Ice Age Columbus ~ Who Were the First Americans? Review

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(More customer reviews)It may not please the Amerindian or casino lobbies:-) but this documentary offers proof -- and dramatization with excellent actors and script -- of the now decade-old and revolutionary theory that white Europeans arrived in North American very long ago, perhaps 5,000 years before the Siberian Asiatics did over their Alaskan land bridge, and thus that Europeans are (also) Native Americans. This is the "Solutrean" theory, named after Solutré in France. Arrowheads and spear heads from Solutré and other areas of Ice Age France were discovered only in the 1990s in Virginia, and this opened a Pandora's Box of further politically incorrect questions.
This is part of a continuum of new knowledge that got kick-started by the discovery, also in the 1990s, of "Kennewick Man"'s skeleton inland from Portland, Oregon, who, many scientist insist, was almost certainly a white European -- or rather a "European-American" from 10,000 B.C. (Indians demanded that his skeleton be immediately given to them -- for proper Indian burial as per federal law or so it could not be studied?)
Whatever one's leanings, this drama-documentary provides a gripping education regarding Ice Age life for Europeans, the harshness of life then, the huge and dangerous animals they faced and hunted (mammoths) or ran from (saber-tooths) and the incredible character and innovativeness needed to survive a transatlantic journey 17,000 years ago. One learns to truly care for the individuals whom fate first sent over the ocean, and this is based on a minimalist script without any hokey Hollywoodism, fine acting (especially by the actress playing "Zia") and interviews with recognized anthropological experts of the Stone Age and ancient North America.
They admit that they themselves were dumbfounded to find unmistakable ancient French hunting implements and other signs of European life in Virginia, all of which through carbon-dating make it certain that Europeans also are Native Americans. This film is touching in many places, rough and realistic but not overly violent, and very highly recommended for the general public, both macho men and the many women interested in the Jean Auel-type sagas, and for serious scholars of serious prehistory.

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Traditional history tells us that European settlers discovered America about the time of the Renaissance. But revolutionary new archaeological data and the latest DNA research reveal that Europeans visited our shores far earlier - some 17,000 years before Columbus was even born.Filmed in glorious high definition, this two-hour, epic drama follows an intrepid family of stone age hunters as they trek from their homeland in southwestern France, cross 3,000 miles of ocean and eventually make their first permanent settlement in what is today the northeastern U.S. Along the way, they overcome starvation and storms with the help of a revolutionary weapons technology they would later bequeath to the native peoples of the Americas. But awaiting the pioneers' arrival is a stark, empty continent, filled with a plethora of bizarre and lethal animals - all brought to life by brilliant computer animation. Firmly rooted in the latest scientific discoveries, it's a compelling vision of the greatest migration in human history.

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The Ice Age Collection (Ice Age/ Ice Age: The Meltdown) - Full Screen Editions (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ice Age and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown are 20th Century Fox's CGI successes. Both movies warm the heart; they make you appreciate the value of friends and family; they teach good morals. They are class-A family films (with the all important adult-asides).
There has been a tremendous proliferation of computer generated image films over the past couple of years which has certainly diluted the excitement that used to surround these movies. 2006 has got to set the record with 13...count 'em...13 releases that I can think of (Cars, The Wild, Happy Feet, Doogal, Open Season, Monster House, Chicken Little, Barnyard, Over the Hedge, The Ant Bully, Hoodwinked, Ice Age 2 & Flushed Away).
But the overkill of computer animation in 2006 should not sway anyone into missing Ice Age 2; it is the best of all 13 in 2006 by far. And if you've not seen the original, this 2-pack has your name all over it.
The picture is just awesome; this computer generated animation is amazing to see on a high-def TV. It's almost 3D. Unbelievable.
The Ice Age movies are classics and should not be missed by anyone, infant right up to senior movie-goer.

