Who would have thought the diminutive Scrat — of Ice Age fame — would be mentioned in the same sentence as the tallest anything?  However, during an Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Blu-ray/DVD release event, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment walked away Guinness World Record holders for Tallest Ice Sculpture — one which is adorned with Scrat’s likeness.

A Guinness World Record is broken with the official unveiling of the World's Tallest Ice Sculpture... (Casey Rodgers / AP Images for FHE)

TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT BREAKS GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR THE TALLEST ICE SCULPTURE EVER CONSTRUCTED…IN THE LIKENESS OF ICE AGE’S SCRAT

(Los Angeles, Calif.) To coincide with the release of the Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs Blu-ray disc and DVD, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment recently broke the Guinness World Record for Tallest Ice Sculpture at the opening of the ice skating rink, ICE at Santa Monica. The final Scrat sculpture was unveiled at 4:00pm on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. A team of 14 skilled sculptors from Ice Bulb LLC built the world’s Tallest Ice Sculpture over a 4-day period on the ice rink at the ICE at Santa Monica. A Guinness World Records™ adjudicator was present to oversee the attempt.

Fun Facts:

·      The Scrat Ice Sculpture stood at 45 feet tall

·      Over 133,000 lbs. of ice was used, gathered across 4 states

·      Months of preparation went into the logistics

·      Artists from Blue Sky Studios developed the look of the model

·      The last record for the Tallest Ice Sculpture is 40.28 feet and was achieved by Michel Amann (France) in Ski Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on April 20, 2006.

The highly-entertaining, family friendly Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs DVD stomped onto DVD October 27 through Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment and Word Distribution.

The coolest animated comedy of the year, Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs features hilarious performances from Ice Age veterans Ray Romano (“Everybody Loves Raymond”), John Leguizamo (The Happening), Denis Leary (“Rescue Me”), Queen Latifah (The Secret Life of Bees), Seann William Scott (Planet 51) and Josh Peck (“Drake & Josh”), along with newcomers Bill Hader (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), Kristen Wiig, Jane Lynch (“Glee) and Simon Pegg.

While action-packed and appealing to all ages, Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs also offers wholesome life-lessons about family and friendship, emphasizing the importance of learning to go past ones differences and get along to live in harmony. Being one family and community necessitates going past our personal agendas and individual desires. Instead it calls for us to focus on protecting the interest of each other at all costs.

Images and accompanying video are courtesy of Rogers & Cowan

Director: Carlos Saldanha Starring: voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Simon Pegg Running Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes Theatrical Release: July 1, 2009 Shop for Ice Age Merchandise

Plot Summary

In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, much-loved characters from the worldwide blockbusters Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown are back, on an incredible adventure… for the ages. Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive nut (while, maybe, finding true love); Manny (Ray Romano) and Ellie (Queen Latifah) await the birth of their mini-mammoth, Sid (John Leguizamo) the sloth gets into trouble when he creates his own makeshift family by hijacking some dinosaur eggs; and Diego (Denis Leary) the saber-toothed tiger wonders if he’s growing too “soft” hanging with his pals. On a mission to rescue the hapless Sid, the gang ventures into a mysterious underground world, where they have some close encounters with dinosaurs, battle flora and fauna run amuck – and meet a relentless, one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

With the success of two films preceding it, Fox Animation Studio brings moviegoers Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, also known as Ice Age 3. The first film bowed in 2002, offering a unique if not relatively simple animation style to tell the story of a group of unlikely animal friends who band together during the Ice Age of Earth’s history. The 2006 sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown continued the story of these characters, developing them a bit further and introducing a few new characters into the mix. Now, another three years later, Dawn Of The Dinosaurs further tells the story of this animal “herd” as they accidentally discover a world of prehistoric animals that they had long thought to be extinct.

