FILM · 2002 · USA
Ice Age
- Directed by
- Chris Wedge
- Runtime
- 81 min
- Studio
- Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox
64 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Manny the mammoth, Sid the loquacious sloth, and Diego the sabre-toothed tiger go on a comical quest to return a human baby back to his father, across a world on the brink of an ice age.
64 Interesting Facts About Ice Age
Interesting Facts (53)
- #001
All of the character drawings shown during the end credits were made by the animators' children, and the same goes for the picture Sid paints on a cave wall. Sid's drawing was made by three-year-old Will Shefelman, the son of story artist Dan Shefelman. The story artist working on the scene turned to a specialist because he had trouble drawing like a three-year-old child.
- #002
John Leguizamo tried 30 different voices for Sid. After watching a documentary about sloths, he learned that they store food in their mouths, which made him wonder what kind of sound he would make with food in his mouth. After trying to talk as if he had food in his mouth, he decided it was the perfect voice for Sid.
- #003
Contains a major spoiler — show
According to a July 12, 2012 interview with Jay Leno, Denis Leary's character Diego died near the end of the film, which left the child test audiences in tears and caused the film to be remade.
- #004
Despite the dodo's less than brilliant survival instincts, they outlived all of the main characters' species. Dodos were wiped out between the mid and late 17th century; woolly mammoths (Manny) died out 10,000 years ago (a dwarf species survived until around 1700 BC), ground sloths (Sid) are widely believed to have gone extinct around 2500 BC (though it has been suggested that a small group survived until 1550 AD), and saber-toothed cats (Diego) disappeared around 10,000 BC. Even Neanderthals like Roshan and his father did not outlast the dodo.
- #005
Each of the frozen creatures Sid sees in the ice is connected to an installment in the series: a carnivorous fish, a dinosaur, a line of sloths and a flying saucer.
- #006
Although Scrat was designed as a fictional animal, in 2009 scientists in Argentina uncovered the remains of a small, extinct mammal that resembled a long-toothed mouse. The animal was given the scientific name "Cronopio Dentiacutus" in memory of Scrat.
- #007
The film was initially planned as a drama, but Fox would only accept it as a children's comedy.
- #008
The first drawings seen in the cave (before the giant area containing the mammoth drawings) are copies of the oldest known cave paintings, found at Lascaux in southern France. They have been dated to between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.
- #009
Sid was originally meant to be a con artist and a swindler, and there were even two finished scenes in which the character swindles some aardvark children, plus a very racy scene later in the film involving two female sloths. Sid was also supposed to be pursued by a female sloth named Sylvia, who looked down on him and kept leaving him. All of the removed scenes can be seen on the "Super Cool Edition" DVD.
- #010
While Sid, Diego, Manny and Roshan are in the ice tunnel, a flying saucer appears and Roshan makes a "Star Trek" hand gesture (the Vulcan salute).
- #011
Most of the animals that appear in the film's sequels were originally designed for the first Ice Age but were cut.
- #012
In his blog, writer Michael J. Wilson stated that his daughter Flora came up with the idea of naming the animal that is a mix of both squirrel and rat Scrat, and that the character became obsessed with chasing the acorn.
- #013
All ground sloths in Ice Age and its sequels were designed with features of both prehistoric ground sloths and modern tree sloths. In early designs, Sid the ground sloth resembled the elephant-sized Megatherium, one of the most notable ground sloth species. In the finished films, the sloth species Sid and the others most closely resemble is the Caribbean ground sloth, which was closer in size to a pig.
- #014
20th Century Fox initially expected Ice Age to open to around $30 million. Its opening weekend was $46.3 million.
- #015
The one condition anthropologists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York insisted on for the production was that there be no dinosaurs. Although many of the animals shown in the film did not live in the same eras or places as the main characters, they should already have been extinct 20,000 years ago. Dinosaurs were finally included in the second sequel, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), explained by their having survived extinction in underground caves.
