Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs [Blu-ray]

Just when you thought they couldn't get any cooler...your favorite prehistoric pals from Ice Age and Ice Age The Meltdown are back in an all-new, ginormous animated adventure for all ages. Meanwhile, Scrat goes nuts over the beautiful Scratte, but is she trying to win his heart - or steal his acorn? Featuring an all-star voice cast, including Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Queen Latifah, Ice Age Dawn Of The Dinosaurs delivers more thrills, more chills, and more mammoth-sized laughs for everyone! This time around, Manny and the herd discover a lost world of ferociously funny dinosaurs, including a cranky T-Rex who's got a score to settle with Sid.

The emotional side of the Ice Age movies has always been a tad mawkish, so it’s smart that Dawn of the Dinosaurs emphasizes physical comedy. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs(Click for larger image)     The character of Scratte, with his non-verbal, monomaniacal efforts to get that last acorn (doubled in this movie with the addition of a female counterpart), is only the most obvious reflection of this sensibility. Clearly, the animators have been inspired by a wild fusion of Road Runner cartoons and Buster Keaton. Let Pixar tug at our heartstrings; Ice Age aims to tickle the funny bone and does a fine job of it. The animators have great fun with the differences in scale between the mammals and the dinosaurs, and the introduction of a deranged Australian weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg, Shaun of the Dead) pushes everything into Loony-Tune territory. Up to this point, the movie is perilously sappy--does anyone, particularly a kid, want to watch a kid’s movie about parenthood and impending middle age? Fortunately, the eggs turn out to be dinosaur eggs from a pre-mammalian underworld, and when the mama T-Rex comes to rescue her rambunctious little ones, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs transforms into a delightful comic adventure. Diego, who worries he’s losing his edge, decides to head out on his own, while Sid adopts three suspiciously large eggs that he’s found through a crack in the ice. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs opens with the stitched-together prehistoric family about to become a biological one: Manny (voiced by Ray Romano) and his mate Ellie (Queen Latifah) are expecting a baby mammoth. Unfortunately, this makes Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) feel left out.