Customer Reviews

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" marks the third CG animated film for 20th Century Fox via Fox's CGI division Blue Sky Studios and the third "Ice Age" film directed by Carlos Saldanha (also directed "Robots" and "Gone Nutty"). The film is co-directed by Mike Thurmeier ("Horton Hears a Who", "Robots", "Gone Nutty") and a story by Jason Carter Eaton and a screenplay by Pete Ackerman, Michael Berg (both worked on previous "Ice Age" films), Yoni Brenner and Mike Reiss ("The Simpsons", The Critic", "It's Garry Shandling's Show"). Music is composed by John Powell ("X-Men: The Last Stand", "United 93", "Kung Fu Panda").

Back in 2002, the original "Ice Age" film focused on the friendship between creatures Manny the woolly mammoth (voice over by Ray Romano, "Everybody Loves Raymond"), Sid the weird looking, not-so-bright and clumsy ground sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo, "ER", "Miracle at St. Anna", "Titan A.E.") and the saber-toothed tiger (aka smilodon) named Diego (voiced by Denis Leary, "Rescue Me"). Also, seen outside of the main core of the group is side-story featuring a squirrel known as Scrat who has a passion towards acorns.

With the first film focusing on the migration to avoid the Ice Age and the main character's friendship, the second film "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006) features the melting of the ice and focuses on Manny finding another woolly mammoth named Ellie (voice by Queen Latifah, "Mad Money", "Chicago").

This time around for the third film "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", Ellie is now pregnant and is soon to give birth. Being the worried and concerned father, Manny is highly anticipating the birth of his child and each kick, he often accidentally tells the whole herd that Ellie is about to give birth.

Meanwhile, his friends are not in a better place. Diego is getting older and feels that he is not the agile fighter as he once was as he now gets dizzy and can't even chase after his prey like he once used to. So, Diego feels as if he has to leave home. Sid feels alone now that his best friend has other responsibilities. As for the nutty squirrel known as Scrat, upon discovering his beloved acorn, he becomes smitten with a female squirrel named Scratte who is also passionate for the acorn.

Manny creates a playground for his upcoming child and surprises Ellie with it. Meanwhile, Sid feeling that he has no one ends up falling through a hole and discovering three eggs. Wanting to be a parent himself, he brings the three eggs to the village. Because of the size, Manny tells Sid to return the eggs back to its mother but Sid of course has other plans. Not wanting to be alone, he ends up sleeping with the eggs and when hatched, three baby Tyrannosaurus Rex's come out and Sid becomes the designated "mother" for the three which he names Eggbert, Shelly and Yoko.

Excited about being a parent, he tries to introduce to his new children to his friends but instead brings the three to Manny's playground (which was supposed to be for Manny and Ellie's child). The kids of the village then join in on the fun and because of the Tyrannosaurus Rex's nature, they begin to roughhouse the children and end up swallowing a few of them. Also, in the process...the three young dinosaurs end up destroying the playground.

Manny and Ellie arrive to find the destruction and Manny is upset that Sid didn't listen to him and now the playground he built is destroyed. To make things worse, the true mother of the three baby Tyrannosaurus Rex now wants her children back and leads the huge dinosaur right into their village.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex ends up getting her children back but with Sid not willing to give up the children, he is taken as well by the dinosaur.

Now Manny, Ellie, Diego along with the two weasels Crash (voiced by Seann William Scott, "American Pie" films) and Eddie (Josh Peck, "Drake & Josh", "The Wackness") end up going after the dinosaur to find Sid and find themselves away from the ice and into a new land where there is no snow and dinosaurs exist. Not knowing how to survive around the dangerous dinosaurs, they run into a one-eyed weasel named Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg, "Hot Fuzz", "Sean of the Dead", "Star Trek") who knows his way around the area.

So, the group try to survive the dangerous dinosaurs, tough terrain but most importantly trying to be careful for the nastiest dinosaur of them all...Rudy.

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" on Blu-ray comes with three discs. The original Blu-ray is accompanied with the movie on DVD and also a digital copy.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray. Presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1, AVC@36 MBPS), I'm always impressed to see how hair/fur continues to look better and better via CG and the sheer detail found in each character and its surroundings are much more evident now than ever. In fact, this is probably the most vibrant "Ice Age" film due to the fact that the film is taken outside of its ice habitat and into the land of the dinosaurs where there is a lot of lush plant life, sunlight, etc. Overall, CG animated fans will love the picture quality of this film. Sky Blue Studios did a fantastic job!

As for the audio, the film is presented in English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (also, Spanish, French and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital) and as fantastic as the picture quality was, the audio quality is just as magnificent. Talk about an immersive soundtrack, dinosaur growls all around you and how its utilized through the surround and rear surround channels are nicely done. Front and center channels feature the dialogue and the music which are crystal clear. Also, good use of LFE during the action sequences.