- #016
It was Jack Black's first animated film. He later voiced Lenny the Shark in Shark Tale (2004), Po the Giant Panda in the Kung Fu Panda films, the ventriloquist dummy Slappy in the first Goosebumps film (2015), and Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
- #017
The "rhinos" in the film are actually titanotheres (or brontotheres), mammals from the Oligocene epoch, and have nothing to do with modern rhinos, since they went extinct several million years before the Ice Age depicted in the film. Ice Age rhinos looked more like modern rhinos but, like mammoths, were covered in thick fur coats.
- #018
The responsibility for animating Sid's snowboarding scene was given to animators who snowboarded in real life.
- #019
The filmmakers made sure that many of Scrat's scenes appear immediately after the film's dramatic moments.
- #020
Don Bluth is thought to have turned down directing the film because 20th Century Fox told him they wanted it made in CG after the failure of 2D animation; Bluth refused due to his personal hatred of fully CG animation and left the project in anger.
- #021
The production team initially considered turning the 20th Century Fox logo to ice when it appeared before the film. Although it can be seen in one of the trailers, they cut it and put the normal logo in the film, but pushed it up slightly so that its lower part is visible.
- #022
It was Blue Sky Studios' first feature film.
- #023
It is the only film in the Ice Age series released on VHS in the US. (Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) was also released on VHS internationally, in nine countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland and Russia.)
- #024
Chris Wedge says that Scrat's saber-toothed squirrel species was given a scientific name by the writers, but that Wedge has since forgotten it.
- #025
Diego was named after Diegoaelurus, an extinct saber-toothed mammal (technically not a cat) that existed during the Middle Eocene. Diegoaelurus took its name from San Diego, where its fossilized remains were found.
- #026
The film's tie-in books and the book version feature a female sloth named Sylvia who does not appear in the released film. In the book, Sid manages to avoid having her accompany him as he migrates south because he is not interested in a commitment.
- #027
The film was initially planned to be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman at Fox Animation Studios, until the failure of Titan A.E. (2000) made them pay the price. With Bluth and Goldman's departure, the project moved to Blue Sky instead.
- #028
After Fox Animation Studios shut down, this project was offered to Disney, but Disney turned it down. Ironically, when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox (including Blue Sky) in 2019, the property came to belong to the House of Mouse.
- #029
According to the promotional materials, Scrat was originally going to be Manny's pet squirrel and the trio's comic sidekick in the film, helping Manny, Sid and Diego return the baby to its family and fight Soto and his pack. When the film was released, however, Scrat turned out to be a minor character in a subplot of his own, chasing an acorn.
- #030
Kristen Johnston voiced Sylvia in three deleted scenes.
- #031
Scrat was originally meant to be part of the herd but was cut from it because Chris Wedge said the character needed to have his own story.
- #032
Some of the screams in the film were reused several times.
- #033
Ice Age was the first Blue Sky Studios film to use Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. material, as well as Cartoon Trax Volume 1 sound effects.
- #034
Ice Age is the only Blue Sky Studios film with a blue-striped logo; it does not include Robots (2005), which was released three years later with an updated logo for its release, although the old blue-striped logo appears on the poster for Robots.
- #035
An alternate scene showed Sid in a hot tub with women, telling them, "Let's jump in the gene pool and see what happens." One of the female sloths then kicks him in the groin. It was cut because it was not suitable for children and could have earned the film a PG-13 rating.
- #036
It is Josh Hamilton's only animated film.
- #037
Marie Bierstedt is Detlef Bierstedt's daughter.
- #038
Arne Elsholtz was one of the best-known and leading voice actors. He died in 2016.
- #039
Tobias Kluckert is the son of the actor Jürgen Kluckert.
- #040
Lutz Mackensy is the narrator in the audio plays of Hanni und Nanni.
- #041
Reiner Schöne is the regular German dubbing voice of Mickey Rourke.
- #042
Michael Pan is the regular German dubbing voice of Brent Spiner.
- #043
Reiner Schöne is the dubbing voice of Darth Vader for new films, series or new scenes in older films.
- #044
Reiner Schöne is the dubbing voice of Optimus Prime.
- #045
Along with the cave paintings that are even used to represent Manny's backstory, this is the only Ice Age film that features no mammoth other than Manny himself; whether any other mammoths remain is left unclear for the others until the events of the next film.
