The Buzz on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs + Scrat Pack

The winners of this giveaway are the following commenters:
Rayne of Terror
Brit
Me
SJ
Mommyslat

I think I can track most of you down, but if you could email me your address to me, that would be even faster!   cageyATgmailDOTcom

Thanks to everyone who entered!
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Synopsis:

Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
In the  coolest Ice Age adventure yet, Manny and the herd discover a lost world of ferociously funny dinosaurs, including a cranky T. rex who’s got a score to settle with Sid! Meanwhile, Scrat goes nuts over the beautiful Scratte, but is she trying to win his heart – or steal his acorn?

The Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs Three-Disc Combo Pack (Blu-ray, DVD and a Digital Copy) provides hours of extra fun for the entire family including an Ice Age digital story book maker, commentary by director Carlos Saldanha, deleted scenes, making-of featurettes, two special Scrat shorts, a how-to-draw Scrat tutorial with the filmmakers and much more.  The Three-Disc set will be available for a suggested retail price of $39.99 U.S./$49.99 Canada. Additionally, the Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs standard DVD will be available for $29.98 U.S./$43.48 Canada.  The Ice Age 3 Dawn Of The Dinosaurs “Scrat Pack” Double DVD Pack, another great value for moms and fun for kids, will also be available for a limited time only featuring an overload of special features focusing on the determined squirrel including three “Scrat” games exclusive to the disc.  The “Scrat Pack” will be available for a suggested retail price of $34.98 U.S./$45.98 Canada.

I have not seen the two previous Ice Age movies and hesitated to go see the 3rd one last summer while it was in the theatres.  I feared we would be lost just joining the franchise and had not hear too much about the previous two movies.  However, when asked to review this particular Ice Age, I was drawn in with the word "dinosaur". And we were not disappointed.

The animation in this Ice Age is of very good quality and admittedly, I am pretty snobbish about that.  I did appreciate how some of the action scenes were choreographed as if they had been "live-filmed" - during one of the chase scenes I loved the animated "mud" hitting the "camera lens".

The overall storyline is actually quite clever and the jokes are witty, we laughed from the beginning to the end.  The humor is a little on the crass side, so be aware if that is not your thing.  However, it is most certainly MY thing and to that end,  I am raising my own children to appreciate Crass With Class, as well.   If your children are sensitive to what I delicately refer to as Food Chain Topics, you may want to watch this first to gauge their reaction since the T-Rex is pretty menacing in parts.  My kids, ages 2 and 4,  were not bothered in the least by the T-Rex, but we are pretty frank about the fact that some dinosaurs are carnivores and this means they eat MEAT.

We viewed this DVD on several different TVs - plasma, LCD and regular tube.  I thought the quality was fine on all three devices.

Is the extra Scrat pack worth it?  I would say yes - I appreciate animated shorts if they are done well.  And yes, the three Scrat shorts included on the bonus pack are clever, witty and beautifully animated (my favorite was the "time machine" short - I could watch that one over and over - hilarious!)  As an animation buff, I also appreciated learning the behind-the-scenes information as to how they go about making the entire movie itself.  



In short, we really enjoyed this movie and even after having seen it over and over and over the past few weeks, we are STILL watching it and even I am still giggling during the same parts.  If your little ones enjoy dinosaurs, this should be on the top of your list for the holiday buying season - I can think of two little kids who will most certainly be getting Ice Age 1 and Ice Age 2 in their stockings this year.


Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, comes out October 27 on Amazon and will be on both Blu-ray and DVD!

Would you like to win a copy?? I have 5 copies for giving away! Between now and October 26th, Midnight CST, leave a comment, including your email address and tell me which is your favorite dinosaur.  Sorry, this is only open to US residents.


My favorite dinosaur? The triceratops! I just love those three horns.