BLU-RAY REVIEW

Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas Special

Featured In Issue 165, March 2012

Picture5
Sound4.5
WSR Score5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
2276770
(MPAA Rating):
Not Rated
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$14.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
26
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2011
(Theatrical Release):
No
(Direct-To-Video Release):
Yes
(Disc Release Date):
11/26/11
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Karen Disher
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS HD Lossless 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Have you heard the news? Your favorite sub-zero heroes are back in an all-new holiday adventure for the whole family. When Sid (Leguizamo) accidentally destroys Manny's (Romano) heirloom Christmas rock and ends up on santa's "naughty list," he leads a hilarious quest to the North Pole to make things right—and ends up making things much worse. Now it's up to Manny and his prehistoric posse to band together and save Christmas for the entire world! (Tricia Spears)

Special features include a sneak peek at Ice Age: Continental Drift (HD 02:03), the "Swingin' Jingle Bells" music video (HD 03:00), and up-front ads. The three-disc set includes a Blu-ray Disc™, a DVD, and a digital copy.

The 1080p AVC picture, as with previous Ice Age releases, is fantastic, with incredible depth of field and great resolution. Fine hairs and fur are resolved so well, you actually get a sense of what the textures feel like. Colors are beautifully rendered and well balanced, with very good contrast. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is nicely spatial and holosonic sounding, with a nicely dimensional soundfield. The orchestral music score is well recorded, with a wide and deep soundstage that extends to the surrounds, for a dimensional experience. Dialogue is ADR produced but is always intelligible, though, not always well integrated spatially. That's because often there is no other support for the dialogue, which is absent of atmospheric sound effects. However, when sound effects are present, they are effective and sound convincing. Bass extension at times is deep and powerful, extending to below 25 Hz in the .1 LFE channel, which provides an effective low-frequency foundation for the storytelling. This is a fun sonic adventure that will entertain the entire family. (Gary Reber)