ection of images

Question

What movie title from 2002 is hidden below?

---

Answer 1

The hidden 2002 movie is:

ICE AGE

To understand why, it's best to consider the solution in several steps.

Step 1:

First, identify all of the images.

There's a helpful hint for each, in that the number in each box indicates the word length:

Row 1: POWDER, ROOT, HAND, SEA, CROSS, UNIT
Row 2: PIE, FRUIT, STREET, MEDAL, CHEESE, COLD
Row 3: CLOTHES, PAPER, STAR, RUBIK'S, CIRCLE, ALE

Step 2:

Now look at the colours of the numbers.

Each colour is used 3 times across the puzzle. Let's group these images in terms of their colours in common:

Blue: POWDER, MEDAL, STAR
Dark red: ROOT, UNIT, RUBIK'S
Grey: HAND, CROSS, CLOTHES
Slate blue: SEA, STREET, PAPER
Orange: PIE, CHEESE, ALE
Red: FRUIT, COLD, CIRCLE

Step 3:

Next...

...find a word that connects each triplet, by forming other words or phrases when placed before or after them:

Blue = BRONZE: Bronze POWDER, Bronze MEDAL, Bronze STAR
Dark red = CUBE: Cube ROOT, UNIT Cube, RUBIK'S Cube
Grey = IRON: (govern with an) Iron HAND, Iron CROSS, CLOTHES Iron
Slate blue = WALL: SEA Wall, Wall STREET, WallPAPER
Orange = CREAM: Cream PIE, Cream CHEESE, Cream ALE
Red = STONE: Stone FRUIT, Stone COLD, Stone CIRCLE

Step 4:

Now notice the border colours of each boxes. Specifically...

...note that each set of boxes - whether yellow-bordered or lilac-bordered - comprises a set of three of the categories we just found.

i.e. Yellow bordered boxes comprise all Dark red, Orange, and Slate blue groups; Lilac bordered boxes comprise all Blue, Grey, and Red groups.

Now, the connections we just found in Step 3 for these two trios of groups can themselves be linked in exactly the same 'before-or-after' way:

Dark red (CUBE) & Slate blue (WALL) & Orange (CREAM) = ICE: Ice CUBE, Ice WALL, Ice CREAM.

Blue (BRONZE) & Grey (IRON) & Red (STONE) = AGE: BRONZE Age, IRON Age, STONE Age.

Step 5:

Put these together, and we have our answer!

ICE AGE

As for the title...

We are supposed to infer that this isn't just a coLLection of images, but that this puzzle also involves the coNNection of images!