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Disc 1: Ice Age: The Meltdown *Full Screen Feature *All ?New Scrat Short- "No Time for Nuts"*All ?New Crash & Eddie Stunts - 3 Short Shorts *Crash and Eddie Blooper *Commentaries by Director Carlos Saldanha, Producer Lori Forte and the Production Team. *The Animation Director's Chair- Storyboard, Animation, Final for "Play Dead," "Fish Story," "Nuts," "Family," "Face Off," "Drain" *Intro Into New Characters- "Meet Ellie" and "Meet Crash and Eddie" *Lost Historical Films on the Ice Age Period: The Sloth "Nature's Lovable Lisper,"The Wooly Mammoth "Nature's Beast of Burden," The Saber-Tooth Squirrel "Nature's Nutty Buddy," The Saber-Tooth Tiger, "Nature's Fearsome Feline," The Vulture "Nature's Cleaners," The Possum "Nature's Spunky Spectacles" *Sloth Dancing to Sid's Sing-a-Long *Set Top Games- Factoid Meltdown, Scrat's Piranha Smackdown, Sid Soccer Game, Personality Match Game, Vivendi Universal Game Memory Challenge. *Silly Sid & John Leguizamo ? A Featurette*DVD Rom Content- Link to Website Games *Marketing of Ice Age - Scrat on Family Guy footage, Sid hosting Domination Line up *Inside Look - Simpsons The Movie *Cross Promo TrailersDisc 2: *Ice Age *Full screen feature *Commentary by director Chris Wedge and Co-director Carlos Saldahna

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Ice Age (2-Disc Special Edition) (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Another re-release for "Ice Age" (this is the third counting the single disc edition of the film) to coincide with the sequel, this edition essentially is the previous two disc edition with some minor features added that don't make it any more worthwhile to pick up. The DVD ROM printables and "Scrat's Frozen Facts" appear to be the newest features on this set. Most of the featurettes are recycled from the previous edition.
No issue with the transfer per se since it is a digital cartoon this edition appears to be from the same source as the previous edition. Should you upgrade? Not if you have the previous two disc edition but if you have the single disc edition and you want the extras, this is the way to go. Sound is crystal clear with nice use of 5.1 effects.
The DVD ROM printables and "Scrat's Frozen Fun Facts" an interactive feature that can be accessed during the film appear to be the newest features on this set. The latter has behind-the-scenes clips you the film in various stages of production while also including comments from experts on natural history discussing the what scientist believe the world was like then. Most of the featurettes are recycled from the previous edition. Otherwise the commentary tracks, deleted scenes and just about everything else is imported from the previous two disc edition of the film. There's also theater money that can be presented for "Ice Age 2".
If you purchased the previous two disc set of this movie, I'd take a pass on this one. There's no improvement in this edition vs. the earlier two disc set in my mind.

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They came... they thawed... they conquered the hearts of audiences everywhere in the coolest animated adventure of all time! Heading south to avoid a bad case of global frostbite, a group of migrating misfit creatures embark on a hilarious quest to reunite a human baby with his tribe. Featuring an all-star voice cast, including Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary, ICE AGE is "a pure delight" (New York Daily News) for all ages!

