Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Animated features are well represented in these early days of HD DVD and Blu-ray discs (though nothing yet from Pixar). This CGI –animated sequel to Ice Age may not have quite the audience appeal of that first adventure with Manny the Mammoth, Sid the Sloth, Diego the sabre-toothed tiger, and, not to forget, Scrat, the acorn-obsessed squirrel-rat, but it's still appealing, funny, and beautifully animated.

The story is a little uneven, but no more so than many of the other animated films that appeared to make up at least half of 2006's studio releases. The background animation here is a little less sophisticated than we're used to seeing, but the character animation is superb. And every bit of it is visible in this striking high definition release. Check out, in particular, the detail in Scrat's fur, particularly his bushy tail. High definition allows us to fully appreciate the animator's art in a way that standard DVD cannot. The images here are consistently vivid, bright (there are no truly dark scenes), colorful, and crisp. The best of them are jaw-dropping.

The audio isn't quite as striking as the video. The soundtrack is mastered in DTS HD Master Audio, but since no Blu-ray player will yet decode this new lossless format in its full glory, what we get here is the core DTS track. But as mastered here at a sampling rate of 1.5Mb/sec, it's still superior to many well-regarded DTS tracks on DVD, most of which are recorded at roughly half that rate.

The bass here is deep, but it's not subterranean in a way that will shake your gut with a great subwoofer. The dialog is fine (including occasional use of steered dialog that makes effective use of the left, center, and right front channels). For most of the film, however, the music score is relatively restrained or smothered by the effects. But it's well recorded by engineer Shawn Murphy. The earmarks of his technique are most evident in the music that plays under the closing credits, which is well worth sticking around for.

There's also a respectable though not generous set of extras, including a commentary track by the director Carlos Saldanha and crew, and a hilarious, all-new animated Scrat short, No Time for Nuts.

(Picture: 9 (out of 10), Sound: 8, Film: 7)