98 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.

In the first Ice Age film, what nickname does grumpy Manny give the infant travelling with the herd?

Pinky is Manny's nickname for the child, whose real name is never spoken in the film.

In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the three eggs Sid adopts hatch into which kind of dinosaur?

Tyrannosaurus babies hatch from the eggs the next day, and their furious mother soon arrives to carry Sid off along with them.

In Ice Age: Continental Drift, Sid's Granny keeps calling for a pet named Precious, which turns out to be what?

A giant whale rises from the sea in the final battle, though Granny's relatives had written Precious off as long dead.

Why was Diego's planned death cut from the first Ice Age film before release?

Children cried at test screenings when Diego died, so the scene was rewritten and he survives to rejoin his friends.

In the Ice Age short No Time for Nuts, which famous ship nearly runs Scrat down during his trip through history?

The Titanic appears just as Scrat thinks he is home at last, one stop on a chase that also drops him into Ancient Rome.

In Ice Age: Continental Drift, what is the pirate ship commanded by Captain Gutt actually made from?

A carved iceberg carries Gutt and his crew, and it sinks when Manny's group breaks free of the pirates.

Which rapper voices Steffie, the mean mammoth who mocks Manny's daughter in Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Nicki Minaj plays Steffie, queen of the popular teenage mammoths, and also joins the cast song that runs over the end credits.

In Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, which flying reindeer rescues Sid's group when they fall from a cliff?

Prancer catches them in mid-air, then fetches his whole family when Santa's loaded sleigh proves too much for one reindeer.

Ice Age producer Lori Forte compared Scrat's endless failures to which comic-strip character?

Charlie Brown never gets to kick the ball, and Forte saw the same doomed persistence in Scrat's hunt for a single nut.

The story of Ice Age: Collision Course grew from which odd object glimpsed frozen in the first film's ice cave?

A spaceship sealed in the ice was a passing gag in 2002, and a frozen dinosaur in the same cave had already inspired the third film.

In the closing scene of the first Ice Age film, a thawed Scrat sets off a volcano while burying what?

A coconut is what he finds on the deserted tropical island where he thaws out, 20,000 years after the main story ends.

In Ice Age: The Meltdown, the hungry vultures sing a food anthem borrowed from which stage musical?

Oliver! supplied Food Glorious Food, which the vultures sing while hoping some of the fleeing animals will end up as dinner.

A poster for Ice Age: The Meltdown swapped the film's title for iAge to parody adverts for which gadget?

The iPod was the target, and the spoof poster put Scrat's beloved prize in the spot where the music player belonged.

Which Australian comedy star voices Raz, the kangaroo pirate in the crew of Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Rebel Wilson voiced Raz in the same year she played Fat Amy in Pitch Perfect; the kangaroo keeps bone swords in her pouch.

In the series Ice Age: Scrat Tales, which surprise newcomer becomes Scrat's rival for his prized snack?

His baby son is a joy to raise until the youngster first sees the nut, and the two start fighting over it.

Which knighted British actor voices Ariscratle, who warns Scrat in Scratlantis in Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Patrick Stewart was knighted for services to drama in 2010, two years before lending his voice to the sage of Scrat's lost city.

Early 3D screenings of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs were held on which holiday to suit the film's theme?

Father's Day was picked because Manny spends the story fretting over the calf he and Ellie are about to have.

In Ice Age: Continental Drift, which crew member's skull-patterned back lets Captain Gutt fly him as a pirate flag?

Gupta the badger has fur markings like a skull and crossbones, yet he is quick to offer his pale belly as a white flag.

The actor behind Sid in Ice Age has called which veteran cartoon voice artist one of his comedy gods?

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, inspired him as a child, and he tried out over 40 voices before settling on Sid's.

Scrat from Ice Age made a 3D guest appearance, attacking the lead character, in which animated sitcom?

Family Guy showed him prising nuts from a glacier until Peter Griffin scolds him for stealing, which earns Peter a mauling.

Which American band's upbeat song Send Me on My Way plays as the herd treks along in the first Ice Age film?

