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Like the best animated features, the story is simple, with lots of cute animal characters running around and acting like goofy human surrogates. Our furry friends Manfred, Sid, Scrat and Diego are gearing up for an impending ice age when they accidentally save one very crabby little baby. With tot in tow, it's a madcap search for a roaming band of Neanderthals who want their baby back. Can our makeshift band of animals survive one hysterical mishap after another and return the precocious toddler safely to its father?

Ice Age is cute, clever and 81 minutes of sheer delight. While I love the Pixar flicks and dug Shrek, it is refreshing to get a new, hungrier take on what is fast becoming a set of CGI cliches. Unlike traditional hand-drawn animation, the wizards behind these computer- generated adventures seem to be obsessed with lifelike landscapes and textures, as if photo-realism has suddenly become the Holy Grail. (I, for one, like my animation heightened and decidedly un- realistic; otherwise, I'll just go see a French movie.) But here, Blue Sky has at least wigged-out with the camera moves and the wacky dialogue. This flick moves at a breathless pace yet knows when to slow down and give the characters their close-up. Less sentimental than Pixar but still filled with big emotions, about the only place the film slips up is the human characters - for once, can't we get a film just about the animals?

But I don't claim to know the real secret to Ice Age's success. I've seen plenty of other wanna-be animated blockbusters, both of the traditional hand-drawn variety and these newfangled CGI-fests, and most have entertained me despite tanking at the box office. (Hey, I even liked Titan A.E.!) Ice Age certainly has a leg up in terms of a clever script, zany setpieces, and a great vocal cast (especially John Leguizamo as Sid, whose inspired phrasing is hysterical). But is it really as consistently inspired as a Pixar or DreamWorks flick? Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn't matter: Ice Age is great entertainment for the whole family regardless of what the label says. Can't wait for Ice Age 2!

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Presented in THX- certified 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 4:3 full frame transfers (both packed onto one dual-layer disc), Fox and Blue Sky here give Pixar a run for their money. What's interesting about a film like Ice Age is how very "white" it is, which is always a challenge for any transfer. Imperfections can't be hidden in the shadows or by pumping up the contrast, so even slight blemishes or other distractions appear magnified. But this transfer is up to the task, and is almost on par with the best Disney or DreamWorks animated titles.

Colors are excellent throughout, with very strong primary hues (especially blues and oranges) and no noticeable bleeding or noise. Detail is often wonderfully lifelike and three- dimensional, with even fine textures such as hair and complex surfaces nicely rendered. Blacks and contrast are top notch, and there is no noticeable edge enhancement or haloing around sharp objects. Alas, the only real disappointment with this transfer is the presence of noticeable compression artifacts, likely due to the inclusion of both widescreen and full frame transfers on the same disc. I'm sure detail would have been improved even further and pixel breakup minimized had separate versions been released. As is, I noticed some obvious jittering and even polarization on fades and transitions. It's not severe, but it can distract. Otherwise, Ice Age looks mighty good.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, this is a very well executed mix that is consistently engaging. As is the case with most animated films, every single sound has to be produced from scratch. I'm sure is a Herculean task but it sure pays off handsomely for the audience! As such, this is a pristine recording with excellent fidelity and dynamic range. Most impressive is the use of discrete effects, with all five channels consistently active. Sounds whiz by, and imaging around the entire 360-degree soundfield is quite transparent. The dialogue, music and effects are also nicely balanced for a very clear and distinct presence to the many character voices. The .1 LFE also pumps out some pretty nice low bass, which gives the film's many big rumbling action scenes real life and vitality.

Alas, the only real drawback is the score, which is pretty weak in the mix. It is primarily confined to the fronts, and it would have helped the mix substantially had the rears been used to better effect for the music and especially the songs. Still, a very lively, active mix that suits the film very well.

Also included are French and Spanish 2.0 Dolby surround dubs, English and Spanish subtitles, and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Not content with mere blockbuster box office, Fox is now homing in on the Disney home video juggernaut, too. The comparison may not be fair, but consciously or unconsciously, this two-disc special edition can't help but ape all those other big Disney two-disc DVD extravaganzas. All the extras you'd expect are here: commentary, tons of making-of featurettes, a couple of short films, and plenty of promo materials. Okay, so this doesn't break the mold, but how come only Disney gets to have all the fun?

Let's start with disc one, which in addition to the widescreen and full frame versions of the film also includes a few other extras. The leader of the pack is the screen-specific audio commentary with co-directors Chris Wedge and Carlos Saldanha. I usually brace myself before any "animated movie commentary" for a boring experience, because how exciting can it be to listen to a couple of guys talking for two hours about CGI? But Wedge and Saldanha are pretty funny, by turns informative, wry and irreverent. What's interesting about Ice Age was its long development period (it started out as a straightforward drama before turning into a family-friendly animated comedy) and the unusual arctic setting which presented plenty of story challenges. To be honest, this track got dull in the home stretch, and given the often fascinating contributions from the voice talent as evidenced in the other included supplements, it's a shame they weren't also asked or able to participate. Still, it's a solid commentary that fans of the film should dig.

Disc one also includes three interactive games: "Hide and Eek," "Frozen Pairs" and "Playing Darwin." These are all very simple set-top games with no fancy graphics, but should give the little ones a few minutes of diversion nonetheless. A link to the disc's ROM content is also included (see below).