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (DVD + Digital Copy) (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" marks the third CG animated film for 20th Century Fox via Fox's CGI division Blue Sky Studios and the third "Ice Age" film directed by Carlos Saldanha (also directed "Robots" and "Gone Nutty"). The film is co-directed by Mike Thurmeier ("Horton Hears a Who", "Robots", "Gone Nutty") and a story by Jason Carter Eaton and a screenplay by Pete Ackerman, Michael Berg (both worked on previous "Ice Age" films), Yoni Brenner and Mike Reiss ("The Simpsons", The Critic", "It's Garry Shandling's Show"). Music is composed by John Powell ("X-Men: The Last Stand", "United 93", "Kung Fu Panda").
Back in 2002, the original "Ice Age" film focused on the friendship between creatures Manny the woolly mammoth (voice over by Ray Romano, "Everybody Loves Raymond"), Sid the weird looking, not-so-bright and clumsy ground sloth (voiced by John Leguizamo, "ER", "Miracle at St. Anna", "Titan A.E.") and the saber-toothed tiger (aka smilodon) named Diego (voiced by Denis Leary, "Rescue Me"). Also, seen outside of the main core of the group is side-story featuring a squirrel known as Scrat who has a passion towards acorns.
With the first film focusing on the migration to avoid the Ice Age and the main character's friendship, the second film "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006) features the melting of the ice and focuses on Manny finding another woolly mammoth named Ellie (voice by Queen Latifah, "Mad Money", "Chicago").
This time around for the third film "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs", Ellie is now pregnant and is soon to give birth. Being the worried and concerned father, Manny is highly anticipating the birth of his child and each kick, he often accidentally tells the whole herd that Ellie is about to give birth.
Meanwhile, his friends are not in a better place. Diego is getting older and feels that he is not the agile fighter as he once was as he now gets dizzy and can't even chase after his prey like he once used to. So, Diego feels as if he has to leave home. Sid feels alone now that his best friend has other responsibilities. As for the nutty squirrel known as Scrat, upon discovering his beloved acorn, he becomes smitten with a female squirrel named Scratte who is also passionate for the acorn.
Manny creates a playground for his upcoming child and surprises Ellie with it. Meanwhile, Sid feeling that he has no one ends up falling through a hole and discovering three eggs. Wanting to be a parent himself, he brings the three eggs to the village. Because of the size, Manny tells Sid to return the eggs back to its mother but Sid of course has other plans. Not wanting to be alone, he ends up sleeping with the eggs and when hatched, three baby Tyrannosaurus Rex's come out and Sid becomes the designated "mother" for the three which he names Eggbert, Shelly and Yoko.
Excited about being a parent, he tries to introduce to his new children to his friends but instead brings the three to Manny's playground (which was supposed to be for Manny and Ellie's child). The kids of the village then join in on the fun and because of the Tyrannosaurus Rex's nature, they begin to roughhouse the children and end up swallowing a few of them. Also, in the process...the three young dinosaurs end up destroying the playground.
Manny and Ellie arrive to find the destruction and Manny is upset that Sid didn't listen to him and now the playground he built is destroyed. To make things worse, the true mother of the three baby Tyrannosaurus Rex now wants her children back and leads the huge dinosaur right into their village.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex ends up getting her children back but with Sid not willing to give up the children, he is taken as well by the dinosaur.
Now Manny, Ellie, Diego along with the two weasels Crash (voiced by Seann William Scott, "American Pie" films) and Eddie (Josh Peck, "Drake & Josh", "The Wackness") end up going after the dinosaur to find Sid and find themselves away from the ice and into a new land where there is no snow and dinosaurs exist. Not knowing how to survive around the dangerous dinosaurs, they run into a one-eyed weasel named Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg, "Hot Fuzz", "Sean of the Dead", "Star Trek") who knows his way around the area.
So, the group try to survive the dangerous dinosaurs, tough terrain but most importantly trying to be careful for the nastiest dinosaur of them all...Rudy.
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" on Blu-ray comes with three discs. The original Blu-ray is accompanied with the movie on DVD and also a digital copy.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray. Presented in 1080p High Definition (1:85:1, AVC@36 MBPS), I'm always impressed to see how hair/fur continues to look better and better via CG and the sheer detail found in each character and its surroundings are much more evident now than ever. In fact, this is probably the most vibrant "Ice Age" film due to the fact that the film is taken outside of its ice habitat and into the land of the dinosaurs where there is a lot of lush plant life, sunlight, etc. Overall, CG animated fans will love the picture quality of this film. Sky Blue Studios did a fantastic job!
As for the audio, the film is presented in English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (also, Spanish, French and Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital) and as fantastic as the picture quality was, the audio quality is just as magnificent. Talk about an immersive soundtrack, dinosaur growls all around you and how its utilized through the surround and rear surround channels are nicely done. Front and center channels feature the dialogue and the music which are crystal clear. Also, good use of LFE during the action sequences.
Both video and audio quality for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur" receive high marks! Fans of the film will definitely enjoy this Blu-ray release.
As for subtitles, subtitles are provided in English SDH, Spanish, Portuguese, Cantonese and Mandarin.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" comes with the following special features:
* Audio commentary - A commentary featuring Director Carlos Saldanha, co-director Michael Thurmeier, producer Lori Forte, John C. Donkin and many more from the Bly Sky Studios crew. Entertaining commentary with some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes making of the film.
* Ice Age Storybook Maker - Using your remote, you can create a storybook for ages 1-5 (Bronze Age), 6-11 (Stone Age) and 12 and up (Ice Age).
* Evolution Expedition Featurette - (18:24) A tour through the George C. Page Museum at the Los Angeles LA Brea Discovery featuring Trevor Valle, Assistant Lab Supervisor. Introduction to the predators at the zoo and how they relate to the characters in the film.
* Buck: From Easel To Weasel Featurette - (7:12) The creation of Buck and how his character became to be. And the various designs to create his character and more.
* Unearthing the Lost World Featurette - (8:39) Behind-the-Scenes of "Ice Age". Interviews with cast and crew for "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs". The sketches, the character designs, 3D animation, the voice acting and more.
* Unfinished Deleted Scenes - (4:33) Featuring unfinished deleted scenes for "Mission" and "Headbutters". Although, the voice acting is heard, these are unfinished and are still in their B&W sketched out format with some animation.
* "Walk the Dinosaur" Music Video - (1:32) A short music video clip of the characters performing to the song "Walk the Dinosaur".
* Fox Movie Channel presents Making a Scene (Ice Age: The Meltdown) - (9:20) Behind-the-scenes on the making of "Ice Age: The Meltdown" featuring interviews with the crew.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with John Leguizamo - (2:48) Interview with John Leguizamo about doing the voice of Sid the Sloth.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with Ray Romano - (3:22) Interview with Ray Romano about doing the voice of Manny the Mammoth.
* Fox Movie Channel presents In Character with Queen Latifah - (3:06) Interview with Queen Latifah about doing the voice of Ellie the Mammoth.
* BD LIVE - Live Lookup as powered by iMDb - (5:24) Scenes from "The Third Man" left untranslated to show Holly Martin's confusion of the surroundings of postwar Vienna.
* The Scrat Pack - (2:22) Included are the following shorts: "Gone Nutty: Scrat's Missing Adventure" (4:44) and "No Time For Nuts" (6:50). Both shorts are CG animated.
* Scrat Featurettes
- The Sabre-Toothed Squirrel: Nature's Nutty Buddy (1:46) - A parody of nature films feat. Scrat.
- Scrat: From Head to Toe (Drawing Tutorial) (8:22) - Peter De Seve teaches you how to draw Scrat
- Scrat: Breaking Story -(1:50) A film-like featurette showing scientists discovering a million year old Ice Age animal known as Scrat.
- Scrat: News Report (2:28) - A continuation of the "Breaking Story" and featuring a news cast interview with the scientists about their discovery of Scrat and more.
- Falling For Scratte (8:29) - Crew talk about Scrat and why people love the character and why the creator's created Scratte.
DVD:
The accompanying DVD comes with the filmmaker's commentary featuring Director Carlos Saldanha, co-director Michael Thurmeier, producer Lori Forte, John C. Donkin and many more from the Bly Sky Studios crew. Entertaining commentary with some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes making of the film, trailers and a Marley meets Puppy Chow commercial.
JUDGMENT CALL:
I was actually quite pleased with "Ice Age: Dawn of...Read more›

