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

As Pixar’s catalog expands, it is hard not to get more and more critical of animated films from other studios, as they seemingly become harder and harder to watch. There are a few exceptions. DreamWorks on occasion finds a niche and creates a hit, but most still find themselves in a rut, lacking the sophistication of Pixar and creating titles that play down to their audiences and frankly lack the same visual flair.

The original Ice Age (2002) found a nice spot for itself in the animated mix. While it didn’t exactly exceed its competition in any respect, Ice Age had plenty of wit and enough character to carry it successfully. With a unique ensemble cast including Ray Romano, Denis Leary and Queen Latifah, the film told a fun story of unlikely friendships, with good humor in the form of Scrat’s quest for an acorn.

But fast forward seven years and Fox is still trying to recreate success with the same formula. As a result, Dawn of the Dinosaurs has its moments, but the story and characters are starting to get stale, despite a spirited performance by the series’ newest addition, a weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg).

When Sid (John Leguizamo) stumbles upon and decides to raise three dinosaur eggs, the Ice Age herd finds itself in an underground world where dinosaurs still live. As Sid is taken captive by a T-Rex, the rest of the crew is guided through the dangers of the mysterious land by Buck in a rescue effort, but finds that an even bigger threat is on their heels.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs is, at times, entertaining, but finds itself falling into most of the trappings of sequels – everything has to be three times more extreme (dinosaurs, for instance, and the Scrat scenario has gone way overboard), the returning voice actors sound less than enthusiastic resuming their roles and the plot is weighed down by previous storylines, though Dawn of the Dinosaurs does better than most working around the last of the bunch, to be fair. Its worst offense, though, is not having much of a point. Despite the introduction of the zany Buck, most of the characters find themselves back in the same spot they started. There is a superficial breakup of the gang and some minor obstacles to overcome, but overall it feels as if the characters don’t undergo much change.

The Blu-ray outing leaves out the option of the 3D viewing experience, as shown in theaters. The HD video is as crystal clear as it gets, though. The action scenes are fantastic, but the high caliber of video quality only brings to light how bland the environments can be, even when the characters find themselves in an under-ice paradise populated with extinct beasts. Dawn of the Dinosaurs has the visual feel of stage actors walking around a static set, rather than a living world. The audio, while a clear master track, does not make much use of its surround channels.

The special features seemingly fill out every last digital groove on the Blu-ray disc, but many of those features are throwaway, and some even hearken back to the second installment of the series rather than this one. The storybook editor is a creative interactive element, but ultimately proves to be tediously pointless. But despite a lackluster commentary and simple features, “Buck: Easel to Weasel” is entertaining; the Scrat shorts are always fun to revisit; and “Evolution Expedition” includes a few nuggets of intriguing information. So, it’s not an entire loss.

Fans of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs will find enough to like in its Blu-ray release, with a beautiful video transfer. But for anyone else looking for an animated film for the entire family, this isn’t the one. While children will likely remain entertained by the action-heavy scenarios, adults won’t get much more than some adorable animation (the baby T-Rex) and a few inspired Buck moments.

Special Features
-The Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio video; English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish, French and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital audio; with English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin subtitles
-Filmmakers’ Commentary
-Ice Age Storybook Maker
-Evolution Expedition Featurette
-Buck: From Easel to Weasel Featurette
-Unearthing the Lost World Featurette
-Unfinished Deleted Scenes
-“Walk the Dinosaur” Music Video
-Fox Movie Channel Presents… Featurettes – Making a Scene: Ice Age The Meltdown, In Character with John Leguizamo, In Character with Ray Romano, In Character with Queen Latifah
-BD Live: Like Lookup
-Scrat Pack (Scrat Shorts) – Gone Nutty: Scrat’s Missing Adventure, Not Time for Nuts
-Scrat Featurettes – The Saber-Toothed Squirrel: Nature’s Nutty Buddy, Scrat: From Head to Toe (Drawing Tutorial), Scrat: Breaking Story, Scrat: News Report, Falling for Scratte
-This set includes a DVD copy of the feature in standard definition, with filmmakers’ commentary
-Digital Copy

About the Writer:
Bill Jones is editor-in-chief of padsandpanels.com, a site dedicated to coverage of comics and games.