Rusted Root recorded the track in the 1990s, and although the film features it, the song is missing from the official soundtrack album.

Which small furry animals has Captain Gutt enslaved to build his new ship in Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Hyraxes do the building until Manny's group frees them, and by the end they have carved their own tiny Statue of Liberty.

Which Workaholics star voices Julian, the mammoth engaged to Manny's daughter in Ice Age: Collision Course?

Adam DeVine plays the eager fiancé Manny finds annoying, until Julian's help in the final crisis wins the old mammoth's approval.

Producers of Ice Age: Collision Course cast Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Shangri Llama after seeing him in which sitcom?

Modern Family won him the part, his first in an animated film, and he lost his voice on the first day from all the yelling.

In the Ice Age films, the name of Buck the one-eyed weasel is short for which longer name?

Buckminster is his full first name, and his surname, Wild, gives the 2022 spin-off about him its title.

Which big-brained dinosaur villain escapes exile to seize power in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild?

Orson was mocked as a youngster for his oversized brain, and he returns from banishment with two raptors under his command.

In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Buck's route in search of Sid ends at which landmark?

Lava Falls is where the mother dinosaur has taken Sid, who ends up stranded on a loose rock drifting towards the drop.

In the first Ice Age film, where does Soto's sabre-tooth pack wait to ambush Manny and his companions?

Half Peak is the trap Diego finally warns his companions about, which lets the trio turn the ambush against the pack.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs overtook which Pixar film as the top-grossing animated release outside North America?

Finding Nemo lost its overseas crown to the third film, which took more than three-quarters of its earnings outside North America.

Chris Meledandri, the Fox animation chief behind Ice Age: The Meltdown, left to found which rival studio?

Illumination opened in 2007 with Universal's backing, a move he tied to the sequel's success with picture-led storytelling.

In early drafts of the first Ice Age film, Sid was written as what before becoming a clumsy chatterbox?

A hustler was the original Sid, and a finished scene had him swindling some aardvark children before the team feared audiences would dislike him.

Ice Age: Collision Course was pushed back a week in 2016 to avoid opening against which reboot?

Ghostbusters kept the 15 July date while the fifth film slipped to 22 July, and in the UK it still opened in second place behind the same rival.

Which Shaun of the Dead actor voices Flynn, the huge elephant seal in the pirate crew of Ice Age: Continental Drift?

Nick Frost plays the crew's muscle, a seal as big as Manny who first turned up in a teaser short released before the film.

Which star of the hospital drama ER voices Soto, the vengeful pack leader in the first Ice Age film?

Goran Višnjić is a Croatian actor who won acclaim playing Hamlet on stage at home before joining ER as Dr Luka Kovač.

Which composer wrote new themes for Ice Age: The Meltdown and stayed to score the next two sequels?

John Powell, later Oscar-nominated for How to Train Your Dragon, dropped the first film's themes and wrote his own for the herd.

In Ice Age: Collision Course, Buck rescues an egg while singing the aria Largo al factotum from which opera?

The Barber of Seville is Rossini's opera, and the two-minute unbroken shot of Buck's rescue was among the last scenes the animators finished.

Which Saturday Night Live star voices the gazelle that outruns a tiring Diego in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs?

Bill Hader's gazelle heckles the exhausted hunter and bolts, which leaves Diego wondering whether he has lost his edge.

In The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, Buck's old teammate Zee, who fells raptors with gas, is which animal?

A striped polecat, or zorilla, is an African weasel relative that looks like a skunk, and Zee had fallen out with Buck when their old team broke up.

Which former New York Giants star voices Teddy, the fearless rabbit of Geotopia in Ice Age: Collision Course?

Michael Strahan won the Super Bowl with the Giants in his final season, and his rabbit Teddy is a fitness fanatic aged 326.

The 2008 short Surviving Sid, in which Sid leads a disastrous camping trip, premiered on which film's home release?

Horton Hears a Who! came from the same studio that year, and its discs carried the third Ice Age short, the first to star Sid instead of Scrat.