While some sequels tend to copy themselves in an attempt to recapture the success of the first film (or the sequel before it), Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs feels very much like a continuation of the series and not so much a retread. In fact, these films rarely repeat lines or moments from each other, giving it a natural flow from one film to the next. If anything is repetitive, it’s the welcomed presence of the prehistoric squirrel, Scrat, and his desperate attempts to snag an acorn. It’s very much the whole Trix rabbit not being able to get a bowl of Trix kind of gag, but with Scrat it works. And to keep things fresh, Scrat meets a new nemesis, Scratte, a female prehistoric squirrel. The interactions are hilarious and we finally get to see Scrat obsess over something else for a change. In fact, as love becomes an interest of Scrat’s, family becomes a major theme in this installation of the series. Manny’s longing for a family was a theme for the first two films and the anticipation of a pending newborn between he and Ellie becomes much of what Ice Age 3 focuses on, while Sid expresses his desires to be a parent.

While the animation in 2002′s Ice Age was anything but impressive, watching the films in succession (which, admittedly, is what I did before seeing this third film), highlights the growth and maturation of the animation quality with each Ice Age movie. It’s obvious that Fox Animation Studio has grown in its budget and quality over the past seven years. Even last year’s Horton Hears A Who film from Fox Animation displayed incredible quality. Dawn Of The Dinosaurs ups the ante for this particular series. I couldn’t help notice how great these characters looked now.

The Meltdown introduced three new characters into the series: Ellie the female mammoth, and the possum brothers Crash and Eddie. All three return in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, and all of the gripes I felt about their characters were remedied this time around. Crash and Eddie felt less irritating and overly cheesy, and were used more sparingly — seemingly more so when the moment felt right. Also, Queen Latifah’s delivery of her lines felt more natural in this “threequel,” while last time it felt more forced or rigid. One major new (talking) character is featured in Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, the one-eyed weasel Buck, who happens to be gradually losing his mind. Voiced by British comedy actor Simon Pegg, Buck is one of the most fun additions to the series, and he offers some of the funniest moments in Ice Age 3.

The content in Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs earns its PG rating quite easily. For one, the presence of the dinosaurs make for some pretty intense moments in this movie. A few times, they menacingly pop up out of nowhere with creepy eyes and such. We see Diego chasing down a deer to kill for food (but he gets tired before he reaches it), and we see a fair amount of dinosaurs threatening the main characters all throughout the film. While the sea monsters were pretty intense in The Meltdown, this movie is a few times more intense than that. Also in the previous sequel, there was some mild language used for cheap laughs (like the “a” word and “d*mn”) but none of that is used here, which is a nice change. However, several moments of innuendo or mild sexual humor are made. They’re inappropriate and unnecessary, but probably subtle enough that kids won’t pick up on it (check out the content details after this review, but references to a caterpillar “coming out” into a butterfly, Sid accidentally trying to milk a male ox thinking it was a female, etc, are the kind of tasteless jokes that it opts for). The whole movie doesn’t run on gags like this which is good, but the humor does ride the line at times.

Overall, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is a pleasant surprise as a sequel. While Shrek The Third was a letdown from Shrek 2, Dawn Of The Dinosaurs improves on its predecessor. It retains just enough of the heart that each of the movies contains to still feel part of the series, but it changes things up enough not to feel like each movie is a retread. If you’re looking for a lighter alternative to the heavier thematic material like that from Up, or are just looking for a fun adventure film, Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs delivers. If they decide to end the series here, it’s a fine finish, but if they do decide to continue on, here’s to hoping they can only build on the series instead of run it into the ground (like Shrek seems to be threatening to do as Shrek Forever After is slated for release next year).

Director: Carlos Saldanha Starring: voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Theatrical Release: March 31, 2006 Shop for Ice Age Merchandise

Plot Summary

Manny, Sid and Diego return in another incredible adventure. The Ice Age is coming to an end, and the animals are delighting in their new world: a melting paradise of water parks, geysers and tar pits. But when Manny, Sid and Diego discover that the miles of melted ice will flood their valley, they must warn everyone and somehow figure out a way to escape the coming deluge. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

In 2002, a modest little animated comedy called Ice Age emerged from Fox Studios newly created animation department. It was a hit, and the tale about a mammoth, a sabertooth tiger, and an unwanted-yet-lovable sloth warmed the hearts of many. With its success, the buzz of a sequel seemed inevitable and now, four years later, Ice Age: The Meltdown continues the story.

