With Ellie expecting a young mammoth, Manny has been extremely nervous. Each kick or movement of his baby sends the large mammal into a frenzy and overprotecting-parental nature is already coming out in spades. Meanwhile Sid, feeling left out, discovers three large eggs and decides he will become their mother. What he doesn't realize (at least not until they hatch) is that they are baby T-Rexes and it isn't long before the babies' real parent, affectionately called "Momma," shows up to take the three little dinos and Sid back to where they all came from. Hot on Sid's trail, Manny, Ellie, Diego (who has lost his confidence as a predator), Crash and Eddie all head deep underground to find a tropical jungle untouched by the icy surface.
What they don't expect to find is the strange and crazy one-eyed weasel named Buck (Simon Pegg), who ends up becoming the groups' guide in the strange underworld. As the troupe treks through the jungle and towards Lava Falls, Buck tells tales of the monstrous dinosaur who is responsible for taking his eye, all while Sid vies for his babies' attention in a competition of parenting against the full-grown Tyrannosaurus.
I was utterly shocked by the number of special features offered in this release. Not only does the package come with a high definition version of the film (which is truly beautiful to both see and hear), but the standard definition DVD and a digital copy are also available in the same box. Outside of that though, the Blu-ray disc gives you a ton of extras ranging from a couple of deleted scenes, featurettes on the animals of Ice Age, the creation of Buck and even a talk with the creators of the movie about how they decided on a lost world setting for the third film.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs also features all of the "Scrat Pack" features found sometimes packaged with the DVD version of this movie and not only has two of Scrat's past shorts ("Gone Nutty" and "No Time for Nuts"), but also featurettes on drawing Scrat, creating the female Scratte, and mockumentaries about Scrat and his re-thawing in our present time.
But wait, there's more. Five interviews found in the "Fox Movie Channel Presents" series are also provided and range from talks with Queen Latifah, Leguizamo and Romano about their characters as well as a behind the scenes look at the original movie and The Meltdown, though a lot of this feels like features found on the release of the second move's DVD.
Finally, I will say I found myself enjoying BD-Live for the first time in a long time, possibly since the feature was first created. While I still have my personal gripes about the value of a feature that may or may not be supported when the next media format comes out, I still found myself using the "Live Lookup" feature found in this set. "Live Lookup" connects to IMDb.com to let you look up information about the characters and actors from the film while you watch it. This lookup can be done in a couple of ways. For one, the screen can display only the characters appearing in the current chapter of the movie, or you can have it display all of the characters, each one depicted by an image of their face from the film. From the character, you can look up their stats (like size, weight, fur color), personality trails (likes/dislikes, hoppies, etc.), favorite foods and even memorable quotes. You can also search for the actors that appear in the film and look up their filmography information as if you were looking at the IMDb page while watching the film, though it appears in a much more simplified and user-friendly way. I will say I really enjoyed this feature and felt like this gave real value to BD-Live and I hope to see similar "Live Lookup" features in future Blu-ray releases.
While I enjoyed Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs's story, there has been a noticeable decline across the three films. The first film, while not as good as other CG movies the company had produced (e.g. Shrek), was still a lot of fun. Ice Age: The Meltdown and now Dawn of the Dinosaurs, on the other hand, feel little more than attempts to squeeze a few more dollars out of the franchise. If it wasn't for the sheer amount of value that you get out of this particular Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack, I would say that the movie is only worth a rental, but I'm sure kids who loved the first two movies will love this one. The fact that you have both a Blu-ray and DVD version means you can watch it in the stunningly improved visual and audio definition at home, while bringing the DVD in the car for long road trips.
