I purchased this movie for two reasons. First for my 5 year old son, and second to see all the hype about BluRay.
Considering that this is CGI the picture quality should be 5 out of 5, but I have seen standard DVD’s that look better. Not to mention the story line was terrible. My wife and son wanted to stop watching the movie half way through.
In my opinion if this is what BluyRay movies are supposed to represent as the next generation DVD then they have failed.
Now for The Ant Bully on HD-DVD, that is a fantastic movie with perfect picture and sound quality, not to mention my son cannot stop watching it.
This chapter in the Ice Age saga was so bad that it made me seriously question my adoration of the original. I was just a kid back then, maybe my laughs came cheaper. . .who knows. And I’m not saying this as someone who dislikes sequels, quite the opposite in fact, but they just didn’t look like they are trying here. They took their polished characters and walked them through their polished backdrops all the while stealing the plot from “The Land Before Time.” And while that movie worked wonders on me back in the day, I was 7 when I went to see it originally. Skrat the Squirrel is given tons more face time here in his endless quest to find and secure a nut. His adventures are mildly entertaining, but only in a “I just woke up and need some kind of brain stimulation kind of way.” The main function of him, however, is to stuff half the film with filler so that the trek of Manny and Co. only has the last about 45 minutes.
The plot is seen as irrelevant by the writers but I’ll outline it for you anyways. The Ice Age is coming to a close. Luckily for Fox this global warming was not caused by SUV’s so they don’t have to worry about calling out their viewers. Our band from the last film has gotten back together, with a few new additions, and they take off in an attempt to find higher ground so as not to be flooded out. Extra peril arrives in the form of pre-pre-historic beasts who are being thawed out by the sun just so that they can chase our heroes around. Not that any of this matters. Mostly we just watch as the characters walk and talk and fight and flirt. My favorite storyline involved Manny the mammoth and his new girlfriend Ellie. They do squeeze a few morsels of humor out of the fact that she is convinced that she is a possum. Unfortunately they made her way too stupid to be either enjoyable or realistic. But because our country can’t get enough stupid jokes (a fun way for people to feel superior to a cartoon) we have to suffer through some pretty terrible jokes. They have more luck playing up Ellie as a angry female who will have no part of Manny’s courtship.
I just got the distinct feeling while watching this that computer animation movies are living off their legacy from about 5 years ago when they were all good. So they take a brand name like “Ice Age,” pump out a short film (good for turnover at the multiplex) and sell it to parents who have no interest in serving their children any nutritional entertainment. I did like the look of this film even if their water was a little off. It also got better as it went along concluding with a climax that tips its hat to “Titanic.” I did wonder about the happy ending though. Considering all that has happened since is it really a good idea for the mammoths to be celebrating the fact they weren’t going extinct. Well these kids don’t know what is wrong with that ending and don’t care, and neither do their parents. **1/2
The movie I felt is better than the first one. It will appeal more to the grown ups than the previous one did. This time you will get crazier adventures of Scrat the squirrel. I got the region 3 dvd and it was ok nothing special. Cannot comment on the region 1 dvds. The film on the whole is enjoyable if watched once (max twice). I felt Cars was technically far better than IA2
Hollywood loves predictability. What could be safer than Ice Age II? Well, most sequels fail to replicate the success of the original because they fall back on formula to an even greater extent than Version One. Sadly that’s true of this Ice Age sequel too.
Our three protagonists (Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth, and Diego the sabre-toothed cat) amble through this movie amiably enough but the superb graphics rendering and the marvelous side-plot of Skrat the squirrel can’t disguise the fact that this is a movie without a real plot and without dynamics. In the original movie the tension arose from the conflict between the main characters (Diego was supposed to be luring the sloth and the mammoth to their deaths at the hands of his pack). Here, everyone is everyone else’s best buddy and so there’s no tension, no character development, nothing. A feeble attempt at creating love interest between Manny and the female mammoth who thinks she’s really a possum (because she was raised by possums…) falls flat. The two “genuine” possums, who apparently survive entirely on a diet of methamphetamines, are just irritating.
In the end this movie is worth watching in order to see the continuation of Skrat’s adventures. His heaven-scene is genuinely both amusing and touching and the use of the Spartacus theme as background music is inspired. Hopefully the animators will scrap plans for Ice Age III (return of the geriatric trio) and opt for Skrat & Nut: The Ultimate Love Story, instead.
I purchased this movie for two reasons. First for my 5 year old son, and second to see all the hype about BluRay.
