Voices: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, Jane Krakowski, Cedric the Entertainer
Directed by: Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Video: 1.85:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9 widescreen, 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround; French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean
Extras: Co-directors’ audio commentary; “Gone Nutty: Scrat’s Missing Adventure” featurette; six deleted scenes with optional commentary; three theatrical trailers for “Ice Age”; theatrical trailers for other films
Length: 81 minutes
Movie Rating: **** AV Quality Rating: ****1/2
“Ice Age” is the story of a misfit group of prehistoric animals that decide, possibly at their own peril, to return a lost human baby to his family. A grumpy woolly mammoth named Manny (Ray Romano) is the leader of this group which also includes a dim-witted sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), a devious saber-tooth tiger named Diego (Denis Leary), and an acorn-loving saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat. While all of the other animals begin migrating south seeking warmer climates, these four companions must overcome their own issues and insecurities in order to protect the human child from predators and survive the harsh weather of the Ice Age. This is a fun family film that entertains on multiple levels. Children will enjoy the cute characters and slapstick comedy while adults will appreciate the artful intellectual humor. Boasting outstanding audio and video quality plus having the ability to generate repeat viewings, “Ice Age” is a Blu-ray DVD that I can easily recommend.
The high definition video quality of this direct digital-to-digital transfer is excellent. Images are crisp with fine detail. Blacks are uniformly dark throughout the movie. Colors are vivid and bright with fully saturated hues. Picture defect mastering is solid with no major flaws or compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is also excellent with the English DTS 5.1 track. The soundtrack actively incorporates all of the discrete channels into its mix. Dialogue is crystal clear and properly positioned in the center channel. The surround channels are moderately active, used for both ambient sound effects and the music score, and include a handful of split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel is deep and powerful.
– Calvin Harding Jr.
