5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
Scrat's epic pursuit of his elusive acorn catapults him outside of Earth, where he accidentally sets off a series of cosmic events that transform and threaten the planet. To save themselves from peril, Sid, Manny, Diego, and the rest of the herd must leave their home and embark on a quest full of comedy and adventure, traveling to exotic new lands and encountering a host of colorful new characters.
Starring: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Adam DeVine, Jesse Tyler FergusonAdventure | 100% |
Family | 99% |
Animation | 86% |
Comedy | 66% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The annals of show business are rife with stories of so-called supporting players usurping the attention from the putative star. There’s a fantastic
chapter in William Goldman’s superb (if sometimes problematic) journalistic exposé of Broadway, The Season, where he details the
travails of
the 1967 musicalization of The World of Henry
Orient, Henry, Sweet Henry. Goldman documents how the creative staff behind the musical worked to cast a potential
breakout
star in the role of Valerie, one of the girls who becomes infatuated with Henry, and that everyone was convinced they had found that
star in
the guise of one Robin Wilson. Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when a lot of the reviews singled out a breakout star all right, only not “that”
one
—most of the critical air kisses went to a complete unknown named Alice Playten, who played a relatively minor role, ending up with the
musical’s
sole Tony nomination for performing (Playten won that year’s Theater World Award). (Trivia lovers will know that Playten went on to a different
kind
of “fame” as the hapless newlywed whose cooking created problems for her husband in a now iconic series of Alka Seltzer commercials.) Films
are
just as redolent a source for this kind of “upstaging,” and there’s probably no better example than one of my personal obsessions, Frances
Farmer,
who waltzed into the 1936 film Come and Get It as little more than an “up and comer” but who ended up stealing every scene she was in
from such stalwarts as Edward Arnold and Walter Brennan, to the point that she was proclaimed “the new Garbo.” All of that said, there may be
no
more unique example than that of Scrat, the odd little creature whose own obsession—with an acorn—created some of the funniest moments in
the
original Ice Age. It’s some indication of Scrat’s immediate
popularity
that he (it?) soon became the mascot for the film’s production company, Blue Sky Pictures. (Another potent example of the character's sway with
the public is evident in how much he's featured in this very disc's supplemental content.) Scrat’s comedic adventures have tended to act as
sidebars to the main stories in the previous Ice Age films, but again the character’s lovability has led to him being starred in a series of
shorts
as well as other media like video games. While Ice Age: Collision Course once again lets Scrat’s predicaments play out in a kind of
parallel
universe (an especially fitting term as will soon be discussed) as the simultaneous trials of Manny and brood unfold, the character is perhaps a
bit
more central to the proceedings in this film than in its predecessors. Talk about star power.
The Ice Age films have at least attempted to continue an overall narrative through the original film and its sequels. For those wanting
to
catch up on “the story so far” (there’s a supplement on this Blu-ray that attempts to do this, to varying effect), our reviews of the films can be
accessed by clicking on the following links:
Ice Age Blu-ray review
Ice Age: The Meltdown Blu-ray review
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Blu-ray
review
Ice Age: Continental Drift Blu-ray review
Ice Age: Collision Course is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The animation of Ice Age has actually improved considerably over the run of the franchise, with some of the blockiness in rendering elements like Manny's hair largely a thing of the past, and Ice Age: Collision Course continues in the largely winning ways of the series' video presentation on Blu-ray. From some of the outer space sequences, often with a weird but appropriately alien looking purple tint to the Earthbound moments with Manny and his crew, detail levels are typically very high and precise, especially with regard to character design, but even in some "throwaway" elements like backgrounds. The palette is extremely diverse, full of everything from solid primaries to rather subtle interstitial hues, but it's the textures of the objects (including characters) that really stand out in this presentation and give it much of its precise and appealing appearance.
Ice Age: Collision Course features a fun and often frenetic DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that gets off to a boisterous start with the fun opening sequence detailing Scrat's hapless attempts to pilot the flying saucer. There's a glut of fantastic surround activity here, including some forceful LFE as the ship blasts off into outer space. Other effects heavy sequences occur at regular intervals throughout the rest of the film (many, but not all, featuring Scrat in outer space), and the sound design offers consistent immersion and well placed discrete channelization of individual sound effects. Little musical quotes like snippets of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra add to the fun. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized.
Undemanding tots and even adults without any undue expectations will get a giggle or two out of Ice Age: Collision Course, but this latest entry in the franchise seems more than ever like a tired retread of what's gone before. With this series' emphasis on environmental calamities, I guess it's easy to understand why the writers are so into recycling (yes, that's a joke), but maybe it's time to put Ice Age on ice for a little while. Technical merits are very strong for those considering a purchase.
2016
2016
with bonus disc
2016
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with Trick or Treat Bag
2016
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Family Icons
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2012
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2019
2006
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with 2 Poppin' Penguins Toys
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