Considering that this is CGI the picture quality should be 5 out of 5, but I have seen standard DVD’s that look better. Not to mention the story line was terrible. My wife and son wanted to stop watching the movie half way through.
In my opinion if this is what BluyRay movies are supposed to represent as the next generation DVD then they have failed.
Now for The Ant Bully on HD-DVD, that is a fantastic movie with perfect picture and sound quality, not to mention my son cannot stop watching it.
This chapter in the Ice Age saga was so bad that it made me seriously question my adoration of the original. I was just a kid back then, maybe my laughs came cheaper. . .who knows. And I’m not saying this as someone who dislikes sequels, quite the opposite in fact, but they just didn’t look like they are trying here. They took their polished characters and walked them through their polished backdrops all the while stealing the plot from “The Land Before Time.” And while that movie worked wonders on me back in the day, I was 7 when I went to see it originally. Skrat the Squirrel is given tons more face time here in his endless quest to find and secure a nut. His adventures are mildly entertaining, but only in a “I just woke up and need some kind of brain stimulation kind of way.” The main function of him, however, is to stuff half the film with filler so that the trek of Manny and Co. only has the last about 45 minutes.
The plot is seen as irrelevant by the writers but I’ll outline it for you anyways. The Ice Age is coming to a close. Luckily for Fox this global warming was not caused by SUV’s so they don’t have to worry about calling out their viewers. Our band from the last film has gotten back together, with a few new additions, and they take off in an attempt to find higher ground so as not to be flooded out. Extra peril arrives in the form of pre-pre-historic beasts who are being thawed out by the sun just so that they can chase our heroes around. Not that any of this matters. Mostly we just watch as the characters walk and talk and fight and flirt. My favorite storyline involved Manny the mammoth and his new girlfriend Ellie. They do squeeze a few morsels of humor out of the fact that she is convinced that she is a possum. Unfortunately they made her way too stupid to be either enjoyable or realistic. But because our country can’t get enough stupid jokes (a fun way for people to feel superior to a cartoon) we have to suffer through some pretty terrible jokes. They have more luck playing up Ellie as a angry female who will have no part of Manny’s courtship.
I just got the distinct feeling while watching this that computer animation movies are living off their legacy from about 5 years ago when they were all good. So they take a brand name like “Ice Age,” pump out a short film (good for turnover at the multiplex) and sell it to parents who have no interest in serving their children any nutritional entertainment. I did like the look of this film even if their water was a little off. It also got better as it went along concluding with a climax that tips its hat to “Titanic.” I did wonder about the happy ending though. Considering all that has happened since is it really a good idea for the mammoths to be celebrating the fact they weren’t going extinct. Well these kids don’t know what is wrong with that ending and don’t care, and neither do their parents. **1/2
From a parents view I definetly thought this sequel was violent compared
to the first one. We saw this at the the theater, and almost had to leave.
If your expecting this to be just like the first one, you’ll be upset. For a
family with young children, I would suggest renting this before you buy it.
The movie I felt is better than the first one. It will appeal more to the grown ups than the previous one did. This time you will get crazier adventures of Scrat the squirrel. I got the region 3 dvd and it was ok nothing special. Cannot comment on the region 1 dvds. The film on the whole is enjoyable if watched once (max twice). I felt Cars was technically far better than IA2
Hollywood loves predictability. What could be safer than Ice Age II? Well, most sequels fail to replicate the success of the original because they fall back on formula to an even greater extent than Version One. Sadly that’s true of this Ice Age sequel too.
Our three protagonists (Manny the mammoth, Sid the sloth, and Diego the sabre-toothed cat) amble through this movie amiably enough but the superb graphics rendering and the marvelous side-plot of Skrat the squirrel can’t disguise the fact that this is a movie without a real plot and without dynamics. In the original movie the tension arose from the conflict between the main characters (Diego was supposed to be luring the sloth and the mammoth to their deaths at the hands of his pack). Here, everyone is everyone else’s best buddy and so there’s no tension, no character development, nothing. A feeble attempt at creating love interest between Manny and the female mammoth who thinks she’s really a possum (because she was raised by possums…) falls flat. The two “genuine” possums, who apparently survive entirely on a diet of methamphetamines, are just irritating.
In the end this movie is worth watching in order to see the continuation of Skrat’s adventures. His heaven-scene is genuinely both amusing and touching and the use of the Spartacus theme as background music is inspired. Hopefully the animators will scrap plans for Ice Age III (return of the geriatric trio) and opt for Skrat & Nut: The Ultimate Love Story, instead.