58 Fun Facts About Ice Age

Which company made the first five Ice Age films?

Blue Sky Studios spent its early years making commercials and effects shots for other people's films before Ice Age, its first feature; its owner closed it in April 2021, blaming the economic toll of the pandemic.

Manny the mammoth's nickname is short for which name?

Manfred is how he introduces himself in the first film; Sid says 'Yuck' and rechristens him Manny the Moody Mammoth on the spot, and only the short version sticks.

Who voices Manny the mammoth in the Ice Age films?

Ray Romano ad-libbed many of Manny's best lines at the final dubbing sessions: because the mammoth's trunk hides his mouth, he was free to keep trying out new jokes right to the end.

What does Sid's family do to him at the start of the first Ice Age?

Migrate without him: Sid wakes to find they slipped away while he slept, as he says they do every year, and they turn up again in Continental Drift only to dump his grandmother on him and vanish once more.

Who voices Sid the sloth in the Ice Age films?

John Leguizamo tried dozens of voices on the film's makers before one stuck, then broke the news by phoning in character to announce that Sid was on the line.

What inspired the actor's lisping voice for Sid?

Learning that sloths store food in their cheek pouches gave the actor the idea: after dozens of rejected voices he paced his apartment with his mouth full of food until Sid's slushy lisp came out.

In the Ice Age films, what kind of animal is Diego?

A Smilodon is the sabre-toothed cat of the Americas, often called a sabre-toothed tiger even though it was no close relative of tigers or of any other cat alive today.

Who voices Diego in the Ice Age films?

Denis Leary said a generation of children knew him as the ladybug from A Bug's Life, so he thought it would be cool to play a fierce predator, which he called more like the real him.

Which comedian voices Zeke, one of Soto's sabre-toothed pack?

Jack Black voices Zeke, the pack's jittery hothead, so eager to sink his claws into a mammoth that Soto has to order him to keep them off until the pack's real target is caught.

Who is Roshan in the first Ice Age film?

The human baby is Roshan, though nobody ever says the name on screen: Manny just calls him Pinky, and his gurgles were recorded by voice actor Tara Strong.

What is the herd's goal in the first Ice Age film?

To return the baby to its tribe, Manny and Sid take on Diego as their tracker, unaware that he has promised his pack both the child and a mammoth for dinner.

What does Manny remember in his cave-painting flashback?

His family being killed by human hunters is the memory the paintings stir; moments later the human child in his care reaches up to touch the painted calf, and Manny, who lost his own, gathers the boy up in his trunk.

What finally makes Diego switch sides completely?

Manny saves his life at the lava flow, and Diego confesses the ambush; he then takes a mortal-looking blow from Soto, only to turn up alive at the end.

The first Ice Age lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to which film?

Spirited Away won with its maker absent: Hayao Miyazaki skipped the 2003 ceremony and explained years later that he hadn't wanted to visit a country that was bombing Iraq.

Which birds fight the herd for a melon in the first Ice Age?

Dodos guard three melons as their entire stockpile for the coming ice age, then lose all three, and a good part of the flock, in a burst of Tae Kwon Dodo.

Which deep-voiced actor was first considered for Manny in Ice Age?

James Earl Jones was an early idea for the mammoth, but the film-makers found such big voices 'too obvious' for the part and went looking for a comedian instead.

The first Ice Age was originally planned as a hand-drawn film at the Fox studio behind which 1997 musical?

Anastasia came from Fox's hand-drawn studio in Phoenix, which was first considered for Ice Age; Fox gave the mammoth film to its newly bought computer-animation house instead, and shut the Phoenix studio in 2000.

Which composer scored the first Ice Age film?

David Newman scored the first Ice Age for 20th Century Fox, whose fanfare was written by his father, Alfred; in 1997 David re-recorded it himself. John Powell took over the music with The Meltdown.

What kind of creature is Scrat?

A saber-toothed squirrel seemed pure invention until 2011, when scientists described an unrelated fossil with long fangs and a narrow snout; one of them marvelled that you can imagine a bizarre critter and later find something just like it.

Scrat's voice, Chris Wedge, had which job on the first Ice Age?

