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Ice Age is a feature-length computer-animated film created by Blue Sky Studios and released by 20th Century Fox in 2002. It was directed by Carlos Saldanha and Chris Wedge from a story by Michael J. Wilson. Its sequels are called "Ice Age: The Meltdown" (2006) and "Ice Age 3" (2009). Ice Age was rated PG by the MPAA.
The characters are all prehistoric animals with the exception of some early humans (who bear some Neanderthal-like facial features, yet are not shown conversing, only grunting or yelling, and possess technology that is much more sophisticated). The animals can talk to and understand each other and are voiced by a variety of famous actors. What can also be noted is that, like many films of prehistoric life, the rules of time periods apply very loosely, as many of the species shown in the film never actually lived in the same areas, let alone the same time periods:
* Manfred aka Manny (Mammoth) - Ray Romano
* Sid (Synocnus) - John Leguizamo
* Diego (Smilodon) - Denis Leary
* Soto (Smilodon) - Goran Visnjic
* Zeke (Smilodon) - Jack Black
* Oscar (Smilodon) - Diedrich Bader
* Lenny (Smilodon) - Alan Tudyk
* Scrat (Saber-toothed squirrel) - Chris Wedge
* Carl (Brontops) - Cedric the Entertainer
* Frank (Brontops) - Stephen Root
* Rachel (Female Synocnus) - Jane Krakowski
* Jennifer (Female Synocnus) - Lorri Bagley
Originally, Sid was trying to avoid another sloth named Sylvia. He manages to lose her by putting her in the path of some migrating glyptodons, who unknowingly carried her off when she got caught on their backs, and again by making it look like Diego had killed him, but she saw he was faking, so she deserted him in anger. This segment was still used in the movie, but was used for Sid to avoid the two brontotheres who were still after him, as they fell for the trick. It was kept in the storybook version, however. You can watch the deleted scenes separately, or in Nutty Movie Mode, both of which are included on Disc 1 of the two-disc Special Edition DVD.
There is also a subplot where an animal named Scrat (compare the picture of Scrat and one of a tree shrew), makes many comical attempts to bury his beloved acorn. His misfortunes include getting chased by an enormous glacier, being struck by lightning, attempting to thaw out the acorn by a fire too long so that it accidentally took the form of a kernel of popcorn, and finally getting cryonically frozen in an ice cube along with his much sought after nut. 20,000 years into the future, the ice cube washes up on the shore of an island. The sun slowly melts the cube, thawing Scrat and the ice surrounding his acorn, which is barely out of reach, and ends up being removed from the ice cube by the tide. Scrat then explodes out of the ice cube in anger and hits his head repetitively on a tree, which drops a coconut. Scrat's anger immediately turns to glee at this new find. He tries to pack it into the ground as he did previously with his acorns, but in the process causes a volcanic eruption.
Scrat is known to be similar to the prehistoric animal Leptictidium. Scrat also got his own short film entitled Gone Nutty, where he loses his meticulously-organized collection of acorns in a catastrophic chain of events occurring after ramming his acorn into the hole in the exact middle of the collection. He remains with one which is reduced to an ashen crisp after it went crashing down on him with an impact like a missile. Wikipedia |
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