From the opening scenes of The Meltdown, Ice Age 2 feels a lot different from its original. While the first film was built around the tension between the main characters, most of that tension is gone here. It seemed almost weird to see how much they actually care for each other now, much like a real family would. This itself was a welcomed change. Also, the film introduces so many new characters and animals that it’s almost overwhelming. But what feels natural about this sequel, is each character is expanded upon without intruding on the original vision for each character established by Ice Age.

Of all the new characters, the most significant include a female mammoth named Ellie, who believes she’s a possum, and her possum friends Crash & Eddie. While it’s nice to meet new characters, their presence stole some desired screentime from our favorite central characters. Also, the banter between Crash & Eddie (with the former voiced unimpressively by Seann William Scott) is often either too cheesy or not funny enough to make their characters worthy of the amount of screentime they get. Queen Latifah, however, does a fine job as Ellie, serving as an appropriate mate for Manny.

Besides benefiting from some clever jokes here and there, Ice Age: The Meltdown’s real charm is upping the on-screen presence of most people’s favorite character in Ice Age, the prehistoric acorn-hungry squirrel, Scrat. Once again voiced by the director of the first film, Chris Wedge, Scrat steals each and every scene he appears in, offering up some of the funniest moments of the movie. While a full-length film about Scrat might run out of steam pretty early on from an over use of the one-track joke, his antics are perfect little interludes in The Meltdown.

Overall, however, I found Ice Age: The Meltdown to be an above average sequel. Things are taken to a whole new level for the franchise. While it may still be no Shrek or Shrek 2, it’s a mostly recommendable family comedy.

Director: Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha Starring: voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Jack Black Running Time: 1 hour, 21 minutes Theatrical Release: March 15, 2002 Shop for Ice Age Merchandise

Plot Summary

During the ice age in prehistoric times, a mass migration begins, leaving behind a talkative sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo), who quickly latches on to the trail of a wooly mammoth named Manfred (Ray Romano). When the unlikely pair are suddenly in possession of a Native American infant, their plans change as it becomes their goal to return it to its family. The duo becomes a trio when a sabertooth named Diego (who was sent out by other sabertooths to kill the baby) joins the two to lead them to the baby’s tribe. Only Diego knows for sure what the group will face at the end of their quest…

Film Review

It’s inevitable to compare Ice Age to 2001′s animated giants Monster’s Inc and Shrek. Twentieth Century Fox joins the line of computer animated films provided by Disney/Pixar and DreamWorks by releasing Ice Age. This film is just fun and enjoyable enough to rank it up with the other two. While Ice Age may not be as original, actually seeming to blend the plots of Monsters and Shrek a bit, it doesn’t matter due to the lovable character personalities and intriguing scenery. It didn’t seem to matter too much either that the relationship between Manny and Sid was much like Shrek and Donkey, or that two odd characters are stuck with a human baby, with the larger hairy one eventually warming up to it. Mixing the two plots, tossing the setting back into prehistoric times and using that as a basis for a lot of its humor, works very well here. And this film has heart. While it does seem a little corny at times, the heart is there, and it’s always great to see a warm movie like this.

Content-wise, the film isn’t too bad. It gets its rating from some violence in the movie, although I must admit I didn’t see what was more violent here that makes it PG over many G-rated Disney films. Here the more sinister of the peril is spawned from the sabertooth tigers and their quest to seek revenge on the Native American tribe for killing some of their pack. They could have made it a lot more violent or graphic if they wanted to, but its milder approach makes it more appropriate for families.

The voice talents of Ray Romano as Manny and John Leguizamo as Sid were absolutely perfect. Romano has a great voice and it’s a wonder why they haven’t used him for an animated film prior to this. Denis Leary, best known for being a foul-mouthed comedian, did well as the sabertooth Diego. It was a little hard to like his character knowing how Leary is in real life, but he still does well here. Probably the most lovable character would actually be the squirrel-like critter named Scrat who from the film’s beginning to end randomly shows up here and there desperately chasing after a precious acorn or attempting to stash it somewhere.

Ice Age isn’t the most original animated feature I’ve seen but definitely a fun and enjoyable one. It serves as more of a throwback to the original Disney animated feature plot “formula” and will make for a decent family outing.