Ice Age: Collision Course appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. As expected, the image looked terrific
No signs of softness ever emerged here. Instead, the movie always offered crisp, detailed visuals. I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and both edge haloes and print flaws failed to appear.
Colors offered a good array of hues. Even given the movie’s icy background, plenty of situations and characters allowed for brighter tones, and those consistently looked vivid and rich. Blacks seemed tight and deep, while shadows were smooth and clear. This became a top-notch visual presentation.
Almost as good, the DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack of Course added a lot of pep to the material. With all sorts of action on display, the various channels contributed exciting information of a frequent basis. The many flying elements zoomed around the room, and general mayhem created a good sense of the settings. These filled out the spectrum in an inventive and involving manner.
Audio quality was fine. Music sounded clear and smooth, while effects showed good range and punch, with very nice low end. In addition, speech appeared natural and distinctive. I found myself impressed with this strong soundtrack.
As we shift to extras, we get a mix of materials. Called Ice Age: The Story So Far, a 13-minute, 15-second reel catches us up with the first four movies. This offers a commentary-free compilation of scenes that cover the events of those flicks. Most fans won’t need this tutorial, but I do find it interesting to see how much computer animation has evolved since 2002.
The franchise’s beloved rodent character leads the next few components. Scrat: Spaced Out brings us a 14-minute, 42-second compilation that gathers all of Collision Course’s Scrat scenes in one place. A few unique elements appear along the way, and those add some value to the short.
More rodent-based material shows up with Scratasia: Scrat’s Solo Adventures. This goes four minutes, 13 seconds – and just gives us a montage of Scrat moments across the various movies. It lacks much merit.
Under Mysteries of the Scratazons, we find a five-minute, 13-second clip. It offers notes from directors Galen Chu and Mike Thurmeier and producer Lori Forte. “Mysteries” looks at the “Scratazons”, evolved female versions of Scrat. The show’s pseudo-serious tone feels a little silly, but at least we get more character background for the creatures who appear briefly in “Spaced Out”.
Next comes Star Signs of the Animal Kingdom. It lasts four minutes, 42 seconds and refers to movie characters as inspirations for constellations. Some cuteness results but nothing memorable.
With The Science of It All, we locate a nine-minute, 18-second reel with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. He looks at the movie’s antics and discusses the reality behind all of it. Tyson is in serious danger of media overexposure, but he still makes this a fun look at facts behind the silliness.
For a Sing-Along, we find a one-minute, 47-second clip that presents Buck’s version of “Figaro” It just takes the movie scene and adds some large text on screen. It’s an ad – and a waste of time.
The disc also presents a Gallery. It presents 12 images of concept art. While I like the material, I’d prefer more than just a dozen stills.
The 2D disc opens with ads for Trolls and The Book of Life. Sneak Peek adds promos for Nine Lives, Epic, Rio 2 and Strawberry Shortcake: Berry Bake Shop. We also locate the trailer for Course.
This package includes both 2D and 3D versions of Course. The picture comments above address the 2D edition, but I also want to talk about the 3D image.
In terms of visual quality, the 3D picture seemed strong. It came across as a wee bit softer and darker than the 2D image, but only a sliver. Overall clarity was almost as good.
The 3D imaging contributed a lot of excitement to the tale. With a lot of flying objects such as spaceships, birds and asteroids, the movie gave us many elements that poked out of the screen, and general dimensionality also seemed excellent. This became a lively and fun 3D presentation – I’d recommend it as the best way to watch the movie.
A third disc presents a DVD copy of Course. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.
Should one expect anything new and fresh from Ice Age: Collision Course? No – the franchise’s fifth entry feels stale and lacks much entertainment value. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture and audio as well as average supplements. Even by the series’ modest standards, Collision Course offers a dud.
To rate this film visit the 2D review of ICE AGE: COLLISION COURSE
