# Ice Age: The Great Egg-escapade - Digital Review



## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68122[/img] 
*Title: Ice Age: The Great Egg-escapade* 

*Movie:* :3stars:
*Video:* :4stars:
*Audio:* :4stars:
*Extras:* :3stars: 

*HTS Overall Score:*74




[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68130[/img]*Summary*
The “Ice Age” series is the one animated series that 20th Century Fox has to really lay claim to as being a hit. They usually don’t stand up to the test of time like Pixar, Disney, or modern Dreamworks film, but the 4 “Ice Age” films out so far have been a lot of fun to at least decent. Scrat the prehistoric squirrel and his constant search for acorns has become the highlight of the film and he even has his own array of shorts to his name as well. This time we’re given a short Easter special in the form of “Ice Age: The Great Egg-escapade” as well as a bunch of random clips from the previous 4 movies, as well as some solid extras tagged onto the digital file. Sadly this is not getting a physical media release, but will be available on Itunes, Amazon and other digital sale websites. The 20 minute short that makes up the meat of the new material is short and sweet, aimed at the younger audiences and forgoes some of the more adult “witty” humor that the first few films made famous.

Sid (John Leguizamo) is back at it again. The well-meaning, but ultimately fail prone, sloth has decided to make himself an egg sitting service to the rest of the animals. No one really wants to trust him with their eggs, but when a new Dodo in town (literally, a Dodo bird) takes him up on his offer, Sid finds out that others are willing to trust him with their unborn children. All seems good at first, but things are bound to go awry, and that happens in the form of Squint (Seth Green), the pirate bunny from the previous “Ice Age” full length film. Furious at the crew for destroying his ship, Squint captures all of the eggs and holds them ransom for a new ship. Being that you obviously can’t acquiesce to a pirate’s nefarious demands, Diego (Dennis Leary), Sid, Ellie (Queen Latifa), Manny (Ray Romano) and the rest of the animals all team up with Squint’s nicer brother and go on a giant Easter egg hunt in an effort to save all of the animal’s children.

[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68138[/img]
“The Great Egg-escapade” is a simply and short little film that caters to the younger generation. There are plenty of egg and Easter puns strewn throughout the 20 minute runtime and really seems to be more of a novelty than anything. It’s not nearly as polished in both the story and the animation department as the feature length films (although “Ice Age 4” was starting to slip in the story department as well). It’s cute, but I noticed that even though it says that the film is 72 minutes long, I find that only the 20 minute short is new. The rest of the runtime is filled with the Scrat shorts from the previous 4 films as well as the extras tagged on to add up to 72 minutes. However, for the $4.99 that the special is going for, it’s not a big expenditure and if the kiddy winks are fans of the other “Ice Age” movie, it makes for a fun little Easter diversion. 








*Rating:* 

Rated PG. Parental Guidance suggested



*Video* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68146[/img]The Itunes file that was provided for the review was a downloaded 2.47 gigabyte file that isn’t a streaming digital review copy like others I’ve done in the past. Thusly I’m able to give a more valid review on the actual picture quality as it doesn’t fluctuate and vary depending on internet speeds. The picture quality for the 1.78:1 feature short (some of the rest of the shorts are 2.40:1 as they are pulled from the feature films) is rather nice and while not as detailed in the animation style, looks impressively sharp and detailed. Colors are bright and well saturated with a pleasant blend of white and blue snow to offset the more vivid colors of the animals like the Dodo, or the brightly colored babies once hatched. There was some banding present in the darker moments as well as in the snow, but overall the picture is very pleasant.









*Audio* :4stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68154[/img]The audio for this little short is mostly a 5.1 AC3 lossy track, and sounds reasonably good considering that this isn’t a full lossless Blu-ray experience. The track is mostly pretty front heavy, but once the team gets cracking trying to capture the eggs from squint the surround start to kick up a little. Lfe is tight and punchy with some nice midbass thrown in for good measure. The track is effective and clean of any distortions, making it quite serviceable for those using a full home theater setup despite the limited budget used to create the short.







*Extras* :3stars:
[img]http://www.hometheatershack.com/gallery/file.php?n=68162[/img]
• Cosmic Scrat-trastrophe: A five-minute sneak peek of ICE AGE: THE COLLISION COURSE
• Ice Age: The Story So Far
• More Nuts for Scrat
• Ice Age – Continental Crack-Up, Part 1
• Ice Age – Continental Crack-Up, Part 2
• Gone Nutty – Scrat’s Missing Adventure
• No Time For Nuts
• Falling For Scratte
• Scrat: From Head to Toe
• Educational Featurettes:
- Lost Historical Films
- The Sloth: “Nature’s Loveable Lisper”
- The Saber-Toothed Tiger: “Nature’s Fearsome Feline”
- The Possum: “Nature’s Spunky Spectacles”





*Overall:* :3.5stars:

I enjoyed “The Great Egg-escapade” for what it was. A short little “short” (he he) about the beginnings of Easter structured around the “Ice Age” franchise. It’s cute, and it’s not meant for adults as much as the feature films, so if you have children around who love the “ice Age” films then they’ll definitely get a hoot out of this little rental. For $4.99 (ish) it’s not the price of a full movie and the 20 minutes of new material is solid enough to grab or wait till it hits Netflix for a rental. 


*Additional Information:*

Starring: Ray Romano, Queen Latifa, Dennis Leary
Directed by: Ricardo Curtis
Written by: Jim Hecht
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1/2:40:1
Audio: English, French, Spanish AC3 5.1
Studio: Fox
Rated: PG
Runtime: 72 Minutes 
Release Date: March 21st 2016


*Buy Ice Age: The Great Egg-escapade Digital File on Amazon*





*Recommendation: Rental​*







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