Director of the first film and a founder of its studio, Wedge supplied Scrat's noises himself and carried on doing so through four sequels that other people directed.

Ice Age co-writer Michael Wilson says the name Scrat was coined by whom?

His three-year-old daughter, Flora, blended two animal names into 'Scrat' while helping with his pitch, Wilson has written, though others at the studio have told the naming story differently.

In the original storyboards for Ice Age, how did Scrat's opening scene end?

He was trampled to death by a mammoth in the first version, a dark joke about life in the ice age; then Fox made the scene its teaser trailer, audiences adored him, and Scrat was spared and written into the rest of the film.

In the Ice Age films, which fear must Diego overcome to save his friends?

Water terrifies Diego, a secret Sid teases out of him along the way; when Sid, Crash and Eddie are about to drown, he finally forces himself to plunge in after them.

What can Scratte do that her rival Scrat can't?

Glide through the air is her trick: Scratte spreads flaps of skin between her limbs and floats off with the nut, while Scrat, flapping his bare arms in imitation, simply drops.

What happens to Scrat in the studio's 2022 farewell short?

He eats his acorn at last in a half-minute clip that the studio's artists animated in its final days and posted online in April 2022, a year after it closed.

After two Ice Age sequels, Carlos Saldanha directed which hit?

Rio let the Brazilian film-maker show off his home city: the idea began with a penguin washing up on its beaches, before he made his hero a rare blue macaw instead.

In The Meltdown, Ellie is a mammoth who believes she is what?

A possum is what she takes herself for: orphaned as a calf, she was adopted by a possum mother and grew up beside brothers Crash and Eddie, even sleeping hung by her tail from a branch.

Who voices Ellie the mammoth in the Ice Age films?

Queen Latifah joined as Ellie in the second film, where Manny takes his time admitting he has fallen for her; by the third the two are a couple expecting their first calf.

Which pair of actors voice the opossum brothers Crash and Eddie?

Seann William Scott and Josh Peck voice Crash and Eddie in four sequels, yet when the brothers finally took centre stage in a 2022 spin-off, both parts were recast.

What danger does the herd flee in the second Ice Age film?

An ice dam about to flood the valley is the threat: a vulture tells the animals they have three days to reach a boat at the far end, while cheerfully hoping that some of them don't make it.

Which Arrested Development actor voices the Lone Gunslinger vulture in The Meltdown?

Will Arnett, Arrested Development's Gob, voices the Lone Gunslinger; his vulture leads a flock singing 'Food, Glorious Food' from Oliver! about the doomed animals.

What proves Manny is not the last mammoth at the end of The Meltdown?

A herd emerges from a fissure that Scrat cracks open in the ice wall; Manny lets Ellie walk off with the newcomers, then runs after her, and the two of them stay with their friends instead.

Which talk-show host voices Fast Tony, the doom-peddling armadillo in The Meltdown?

Jay Leno voices Fast Tony, who makes up an end-of-the-world forecast to sell the other animals survival gear, only to find that his invented disaster is really on its way.

In the Ice Age films, who voices Buck, the one-eyed dinosaur-hunting weasel?

Simon Pegg voices Buck, and when the weasel was handed a spin-off of his own in 2022, Pegg was the only actor from the five films who came back for it.

Which creature took Buck's missing eye?

Rudy, an albino Baryonyx, clawed out the eye at their first meeting and very nearly swallowed Buck whole; the weasel got out by swinging on the monster's uvula until he shot back out of its mouth.

Sid names the three eggs he adopts Egbert, Shelly and what?

Yoko joins Egbert and Shelly; the eggs hatch into baby T. rexes, and when their furious mother comes to collect them she carries Sid off as well.

What do Manny and Ellie name their newborn daughter?

Peaches began as the couple's code word for 'the baby is coming'; when the calf arrives, Ellie keeps it as her name because she is sweet, round and covered with fuzz.

Where does the herd end up in the third Ice Age film?

A subterranean lost world: an icy cave leads down to a jungle where the dinosaurs never went extinct, and where Buck has lived alone for years.

What is Buck the weasel's knife made from?

His enemy's tooth: Buck knocked it from the jaws of the giant he has hunted ever since, sharpened it into a blade and carries it everywhere as his trophy.