Both video and audio quality for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur" receive high marks! Fans of the film will definitely enjoy this Blu-ray release.

As for subtitles, subtitles are provided in English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" comes with the following special features:

* Audio commentary - A commentary featuring Director Carlos Saldanha, co-director Michael Thurmeier, producer Lori Forte, John C. Donkin and many more from the Bly Sky Studios crew. Entertaining commentary with some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes making of the film.
* Ice Age Storybook Maker - Using your remote, you can create a storybook for ages 1-5 (Bronze Age), 6-11 (Stone Age) and 12 and up (Ice Age).
* Evolution Expedition Featurette - (18:24) A tour through the George C. Page Museum at the Los Angeles LA Brea Discovery featuring Trevor Valle, Assistant Lab Supervisor. Introduction to the predators at the zoo and how they relate to the characters in the film.
* Buck: From Easel To Weasel Featurette - (7:12) The creation of Buck and how his character became to be. And the various designs to create his character and more.
* Unearthing the Lost World Featurette - (8:39) Behind-the-Scenes of "Ice Age". Interviews with cast and crew for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". The sketches, the character designs, 3D animation, the voice acting and more.
* Unfinished Deleted Scenes - (4:33) Featuring unfinished deleted scenes for "Mission" and "Headbutters". Although, the voice acting is heard, these are unfinished and are still in their B&W sketched out format with some animation.
* "Walk the Dinosaur" Music Video - (1:32) A short music video clip of the characters performing to the song "Walk the Dinosaur".
* Fox Movie Channel presents Making a Scene (Ice Age: The Meltdown) - (9:20) Behind-the-scenes on the making of "Ice Age: The Meltdown" featuring interviews with the crew.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with John Leguizamo - (2:48) Interview with John Leguizamo about doing the voice of Sid the Sloth.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with Ray Romano - (3:22) Interview with Ray Romano about doing the voice of Manny the Mammoth.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with Queen Latifah - (3:06) Interview with Queen Latifah about doing the voice of Ellie the Mammoth.
* BD LIVE - Live Lookup as powered by iMDb - (5:24) Scenes from "The Third Man" left untranslated to show Holly Martin's confusion of the surroundings of postwar Vienna.
* The Scrat Pack - (2:22) Included are the following shorts: "Gone Nutty: Scrat's Missing Adventure" (4:44) and "No Time For Nuts" (6:50). Both shorts are CG animated.
* Scrat Featurettes

- The Sabre-Toothed Squirrel: Nature's Nutty Buddy (1:46) - A parody of nature films feat. Scrat.

- Scrat: From Head to Toe (Drawing Tutorial) (8:22) - Peter De Seve teaches you how to draw Scrat

- Scrat: Breaking Story -(1:50) A film-like featurette showing scientists discovering a million year old Ice Age animal known as Scrat.

- Scrat: News Report (2:28) - A continuation of the "Breaking Story" and featuring a news cast interview with the scientists about their discovery of Scrat and more.

- Falling For Scratte (8:29) - Crew talk about Scrat and why people love the character and why the creator's created Scratte.

DVD:

The accompanying DVD comes with the filmmaker's commentary featuring Director Carlos Saldanha, co-director Michael Thurmeier, producer Lori Forte, John C. Donkin and many more from the Bly Sky Studios crew. Entertaining commentary with some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes making of the film, trailers and a Marley meets Puppy Chow commercial.

JUDGMENT CALL:

I was actually quite pleased with "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". A fun screenplay, top notch animation and audio and voiced by an all-star cast, this is my favorite "Ice Age" film yet! Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah do a fantastic job as they have in previous films. But also, Josh Peck and Seann William Scott do a hilarious job as Eddie and Crash. And Simon Pegg as the one-eyed weasel known as Buck does a fantastic job as well!

I was really impressed of how much detail was in the actual film. To have the characters in a new setting outside of just ice was great and it really showcased the animation due to the fact that more colors and different characters can be utilized. Blue Sky Studios did a fantastic job on this release.

As for the Blu-ray release, this is where Twentieth Century Fox also receives big kudos. Similar to what Disney has done for their films, Twentieth Century Fox also included a DVD (for those long commutes for your children) and also a digital copy. Also, there are plenty of special features and CG shorts included as well. In fact, if you are a big fan of the character of Scrat, you are definitely going to enjoy this film!

Overall, "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" is the best film of the series yet and an exciting and hilarious CG animated film to own on Blu-ray. Highly recommended!

