Blu-ray Review: Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Release Date: October 27th, 2009
Running Time: 94 minutes

The Film

When the story opens mammoths Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting their first offspring and Manny is a complete neurotic mess. Meanwhile saber tooth tiger Diego (Denis Leary) is feeling his age and makes the decision to leave the herd as he can’t see himself helping to raise Manny’s kid. Sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) feels lonely and decides to adopt three giant eggs that he discovers in a cavern under the ice. The next day the eggs hatch into baby T-rexes and soon enough Momma comes looking for them. She takes the eggs, and Sid, back underground.

The whole herd (Manny, Ellie, Diego, and possums Crash and Eddie) go after Sid only to discover that literally beneath their own world is a lost, life-filled jungle populated by dinosaurs thought extinct. The strange land nearly spells their doom until a crazy, one-eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg) comes to their rescue. It turns out Buck lost his eye battling the worst dinosaur in the jungle, a white Baryonyx named Rudy. Though he lost an eye, Buck managed to claim one of Rudy’s teeth as his own and uses it as his knife. With no other way to find Sid, Buck agrees to guide the herd through the numerous dangerous landscapes to Lava Falls where Momma has Sid and the babies.

Sid, however, isn’t giving up his parenting duties without a fight. He and Momma butt heads over the proper way to raise the babies, but Momma eventually sees their love for Sid and welcomes him into the family. As the herd moves closer to saving Sid Ellie goes into labor! Diego rediscovers his passion as he and Manny protect Ellie while the others rescue Sid. But there’s still Rudy to worry about…

I wish this wasn’t the case, but for me the Ice Age franchise has lost its charm. All of the entertainment value is squarely aimed at children. Action scenes are prevalent and exciting through the inclusion of dinosaurs, but I never felt like I was seeing something new for the genre. The gags tend to be basic physical comedy or gross out moments, and the pop culture references are horribly awkward. The few moments that I found genuinely hilarious nearly all involved Scrat and his love triangle with the nut and Scratte. They are fleeting, but priceless, moments.

The new “lost” world of the dinosaurs is also ompletely ridiculous. Sure it opens up the film to explore some unique visuals and action scenes, but it just accentuates my biggest issue with the film: the characters all feel tired and used up. Diego has nearly nothing to do, Sid’s voice alone couldn’t keep me entertained, and Manny is just there for one liners and pregnancy neurosis. However, Simon Pegg saves the movie with his portrayal of Buck. The unique character is superbly animated, lovably quirky, and an overall breath of fresh air.

If your children love the Ice Age franchise then Dawn of the Dinosaurs is sure to please them, but it is also the weakest entry in the franchise.

The Disc

The video is presented in a 1.85:1, 1080p High Definition transfer that is absolute reference quality. Colors are spectacular, from the blue skies and white snow of the over world, to the multi-colored fantastical dinosaur land. Black levels are as deep as they come, and color banding is never an issue. Fine detail is pristine in every respect: textures, backgrounds, facial animation—if you don’t see a detail it is because it does not exist. The animation itself is beyond smooth. With no compression issues, video noise, or other digital errors, this transfer is exactly what you’d expect from a CGI film—perfection.

On another note, though the film is not offered on home video in 3-D it does not employ the gimmicky moments that would draw attention to the lack of 3-D (cough, Beowulf, cough).

The audio is offered in an English DTS HD 7.1 master lossless audio track and Spanish/French/Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with English/Spanish/Portuguese/Chinese subtitles. Unfortunately this is not reference quality like the video as the rear channels are blatantly underused. The multitude of action moments feature full-roaming pans and precisely placed directional effects, but it feels more focused on the front channels. The dynamics are not a problem as your bass will get a monster workout from the dinosaur roars. Dialogue is crisp and balanced along with the music, and the overall level of detail in the sound design is impressive.

The Extras

Commentary is offered with Director Carlos Saldanha, Co-Director Mike Thuermeier, Producer Lori Forte, Producer John Donkin, Character Designer Peter DeSeve, Art Director Michael Knapp, and Supervising Animator Galen Tan Chu. This is an over-crowded, overly technical discussion that is way too bland for children to listen to. The Ice Age films have never been as technically impressive as Pixar films, so I doubt anyone would turn to this commentary to learn more about the craft when there are far better ones out there.

“Storybook Maker” is a surprisingly in-depth and fun feature for kids. There are three different levels of complexity you can choose depending on your child’s age, and essentially you get to construct a storybook by taking still shots from scenes in the movie. Tons of customizing options are given making this one of the best interactive special features I have seen on the format.

“Unearthing the Lost World” (9 minutes) is a standard promotional featurette with cast/crew interviews that doesn’t offer any real information.

“Evolution Expedition” is an educational 18-minute piece with people from the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea tar pits in LA talking about the various creatures seen in the film.

“Buck: From Easel to Weasel” is a 7-minute featurette on the creation of Buck. Likewise “Falling For Scratte” (9 minutes) focuses on the creation of Scratte.

14 minutes of Scrat-centric featurettes are also offered. “The Saber-Toothed Squirrel” is a segment from a fake documentary. “From Head to Toe” teaches kids how to draw Scrat. “Breaking Story” is a fictional interview with the scientists who discovered Scrat, and “News Report” picks up where that leaves off. Two “Scrat Shorts” (12 minutes) give appropriate tribute to the franchise’s mascot: “Gone Nutty” and “No Time for Nuts.”

The “Fox Movie Channel” featurettes (approx. 28 minutes total) include: “Making a Scene” for a scene from Ice Age 2 and for the giant plant attack from Dawn of the Dinosaurs; and “In Character” interviews with John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, and Queen Latifah.

5 minutes of incomplete Deleted Scenes are presented in animated storyboard form.

A 2-minute Music Video called “Walk the Dinosaur” is essentially a montage of film clips.

A standard definition DVD of the film is included as well as a Digital Copy. Lastly, the disc is BD-Live enabled and includes “Live Lookup” that lets you get actor information by connecting to IMDB.

Final Thoughts

Despite being presented on a gorgeous Blu-ray stacked with entertaining special features, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs finds the franchise feeling stale. Kids will love the visuals and gags but adults won’t find too much to laugh at.