Michael Berg, Michael J. Wilson, and Peter Ackerman
Cast:
Manfred: Ray Romano
Sid: John Leguizamo
Diego: Denis Leary
Zeke: Jack Black
Soto: Goran Visnjic
One more CGI flick to doom animation has come along.
It's funny because in 1995, Toy Story seemed like it could never be replicated except
by the creators. Antz follows A Bug's Life. Toy Story 2 shows them
how it's done but then that horribly overrated 'Shrek' comes along with
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
not too far behind. Now Ice Age proves once and for all that CGI is here to
stay for better or worse, and I'm leaning toward worse.
CGI films have a cold technological feel to them and you can still get
stuff out of them but not as well as you could watching a traditional
Disney animation from the early 80s to the early 90s. I haven't seen a
REALLY good Disney film since The Lion King and that was in 1994, 8
years ago. Even Disney's recent Lilo & Stitch couldn't come close to
early stuff. More CGI movies are to follow and each will add truth to
the fact that hand drawn animation is doomed at least in this country
(Japan's anime might be the last testament).
Plots usually don't matter much in CGI flicks. Load the screen with eye
candy and put in "adorable" characters. The ice age has hit the Earth
and a group of cavemen are attacked by a vicious sabretooth pack. When
the pack's leader wants the baby of one of the group's dangerous hunters
he sends Diego off to find it. Meanwhile, reluctant mamoth Manfred and a
sloth named Sid find the baby and decide to take him to the nearest
human outpost which happens to be over a mountain. Diego befriends the
two despite the obvious treachery and now the pack is following them
too.
A paper thin plot is made worse by the fact that the film just isn't any
fun. Too much I glanced at the DVD display to see how long it had been
on and hitting the time remaining button to see how long I had to go.
Nobody can capture the magic Pixar creates and it should stay like that.
The only comedic relief comes from Sid and that's not much. Trust me,
the script is boring with a capital 'B'.
Despite the bad movie the video quality is excellent of course. All CGI
flicks are pretty much guaranteed perfect scores unless something goes
terribly wrong. Presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen (thankfully
there are two versions as the full frame view is on the same disc)
colors are bright as can be. Blacks, when there, are solid entirely.
Most of the film takes place in the snow obviously and muted against a
deep blue sky. I would even venture as far to say this is the best
looking CGI film to be on DVD desite some room being crunched by the
full frame transfer.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. I was taken back by the
agressiveness of this track. Rumblings during the avalanches and other
occurrences are perfectly conveyed. Only problems I noticed were few
instances when dialouge seemed to fade in. Nevertheless, still a good
track.
Anymore it seems these CGI flicks are in a competition with themselves
for most elaborate DVD packages. 'Ice Age' is no exception. Too bad so
much of this seems redundant.
Disc 1:
Audio Commentary:
A so-so track with the director and co-producer.
Sometimes interesting-most of the time boring.
3 Interactive Games:
3 games for the kids but actually well designed (so what if I played them?)
Disc 2:
"Scrat's Missing Adventure":
4 minutes, anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen.
Actually serves as a prologue to the movie.
Deleted Scenes:
6 total, non-anamorphic. Able to be heard in 3
languages. Don't really add much to the movie.
Sid on Sid:
3 minutes, Sid does commentary on some scenes. Presented
in full frame and is acutally one of the better extras on here.
Scrat Reveals:
3 Fox Television promo spots. Very short as all three do not even add up to a
minute.
Animation Progression:
3 selectable scenes each with five different angles. Another decent feature.
International Ice Age:
Pretty worthless as you could watch the whole
movie with another language instead of watching this short clip.
"Bunny":
Blue Sky's apparently award winning short. 7 minutes, 16
seconds, non-anamorphic.
(DVDfever Ed: "I was thinking it was a tribute to the classic
'Eldorado' character.")
Under the Ice:
Houses an HBO First-Look, documentary, Sid Voice
Development, Using 2D in a 3D world, Making a Character, Art of Rigging,
Animators Acting, Lighting and Materials, Art of Effects. All are
non-anamorphic.
Trailers:
3 trailers for 'Ice Age', all non-anamorphic. A 'Like Mike'
(shudder) DVD trailer made it here as well.
Design Galleries:
Size Comparison/The Science Behind Ice Age and Create Your Own Gallery.
Overall though this may look extensive it really all just fluff.
Quantity over quality was obviously put into effect here.
Packaging is amaray with a holder inside for the first disc. There are
20 chapters total and menus are animated.
Overall, I just couldn't get much from this movie. The CGI machinations
are starting to get to me and this is just a testament to that. The DVD
fares in video and sound but the extras should have been kept short and
simple. I miss the old days of animation.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