As an adult I don't generally make a habit of watching animated movies, but the Ice Age series is an exception. Well-written, lots of humor and action and not too syrupy. No inappropriate double-entendres, so great for the whole family without worrying about embarrasing questions from the little ones. The Blue-ray on my 47" screen is also awesome.

This movie is super cute. This is the first movie that my daughter has actually watched all the way through and she loves it.

Our friends son asks to watch this everytime he is at our home. He absolutely loves it. The Blu Ray CGI is amazing.

These reviews are supposed to be about the movie, not wether it was 3D or not. If it doesn't say 3D in the description, then, its NOT A 3D MOVIE!!
This is the best Ice Age so far. Its funny, interesting and my 11 year old loved it, as I did.
Buy it, you won't be dissappointed.

This is one of the really good animated movies that uniquely appeals to both 4 and 40 years olds. Themes of parenthood, childhood, adventure, bravery, friendship and, most of all, love highlighted by so many and so different creatures one gets a sensation that pretty much anything alive (or used to be alive) on this planet consists of the same set of emotions and feelings.

While watching that incredibly recreated world of dinosaurs just under the Earth's crust, I could not stop recollecting the novel of "Plutonia" by Vladimir Obruchev, that I read in my teen years. In that book roughly the same world was depicted, with much less humor though. But that book is probably not very well known beyond Russian speaking countries and I tend to believe that latest reports about possibility of life existence under the surface of Europa (one of the Jupiter's moons) were kept in mind by script writers. Whatever the case, the world under there is very exciting and populated by dinos perfectly in line with our anecdotal understanding of who is who. For example, brontosaurs is huge and slow and his neck can be used for sliding, even by pregnant female mammoth; T. Rex is ferocious and bloodthirsty, with excessive amount of dripping saliva and thundering stomping. The sheer idea that pteranodon can be ridden like horse by furry mammals is so funny, the only thing funnier is the fact that one of those mammals is capable of performing artificial respiration to the ridden pteranodon in flight.

Just like in "Harry Potter", all characters are getting older in the world of Ice Age, although it manifests itself differently. Diego no longer can chase successfully his prey due to breathing issues, mammoths are arguing what to expect when you expecting (they do in fact), sloth has his parental instinct awaken. That instinct finds its application in a way that gets impulse to the whole story. And although the idea of having (almost due) pregnant Ellie included in the rescue expedition seems highly unusual at first, the things turn out the way that her presence is quite appropriate.

Probably the most memorable and cute part of the movie is when Scratte, the omnipresent sabre-toothed squirrel, is dancing tango with his newly found female companion. They dance and struggle for the acorn and dance again and lava flowing around them seemingly makes things even hotter. No doubts, that scene would generate lots of emotions in every age category of viewers.

my wife compelled me to watch the blu-ray edition of this picture as she loved it so . i recognized and enjoyed the voice talent a lot , particularly DENIS LEARY and SIMON PEGG. the images are truly arresting and the story was very fun and cute . with its PG rating i think this might appeal to parents more than a lot of the animated pictures out there (i couldn't be more out of the loop regarding this) . while i'm not one for anthropomorphic stuff , i'd watch it again . several good story lines , clever dialog and action keep things moving along quite well . i dislike the insertion of human baby voices where baby animals are concerned . JOHN's lisp in quite annoying as well . all in all the visuals are eye poping and the message is a good one .

I bought this version to get the digital copy for my iphone although I do not have a Blu-Ray player (since it includes a regular DVD copy of the movie as well...). HOWEVER I cannot access the special features, because they are on the Blu-Ray disk. I love the movie, but I'm VERY unhappy about:

1. Having to buy the Blu-Ray version in order to get the digital copy
2. Not having access to the Extras because they are on the Blu-Ray

Note - before pre-ordering this disk I did contact the studio store asking about a digital copy other than with the Blu-Ray and was NOT informed by them that the Special Features would be Blu-Ray. If I could at least access them on the regular DVD I'd be satisfied. Now I'm just irritated.

Regarding the film itself, I love it! The irony of other reviewers complaining about dinosaurs being alive just makes me wonder... When is the last time you went to an animated film for reality and historical accuracy??? Problems with suspension of disbelief??? REALLY???? In an animated film with talking animals that never in reality were a herd together??? And the dinosaurs being alive is what they have a problem with??? ROFLMAO!!!

I think the story is wonderful, as is the animation. Unlike the Shrek series which has not captured the magic of the first in the sequels, this 3rd in the Ice Age series is as enjoyable as the first (not quite as thrilled with the 2nd, but it is pretty good.)

I got lot's of fun watching this movie with my nieces they were thrilled to see what manny had done and were very entertain with Syd

excellent movie.....hilarious .......great performance from the main characters....the toxic gas scene is my favorite....so much fun.......Now its my favorite movie