- #046
In an interview for the film, Denis Leary said that voicing Diego in this film was much cooler than voicing the ladybug Francis in A Bug's Life, though he may have been joking (I'm not joking).
- #047
James Earl Jones, for the role of Manny: before Ray Romano was cast, the producers heavily considered James Earl Jones to give Manny the mammoth a "god-like," authoritative presence.
- #048
John Leguizamo and Jack Black both started with Mario films. Leguizamo played Luigi in Super Mario Bros, and Black voiced Bowser in Super Mario Bros Movie.
- #049
Arne Elsholtz is best known as the German dubbing voice of Kevin Kline.
- #050
Jörg Hengstler is best known as the dubbing voice of Avery Brooks.
- #051
Thomas Fritsch is the German dubbing voice of Tim Curry.
- #052
Thomas Fritsch is the German dubbing voice of William Hurt.
- #053
Thomas Fritsch served as the narrator of the series "Pro 7 Märchenstunde."
Production Story (8)
- #054
Director Chris Wedge is the voice of Scrat, but the character has no intelligible dialogue; the plan to give Scrat speech was quickly dropped because he worked better as a silent character for comedic effect. Because Scrat has features of both species, his name is a combination of the words 'squirrel' and 'rat'; Wedge also called him a "saber-toothed squirrel." Scrat's opening adventure was added because without it the first real snow and ice scene would not have arrived until around the 37th minute of the film.
- #055
It earned $383 million from a budget of $59 million.
- #056
Despite the Dodo's not-so-bright survival instincts, they outlived all of the main characters' species. Dodos were wiped out from the mid-to-late 17th century; woolly mammoths (Manny) died out 10,000 years ago (a dwarf race existed until 1700 BC), ground sloths (Sid) are widely believed to have gone extinct around 2500 BC (though it has been suggested that a small group survived until 1550 AD), and saber-toothed tigers (Diego) went extinct around 10,000 BC. Even Neanderthals like Roshan and his father did not outlive the Dodo.
- #057
This is the only film in the Ice Age series to show human characters, and for nearly a decade the only Blue Sky Studios film to feature human characters. There would not be another human character at Blue Sky until the 2011 film Rio.
- #058
In the final days before Blue Sky Studios closed, a team of artists stayed behind to produce the studio's last piece of animation: a clip in which Scrat finally gets the acorn.
- #059
Some additional character names: Baby Roshan, his mother Nadia, his father Runar. The sabers are Soto, Zeke, Oscar ("haughty saber") and Lenny ("fat saber"). The female sloths at the pool are Jennifer ("He's not much to look at…") and Rachel ("All the sensitive ones get eaten."). The "rhinos" are Carl (the one with the thick horn) and Frank (the one with the thin horn). The source of this information is an original signed script purchased at auction. There is a signed COA from the 20. Century Fox Archives, auction item number ICE0032.
- #060
Blue Sky Animation had been developing improvements in computer-generated characters for over 15 years. It was responsible for some of the aliens in Alien: Resurrection (1997) and the talking cockroaches in Joe's Apartment (1996).
- #061
Otto Walkes also sings bonus songs on the German audio plays of the Ice Age films.
Behind the Scenes (1)
- #062
To help keep the animation spontaneous, all of the actors were encouraged to improvise as much as possible.
Easter Eggs & References (1)
- #063
Chris Wedge regrets not including the rabbit from his short film Bunny (1998) in the film as a hidden reference.
Deeper Meaning (1)
- #064
Contains a major spoiler — show
When the saber-toothed pack attacks the human camp and Roshan's mother flees with him while Diego gives chase, she is blocked by the other sabers to prevent Runar (the father) from helping her and the baby. This mirrors the later scene in the cave, where Manny reenacts his family's fate at the hands of human hunters through animated cave paintings. As another group of hunters attacked them, a group of human hunters prevented Manny from coming to the aid of his mate and calf.
Related pages
- Rio — Ice Age comes up in the facts on that page
- Alan Tudyk — Ice Age comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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