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ICE AGE 3:DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS - Blu-Ray Movie

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Ice Age - The Meltdown (Widescreen Edition) (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ice Age: The Big Chill was very good and entertaining. Just seen The Meltdown and was thoroughly entertained. Hollywood finally put something out that didn't have a bunch of sex, blood and gore. Wonderful one liners and originality in this. The QUEEN did an outstanding job, and Ray just made it all the better. This would be one for the DVD Library for sure. Kids AND adults both had a great time. Thank you Hollywood for finally having something that was fun.

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Your favorite sub-zero heroes are back for another incredible adventure in the super-cool animated comedy Ice Age the Meltdown! The action heats up?and so does the temperature?for Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. Trying to escape the valley to avoid a flood of trouble, the comical creatures embark on a hilarious journey across the thawing landscape and meet Ellie, a female woolly mammoth who melts Manny's heart. With its dazzling animation, unforgettable characters and an all-new Scrat short, Ice Age: The Meltdown is laugh-out-loud fun for the whole family!

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Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Took my nephew to see it and he loved it. I thought it was hilarious as well. Why can't some of you people just enjoy the movie for its entertainment? Is there a need to pick everything apart? Wahhh waahhh just another sequel to make more money. Ok? Who cares. I thought the dinosaurs were extinct in the first one. Again who cares!! Enjoy the freakin movie!

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ICE AGE 3:DAWN OF THE DINOSAURS - DVD Movie

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