All of your favorite Ice Age characters are back in the all-new animated special Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade, which puts a prehistoric twist on the origins of the Easter Bunny.

Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) has decided to start an egg-sitting business, but the locals are all too familiar with his unlucky past with eggs, and no one is willing to trust him with their precious eggs. However a newly-migrated and stressed-out single bird mother (Taraji P. Henson, Empire) is blissfully unaware, and even recommends his services and her neighbors—Condor Mom (Wendy Williams), Cholly Bear (Gabriel Iglesias) and Gladys Glypto (Lili Estefan)—who all decide to leave their eggs with Sid.

Meanwhile, pirate bunny Squint (Seth Green, Family Guy) is back—you may remember that the gang had smashed up his ship in Ice Age 4: Continental Drift—and now he wants them to replace it. When Manny (Ray Romano) and Diego (Denis Leary) refuse, Squint sneaks into Sid’s cave, takes the eggs as he is sleeping, and hides them as ransom for his ship. Needless to say the parents are furious and nervous. So the gang, joined by Squint’s twin brother Clint (Blake Anderson, Workaholics) go on the world’s first Easter Egg Hunt to find the missing eggs—which Squint has painted to blend into the background and make them harder to find.

While all of this is going on, mischievous possums Eddie (Josh Peck, Grandfathered) and Crash (Seann William Scott) set out to make Peaches the first April Fool. And as always, Scrat continues to seek out that elusive acorn.

If you’re a fan of the Ice Age films, this is a fun, holiday-themed addition to the franchise, with all of your favorite characters and the original voice cast. I like how the writers even found several ways to weave in connections to the past films to give longtime fans something extra to enjoy.

I watched the Digital HD release via iTunes and was quite impressed by the picture and sound quality. The picture is crystal clear and the animation really pops, and the audio track makes nice use of the surround channels to really bring the story and action on screen to life. Included with this Digital HD release are a number of bonus shorts—unfortunately most of which are just recycled from the past DVD and Blu-ray releases of the films. (Though this may be the first time they are available on Digital HD.)

The run time listed on iTunes and other providers is 74 minutes, however, the special itself is only about 24 minutes and the rest of that time includes the bonus features that immediately follow it. On the iTunes release, these bonus features are also available separately via the iTunes Extras menu. The bonus material includes a 5 minute Scrat adventure preview to the upcoming Ice Age: The Collision Course, a 13-minute recap of the first four films, 5 Scrat animated shorts, 2 production featurettes and 3 short faux nature documentaries.

This release is available on iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Video, Sony Playstation Store, Microsoft Movies & TV and MGo. Also, just in time for Easter, look for Sid’s Egg Decorator, a fun interactive game on IceAgeMovies.com that allows fans to help Sid decorate his prehistoric eggs.

What’s Included:

Special: (24:35 film, 1:14:34 total with extras)

• 720p and 1080p / Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Stereo, Spanish Stereo
• Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Purtuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Ukranian
• Closed Captioned

iTunes Extras:

• Ice Age: Collision Course Cosmic Scrat-trastrophe: A Five-Minute Sneak Peek of Ice Age: Collision Course (5:59)
  While chasing after an acorn, Scrat finds himself aboard a spaceship, and accidentally launches himself into space.
• Ice Age: The Story So Far… (13:15)
  The major events from the first four films are edited down into 13 minutes.
• Shorts
  All of these shorts have previously appeared on the DVD/Blu-ray releases of the first four Ice Age films.
  • More Nuts for Scrat (3:56)
    Montage of scenes showing the extreme measures Scrat will go through to hold onto his acorns. (These clips are taken from the other Scrat shorts that follow.)
  • Ice Age: Continental Crack-Up, Part 1 (2:41)
    When Scrat plants his acorn in the ground, a massive crack forms, causing the Earth to divide into continents.
  • Ice Age: Continental Crack-Up, Part 2 (2:34)
    An adrift Scrat finds his way to land but then heads underwater where he finds a treasure map and ultimately ends up aboard a pirate ship.
  • Gone Nutty – Scrat’s Missing Adventure (4:47)
    Scrat adds another nut to his stash, but this proves to be one-too-many, and the nuts fly everywhere. Now he madly chases after them, trying to gather up his precious nuts.
  • No Time For Nuts (7:08)
    Scrat comes across a time machine and ends up on an adventure through the ages.
  • Falling For Scratte (8:25)
    In this behind-the-scenes featurette, the filmmakers talk about the character of Scrat, how he came about, and giving him love interest Scratte. Includes footage of storyboards, concept art and rough animatics, and interviews with director Carlos Saldanha, executive producer/voice of “Scrat” Chris Wedge, producer John C. Donkin, storyboard artist/voice of “Scratte” Karen Disher, character designer Peter De Sève, and senior animator (Scratte) Jeff Gabor.
  • Scrat: From Head to Toe (8:23)
    A behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring scrat to life. Executive producer Christopher Meledandri talks about how the character came about; character designer Peter De Sève demonstrates how to draw Scrat; furring supervisor Eric W. Maurer shows how fur is added to a 3D model; director Carlos Saldanha talks about the technological enhancements that allow the fur to be even more lifelike in the second film; and finally, head to the recording studio with executive producer/voice of “Scrat” Chris Wedge.
• Lost Historical Films (4:53)
  Collection of black and white faux nature documentary films about various animal species (featuring the characters from the films). Play All or select from:
  • The Sloth: Nature’s Loveable Lisper (2:02)
  • The Saber-Toothed Tiger: Nature’s Fearsome Feline (1:26)
  • The Possum: Nature’s Spunky Spectacles (1:25)
• Trailer (:27)

Final Thoughts:

Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade is a fun and entertaining holiday-themed addition to the Ice Age franchise. All of your favorite characters are back, and with the original voice cast behind them. The special looks and sounds excellent on this Digital HD release, which also includes a bunch of bonus material. However, if you already own the previous four films on Blu-ray, then you likely already own or have seen all of this bonus material before. That said, this release still comes recommended based on the quality of special itself. This will make some fun Easter family viewing for years to come.