Ice Age
The Ice Age is coming and Sid the sloth has overslept and been left behind (yes he’s that popular). At the same time, Manfred the mammoth is trying to get away from it all by heading North against the flow of migrating beasts. They meet when Manfred saves Sid from some Rhinos that want to stomp on him for doing what he....
The Ice Age is coming and Sid the sloth has overslept and been left behind (yes he’s that popular). At the same time, Manfred the mammoth is trying to get away from it all by heading North against the flow of migrating beasts. They meet when Manfred saves Sid from some Rhinos that want to stomp on him for doing what he does so well – putting his foot in it. The "it" being their dinner and his foot being coated in poo! Sid then attaches himself to Manfred as a somewhat unwelcome travelling companion.
Meanwhile, a pack of sabre-toothed tigers attacks a human settlement, trying to steal a baby but the baby’s mother escapes and jumps over waterfall. With her last breath, she pushes the baby ashore downstream in front of Manfred and Sid, who decide that they should take it back to the humans. Diego, one of the sabre-toothed tigers, joins them with an ulterior agenda for the infant, and so the three head north in a memorable adventure in search of the humans…
Review
An absolute gem of an animated movie that should appeal to adults and children alike. The story is simple but highly entertaining and the characters are well polished. Sid is annoying but loveable and whose antics produce most of the comedy, Manfred is the strong, determined and calming influence and Diego is the dangerous one with the troubled conscience. All the while there’s a sort of running joke showing the hilarious antics of, Scrat, the squirrel rat and its attempts to store his acorn before the freeze.
The animation is absolutely top notch and Blue Sky should be well pleased with the result. Colours are bright and solid, character expressions and antics are superb, lighting effects are amazing and the animation of flowing water and the waterfall has to be seen to be believed.
Audio/Video
Given that there is a lot of white in this movie, the picture quality is very good and colours are solid.
It also makes good use of stereo sound although I can’t vouch for the 5.1 surround as I’ve only got a NICAM telly (this’ll be a running gripe until my better half lets me upgrade the sound system).
Extras
Not a bad little selection of extras to while away a few hours…
Feature Commentary by the director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha. If you’re interested in how the movie was made then this is worth listening to.
Scrat’s Missing Adventure: Gone Nutty is a hilarious little four and half minute short with Scrat and some acorns, well lots of acorns.
Sid on Sid, an amusing three-minute commentary by Sid on the bits Sid was in.
Deleted Scenes. Six deleted scenes lasting about eight minutes. These can be viewed with or without commentary from Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha.
Scrat Reveals are three small Fox promo animations where Scrat cracks some ice to reveal the Fox logo.
International Ice Age is a mildly amusing two and a half-minute piece taken from the start of the movie but with the characters moving from language to language. It uses French, Italian, German, Swedish, polish, Greek, Cantonese, Korean and English.
Under the Ice, a series of featurettes and pieces lasting just under 45 minutes…- Making of Ice Age, a pretty good 20-minute featurette on how they made the movie, with modelling, storyboards, animations, etc.
- Behind the Scenes, a 13-minute piece on what went on during the shoot
- Other short pieces lasting just under 10 minutes - Making a Character, Art of Rigging, Animators Acting, Art of Effects, Lighting and Materials, Using 2D in a 3D World, Sid Voice Department.
Animation Progression, which uses three scenes to show how animations progress through five stages from storyboard to final render. This uses the Multi-Angle feature so pressing the Angle button on the remote lets you select one of the five stages.
Trailers – a teaser and two theatrical trailers.
Design Galleries, which focus more on stills. There are two sections here…- Create Your Own Gallery - allows you to select an assortment of character or items and play them back in sequence. One for the kids I think.
- Size Comparison, The Science Behind Ice Age is some real information on each of the species used in the movie.
Overall
Blue Sky Studios have produced what is certainly one of the best-animated features out for a while. Don’t make the mistake of comparing it to Monsters, Inc. or Shrek as, although it is a 3-D CG animation, it's more of a cartoon than either.
Highly recommended - It’s a very good quality DVD with a good range of extras.
Fox have a good web site online with games, downloads, etc. at http://www.iceagemovie.com/
This page has been read:
5504
times