Now, on to disc two. Unfortunately, where this set pales in comparison to most Disney and Pixar titles is in the navigation and overall structure. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to the arrangement of these supplements, but at least the actual content of the video-based featurettes is informative and entertaining. Also fun are the animated menus, which were created exclusively for the DVD and deliver a few laughs of their own. All of the video-based extras are presented in full screen only and no captions or subtitles are provided.

A bit frustrating to access is the "Under the Ice" section, which houses 8 different featurettes. Let's start with the weakest, the 14-minute HBO First Look: Behind the Scenes of Ice Age featurette (actually second from the top on the menu.) Like most of these HBO pieces, it tries so hard to be fast-paced and irreverent that it doesn't bother to impart any real making-of info. Both Ray Romano and John Leguizamo come up with some funny ad-libs, so this actually works better as a comedy routine than a doc.

Much better are the various featurettes produced exclusively for this DVD. The Making of Ice Age is a 26-minute piece conveniently divided into 7 segments: "The Beginning" (3 min.), "Acting in Animation" (5 min.), "Creating Ice Age Characters" (3 min.), "Modeling" (3 min.), "Storyboards" (2 min.), "Animating Ice Age" (6 min.) and "The Finishing Touches" (3 min.). Much better than the HBO fluff piece, this provides a nice primer on the basics of animation, from story concept through rendering to finished film. All of the main cast and crew are interviewed, including new contributions from Wedge, Saldanha, Romano and Leguizamo, plus most of the animation team. With this introduction out of the way, there are 7 more video vignettes that go into more detail on specific aspects of the film: "Sid Voice Development" (3:38), "Using 2D in a 3D World" (1:09), "Making a Character" (1:07), "Art of Rigging" (1:23), "Animators Acting" (0:51), "Lighting and Materials" (1:01) and "Art of Effects" (0:59). The highlight for me was the "Sid Voice Development" segment. Here, Leguizamo takes us through his various vocal rehearsals and "tryout" voices until he came up with just the right inflection and accent for Sid. In this set's only real frustration, there is no "Play All" function (even for "The Making of Ice Age" doc) so all the button-pushing does get monotonous.

Up next we have nearly 20 minutes of deleted scenes, with or without optional commentary by Wedge and Saldanha: "Paying Toll with Aardvarks," "Sylvia and Sid Introduction," "Sabre Stake Out," "No More Fruit for You," "Sid and the Ladies," and "Sid and Sylvia." All these scenes are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen and the quality is pretty good despite rougher animation than the main feature. This is some pretty funny stuff, especially anything with Sid in it, so if you like the flick at all you should check these out. Another great inclusion are two Blue Sky short films, one old, one new: The Oscar-winning "Bunny," and a new short exclusively available here, "Scratch's Missing Adventure."

The rest of the extras are all short video- or still-based odds and ends. Rather cool are the multi-angle Animation Progressions for three scenes: "Opening," "Almost Home" and "Tigers Attack." Each scene can be viewed from five different perspectives (Storyboards, 3D Layout, Un-Rendered Animation, Final Render, and a Composite of all four) and include the finished film soundtrack. International Ice Age is another one of those little clip montages of the film in various languages. Am I the only one who finds it a bit suspect that all these DVDs seem to find foreign languages so funny in and of themselves, especially on kid's titles that are supposed to be all about the magic of assimilation?

But wait, there's more. The Design Gallery section is actually rather unique if lacking in any "real" content - no storyboards, production drawings, or the like are included. "The Science Behind Ice Age" gives us a mere 20 stills - one for each character - with some brief text info on its real-life animal counterpart. The "Create Your Own Gallery" section is kinda neat, however, allowing you to view 12 different categories of images, including characters, locales and cave paintings, either individually or collectively. There is also a "Play All" function if you want to see them all together. In all, there are about 75 sketches total.

Rounding it all out are some promotional items. The Trailers section includes the film's original teaser and two more full-length trailers, all in anamorphic widescreen and 2.0 surround. You will also find 3 custom Fox TV spots in the Scratch Reveals section on the main menu. Last but not least we have the 3-minute Sid on Sid, a pretty hilarious little Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque segment. Our beloved little Sid gives us a montage version of his big screen debut, complete with his own unique brand of behind-the-scenes insight. (Note: This is billed on the back packaging as "Scene-Specific Commentary by John Leguizamo as Sid.")

Now, one last note on the packaging. In addition to a rather dull full color insert in the dual-flap keepcase, this set may include a dubious first, an advertisement painted right in the inner packaging itself (in my case, a DVD-shaped ad for Papa John's Pizza). How tacky! Let's hope this doesn't signal the start of a trend...

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

Pop in disc one into your drive and a custom interface pops up that uses proprietary Fox software. Although the back of the box indicates 8 additional ROM interactive games, I could only find two: the "Sid Shreds" 3-D freestyle snowboarding game, and "Super Dodo Ball," a race-against-the-clock soccer-like challenge. The graphics are as nice as the gameplay is simple, but these should still be fun for the kids. Also included are a nice selection of Printables, including a calendar, hanging mobile and more paper-based games. Obviously, a printer is required to print out these extras.

In terms of the overall ROM experience, this set is lacking compared to other animated titles, especially DreamWorks' trendsetting Shrek. There is no integration between this content and the disc itself or the web, and the custom software makes the navigation (especially getting out of the games once you start) rather tough. The interface also lacks any DVD controls, so you can't toggle from the ROM mode to the actual movie or extra features (which, one presumes, is the whole point of ROM content in the first place.) A rather uninspired effort.

Parting Thoughts