Yes, I’ve studied paleontology, along with pretty much every other life science. It’s part of my job, since I’m a Jr. High science teacher. I also have what my students are beginning to call an obsession with “dooms-day” scenarios, like asteroid impacts and super-volcanoes. Don’t know why, but I’m really interested in natural phenomena that have the capacity to wipe out life on Earth as we know it in one fell swoop. I live in South Carolina, and one of our geological features are elliptical depressions called “Carolina Bays”, which have generated a lot of controversy with regards to their origins. More and more evidence is piling up, though, that they are impact features from a comet that struck and broke up over North America, wiping out the earliest known human settlements, the “Clovis” people, along with many of the mega-fauna. That evidence includes iridium levels that are 60 times higher than those of the “K-T Boundry”, the line marking the end of the Cretacious-and the end of the dinosaurs. It’s fascinating to think that my home state was once a target in a cosmic shooting gallery, and if it happened once, could it happen again?
I do quite like Simon Pegg, even if he is a little bit samey in his different roles. His voice is quite unique though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he plays the role well.
Nice to hear, lizardgirl. Yeah, he pretty much plays the ‘loser’ character in his roles (except for Hot Fuzz, where he got to be the bad-*ss for once!). I’m really interested to hear him as a hotshot again, in his animated debut!
woody - Fair enough. Personally, I’m not too keen on a Robots sequel too.
This was suggested in a recent highly regarded movie, a creature there was hit by lightning, and then a few seconds later was hit again, disproving the old maxim that lightning doesn’t strike twice at the same place. Of course, he was using a sort of lightning rod, two umbrellas, but still… this bodes ill for the entire state of South Carolina. Yes indeed.
I saw the latest trailer on the official Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs website. To be completely honest, I can’t tell if this will be a smash hit or a total bomb. It looks amusing, to say the least, but I won’t judge until I see the thing for myself. As long as Crash and Eddie are in it (which they are), I’ll see it.
Dorling Kindersley will be releasing a sticker book on June 1st, and this website has posted a preview of a few of the pages. Some small spoilers about minor scenes, and glimpses of Buck the dino hunter.
A reader on another forum has posted a cover to a children’s book, again featuring Buck.
And here’s screenshots for the video game. It’s been a long time since I played a “running away from a dino” game level since Crash Bandicoot: Warped…
thedriveintheatre - Ha-ha. Yeah, I’ll admit that I’m a bit of a sucker for Blue Sky’s productions. Hopefully, this one will be just as heart-warming as some of their previous work.
Thanks for the links, dude! That video game looks awesome – look at those graphics!
Since I saw the first two, I might end up watching this one anyways. I saw the trailer and it looked more silly than good. Still, I believe it is going to generate a lot of laughs. I’ll watch it just to enjoy it.
Mitch - Blue Sky is like the offspring of Pixar and Dreamworks. Not as crass and cheeky as Dreamworks, with a little of the heart and soul of Pixar. Maybe ‘offspring’ sounds too weird…
TSS - Ditto! I’m sure it’ll be funny. I got a lot of laugh mileage from the second. I suspect Scrat will supply the majority of the jokes again.
seccion31 from IMDB has kindly supplied us with an updated Trailer 3 including the character intro for Buck. You can hear Pegg’s first lines and gain a glimpse of his character’s ‘unhinged’ personality. As Molt from A Bug’s Life would say, “He’s quite the motivational speaker, isn’t he?”
And for our fans in Nippon, there’s the Japanese trailer with a couple of brand-new footage, courtesy of slewis-30. Typical cutesy voiceover and title fonts ensue.
I admire Blue Sky Studios for making an effort to produce films with a decent story-line as well as memorable characters and a humorous plot, but they’re not quite up-to-par with Pixar, in my humble opinion. Then again, who is? (snigger)
I think one of the weaknesses of the Blue Sky studio, as compared to Pixar, is that the latter usually makes it’s own stories. Blue Sky depends on someone at Fox or a children’s book writer or Dr. Suess… you get the picture. Chris Wedge actually co-wrote much of Robots and he certainly did all of Bunny, which is perhaps a masterpiece. Incidentally, Michael J. Wilson wrote Ice Age and he also did Shark Tale, which earns notoriety around here it seems.
Kids are always interested in dinosaurs, but interest in them from the adult public peaked in the early 90’s when there was perhaps overkill. Think Dinotopia, an orgy of dinosaurs and an extraordinary book, kind of like MacGyver meeting Jules Verne. It was probably a CG’ers nightmare: $$$.
Dreamworks came pretty close with their first few animated films like El Dorado, Prince of Egypt, Spirit and Sinbad. Then they started to make pop-culture movies featuring talking animals in modern-day, urban settings. Bland. Meeeh.
Don’t forget Jurassic Park and that Disney/Jim Henson sitcom, Dinosaurs.
The last ‘great’ dinosaur movie was… Dinosaur by Disney. That one got mixed reviews and was a box-office bomb. I remember watching it several times as a kid, but it’s ultimately forgettable. Hopefully IA3 fares better.
thedriveintheatre - Eh. They got close, but not close enough. Personally, I think that their first roll-outs were a bit mediocre story-wise, although the animation in those films was absolutely gorgeous. (Why don’t they do more hand-drawn stuff?) The only time I think they actually hit the ball out of the park was when Kung Fu Panda was released.
Hm… maybe I was too quick to judge it TS2. I did like it when I was young, maybe it’s time to dig out the old VCD and give it another go…
Now that you mentioned it, Mitch, most of their plots were a bit weak… but by golly, their animation is absolutely jaw-dropping! And they seriously had a monopoly on the traditional animation market, since it was around the late 90s/early 00s that Disney started churning out mediocre sequels and films (like Treasure Planet, Atlantis, and Home on the Range, although they’re all enjoyable in their own right).
Hey, has anyone of you watched the new trailers I posted? Opinions? Thoughts?
thedriveintheatre - Yeah, the plot-lines could have used some work, although I think that their traditional films are better than their CG productions as far as a sound story goes. Ah well. Hopefully they’ll kick back into gear soon enough.
Whoops! This thread is supposed to be about Ice Age, isn’t it? Sorry about that. Back on-topic…
It was a fairly decent movie and probably deserved some of those mixed reviews. It actually cost an estimated $130M, the most expensive movie of the year 2000, and some of those costs may have been camo’d in some way hints the wiki and could have been $200M, which I think is unlikely. Anyways, it earned $350M box office worldwide, and then add dvd sales and merchandise and of course the new add on’s to the Disney theme parks with this release. This probably all added up to over half a billion, so Disney made its $ back and then some. So it certainly was not a bomb.
So ok, its been 9 years now since a big Dinosaur movie, and that means a lot of kiddies who want to see one. If done well, Blue Sky will have another feather in its cap.
Fairy 'naff. Guess I didn’t exactly describe it in honest terms. lifts hands My bad!
I’m hoping Blue Sky hits a homerun with this too!
Ditto that!
Yes, let’s get back on track! So… steeples fingers Ice Age 3. Hasn’t anyone anything to say about Buck’s trailer appearance or the Japanese trailer? No one has noticed or acknowledged my post of them yet…