Who voices Captain Gutt, the pirate ape in Continental Drift?

Peter Dinklage voices Captain Gutt, who tries to press Manny, Sid and Diego into his pirate crew and swears revenge when their escape leaves his ship at the bottom of the sea.

Which pop star voices Shira, the sabre-tooth who falls for Diego?

Jennifer Lopez voices Shira, who starts out as Gutt's first mate before switching sides to join the herd.

Which comedian voices Sid's Granny, introduced in Continental Drift?

Wanda Sykes voices Granny, whose supposedly imaginary 'pet' turns out to be a real giant whale named Precious.

Which rapper voices Ethan, the mammoth Manny's teenage daughter has a crush on?

Drake voices Ethan, the heartthrob whose cool crowd pushes her to drop her best friend Louis; when she sees how she has hurt him, she tells them off and walks away.

Which Simpsons short played before Continental Drift in theaters?

The Longest Daycare drops Maggie Simpson at the Ayn Rand School for Tots, where she has to protect a caterpillar from a mallet-swinging baby; it earned an Oscar nomination of its own.

Which actress and singer voices Manny and Ellie's teenage daughter in Continental Drift?

Keke Palmer plays the teenager, who is in the middle of a row with her overprotective father when the continents split them apart; she came back to the part as a bride-to-be in Collision Course.

How does Scrat start the plot of the fifth Ice Age film?

He knocks an asteroid toward Earth after a flying saucer frozen in the ice blasts off with him aboard, and his fumbling at the controls sets the whole solar system in motion on the way.

Which astrophysicist voices a weasel in Collision Course?

Neil deGrasse Tyson plays Neil deBuck Weasel, a pun on his own name, who narrates the film's cosmic opening and pops up in Buck's head whenever the science needs explaining.

In Collision Course, what keeps the residents of Geotopia forever young?

Its crystals grant eternal youth, as the 400-year-old Shangri Llama boasts; then Sid prises one loose as a gift for his new love, the walls come down, and everybody ages on the spot.

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild skipped theaters in January 2022 and went straight to which streamer?

Disney+ got the spin-off because its parent company had bought the franchise along with 20th Century Fox in 2019; the studio behind the first five films had no part in it, and the company shut that studio in 2021.

In Continental Drift, what tempts Manny's crew off course with visions of their loved ones?

Sirens take the shape of whoever each animal longs for; Manny sees through his when 'Ellie' tells him he is always right, which he knows she would never say.

Who voices Louis, the molehog friend of Manny's daughter in Continental Drift?

Josh Gad voices Louis, the timid molehog with a secret crush on her, who surprises everyone by finding the courage to help rescue her from the pirates.

What kills Soto, the sabre-tooth pack leader, in the first Ice Age?

Falling icicles impale him after Manny's tusks fling him against a rock wall, and the rest of the pack bolts; his voice belongs to Goran Visnjic, then Dr. Kovac on television's ER.

Which British pop star voices Brooke, the sloth who falls for Sid in Collision Course?

Jessie J voices Brooke, who falls for Sid at first sight, a welcome change for a sloth who opens the film being dumped halfway through a marriage proposal.

In The Meltdown, a tribe of mini-sloths worships Sid as what?

The Fire King is their name for the sloth who can make flames; the honour sours fast when they decide the best use for their new god is to throw him into a pit of lava.

Which villain steals and hides all the eggs in the TV special Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade?

Squint, the pirate rabbit from Gutt's crew, hides the eggs; his twin brother Clint helps the herd in what becomes the world's first Easter egg hunt.

Which 2002 Scrat short was nominated for the Best Animated Short Oscar?

Gone Nutty ends with one last acorn hitting the ground so hard that the land cracks apart into today's continents, a punchline the fourth film later stretched into its whole plot.

In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Buck says he once woke up married to what?

A pineapple, and an ugly one, he admits, 'but I loved her': it is his answer when Manny asks exactly when he lost his mind.

In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, what do Buck, Crash and Eddie ride to rescue Sid?

A flying pterosaur, which Buck calls Roger, carries them through a dogfight with a flock of bigger fliers to pluck Sid off a rock drifting toward the brink of Lava Falls.