Ice Age: Continental Drift (aka Ice
Age 4/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/The Life
& Times Of Tim – The Complete Third Season (HBO DVDs)/Power Rangers Super Samurai – The Complete
Series (Lionsgate Blu-ray set/all 2012)
Picture:
B & C/C+/B- Sound: B+ &
B-/C+/B- Extras: C+/D/D Main Programs: C+/C+/C-
Now for
animated and energetic entertainment for all ages…
One of
the big box office hits of the year, Steve Martino and Michael Thurmeier’s Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) is
the latest installment of Fox’s highly successful Ice Age franchise and we have been covering it since the
beginning. For Blu-ray links to the
previous three feature releases, go to these links:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6701/Ice+Age+(2002/Blu-ray)
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4677/Ice+Age+%E2%80%93+The+Meltdow
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9248/Ice+Age+%E2%80%93+Dawn+Of+Th
The
latest chapter is as amusing as its predecessors as a certain acorn-loving
squirrel chases his favorite prize to the center of the earth and this is what
causes one continent to split into seven.
This changes the world forever and as usual, the screenplay takes such
vast liberties in its narrative for the sake of jokes, though it limits my
enjoyment of these releases. Still, this
looks and sounds as good as any of them to date as the makers have put some of
their profits back into the animation technology resulting in a CG feature with
a look and feel like no other, which also continues the worlds established from
the first film onward.
Even if
you have never seen one of its predecessors, the animation is fun, the voice
work good and energy a plus. The film is
then riddled with moments when the continents split and the other jokes are hit
and miss. This entry is child friendly
for the most part, though I though a few moments of cartoon violence (i.e.,
people hitting each other to be funny) happened too often and some might not
want very young children to see this. It
is the most unnecessary aspect of the film, but the rest is very watchable.
Also
issued in 3D theatrically and on Blu-ray 3D, we are only covering the 2D set
and it is not bad at all, but more on its playback qualities below
momentarily. The voice cast includes
John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Jennifer Lopez and Queen Latifah.
Extras
include Ultraviolet Copy, the bonus DVD version, plus the Blu-ray adds Music
Videos, a Sing Along, a Coloring Book App, Party
With A Pirate! Interactive viewing mode, behind the scenes featurette Whale Of A Tale and Deleted Scenes.
With its
overly simple hand-drawn animation (that might be a stretch for some), The Life & Times Of Tim – The Complete
Third Season (2012) is the total opposite of a big budget animated feature
and a cable TV series (on HBO) as the title character has to continue to deal
with people all around him being dumb, jerks, idiots and that includes anyone
he has to work with. It is more of the
same after the previous seasons (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and that is
great for fans and not so great for those who (like myself) find the show
amusing, yet predictable more than it should be.
We get 10
more half-hour shows that have their entertaining moments, but also has only so
many new places to go. The voice actors
are a plus here making this funnier than it would be without their comic timing
and voice talent, but so few animated programs are aimed squarely at an
adult-only audience (while the likes of the Ice Age films have in-jokes for adults while they are mostly for
children versus the long cancelled Daria,
et al) that fans treasure it for being what it is.
There are
no extras.
Last and
least is Power Rangers Super Samurai –
The Complete Series, now on Blu-ray and the latest of the seemingly endless
spin-offs of the classic show (most of which we have reviewed) from the early
1990s. Another one of our writers who is
a fan liked this show and covered the early episodes on DVD, which you can read
more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11812/Sabin%27s+Power+Rangers:+Super
We get all 20 episodes of this latest spin-off and the latter shows are no
better than the early ones, though fans like my fellow writer might like the
latter shows as much as the first ones, I never liked the original show and
find the sequels more and more obnoxious, so I rarely look at them. To say this is for fans only is an
understatement, but going High Definition adds nothing to this show and I could
care less. More on the technical
performance in a moment below, but three Music Videos are the only extras here!
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Age is easily the best playback performer as expected with nice
color range, clarity and textures the early films did not have. This is as good a performer as the previous
Blu-ray editions, though I wonder if the Blu-ray 3D adds to the experience or
not. Depth and detail are very
consistent throughout, even if it is not at the level of the best PIXAR/Disney
releases. The anamorphically enhanced
DVD version is very soft by comparison and very hard to watch.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Rangers are the next best performers, but for all the hype, barley
look better than their sloppily shot and edited DVD versions. Color can be odd, we get motion blur often
and detail is an issue more than expected.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Tim
is better than the Age DVDs, but it
is also intentionally overly simplified animation and is only going to look so
good. Color is purposely limited as
well, but it is not too dark.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix is on Age is terrific and one of the best feature film sound mixes of the
year with very well integrated, naturalistic .1 LFE bass effects and sound
flowing extremely well with the superior soundfield. Sometimes, it is silent to let the visual
comedy play out, other times it is restricted to the front speakers, but when
it kicks in, it is very impressive and has some seriously good character that
will challenge any home theater system.
It is the #1 reason to get the Blu-ray.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD is not bad, but absolutely no
match for the 7.1 DTS-MA on the Blu-ray.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on each Power Rangers show should have been a notable improvement on the
DVD, but instead it shows how harshly the show is recorded and mixed, sounding
like older 16-bit digital than a new digital recording.
Finally,
the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on all the Tim
episodes are on the light side with dialogue/joke-driven sound and it
rarely has any palpable surrounds to speak of.
It is just above simple stereo in design and is well recorded, but don’t
expect much else sonically.
- Nicholas Sheffo
