Ice Age: Continental Drift 3D

In Ice Age: Continental Drift, Manny (the voice of Romano), Diego (the voice of Leary), and Sid (the voice of Leguizamo) embark upon a high-seas adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they try to reunite with their herd. In the wake of these upheavals, Sid reunites with his cantankerous Granny, and the herd encounters a ragtag menagerie of seafaring pirates determined to stop them from returning home. (Gary Reber)

Special features include Party With A Pirate! and Sing Along modes; the featurettes: Through A Pirate's Spyglass: Voices Ahoy (HD 11:22) and Capturing The Crew (HD 14:42), Granny And The Stink Of The Sloths (HD 09:12), Scrat Got Your Tongue? (HD 07:04), and Whale Of A Tale: Drifts, Rifts, Beasties And Myths (HD 24:05); a Shimmy Shake Music Section featuring Gutt's Sing-Along Shanty Shimmy Shake, the "We Are" extended music video, the "Chasing The Sun" music video by The Wanted, and "The Sid Shuffle" dance along; two deleted scenes: "Dr. Granny" (HD 0:53) and "Shell Game" (HD 0:59); the featurettes Ice Age: The Story So Far (HD 09:29) and The Scratist (HD 02:11); original theatrical trailers; upfront previews; and an UltraViolet digital copy.

True to the original cinematographic source format presented in 3D D-Cinema, the Digital 3D 1080p MVC picture is stunning. The color palette is warm and rich, with painting-like characteristics and eye-popping hues. Colors often appear pastel in hue, which creates an overall softening effect, yet resolution renders a sharp and clear image. Fine detail is exhibited throughout, especially in texture. The imagery is very dimensional as well in 2D, and in the original 3D framing it is extraordinary. The imagery is immersive and displays excellent depth and dimensionality. The 3D never appears gimmicky, with dimensional effects nicely integrated. The image does not display any crosstalk ghosting, for a viewing experience that is pristine. This beautifully animated and colorful picture delivers an outstanding visual experience, especially in 3D, that is sure to fascinate and please. (Gary Reber)

As with Dawn Of The Dinosaurs, the DTS-HD Master Audio™ 7.1-channel soundtrack is nicely spatial and holosonic® sounding, with a nicely dimensional soundfield. The orchestral music score, mixed by Shawn Murphy, is well recorded, with a wide and deep soundstage that extends to the 90-degree side channels and to the side-back surrounds, for a dimensional experience. Dialogue is ADR produced but is always intelligible, though, not always well integrated spatially. That's because often there is no other support for the dialogue, which is absent of atmospheric sound effects. However, when sound effects are present, they are effective. Glacier breakup sounds convincing, as well as other sound effects, such as Precious, the whale. Bass extension at times is deep and powerful, extending to sub-25 Hz frequencies in the .1 LFE channel, which provides an effective low-frequency foundation for the storytelling and during the scenes with Precious. While fidelity is excellent, the absence of surround envelopment at times, other than the music, is disappointing, as is the general lack of atmospheric effects throughout. (Gary Reber)