During the end credits, all of the characters' drawings were done by the animators' children. The same applies to the picture Sid draws on a cave wall. Sid's drawing was made by 3-year-old Will Shefelman, the son of story artist Dan Shefelman. The story artist working on the scene turned to an expert because he had difficulty drawing like a 3-year-old child.
John Leguizamo tried 30 different voices for Sid. After watching a documentary about sloths, he learned that they store food in their mouths; this led him to 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.
According to an interview with Jay Leno on July 12, 2012, Denis Leary's character Diego died toward the end of the film, which caused the test audiences made up of children to burst into tears, and the film was re-shot.
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.
To help keep the animation spontaneous, all of the actors were encouraged to improvise as much as possible.
Each of the frozen beings 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.
Director Chris Wedge is the voice of Scrat, but he has no intelligible dialogue; the plan to give Scrat speech was quickly scrapped because he worked better as a silent character for comedic effect. Since Scrat carries features of both species, the name 'Scrat' 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 could not have occurred until around the 37th minute of the film. This was the only role designed for Scrat, but he proved to be such a popular character among test audiences that he was given more scenes and appeared in other films as well.
Although Scrat was designed as a fictional animal, in 2009 scientists in Argentina uncovered the remains of a small, extinct mammal resembling a long-toothed mouse. This animal was given the scientific name "Cronopio Dentiacutus" in memory of Scrat.
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.
The film was initially planned to be a drama, but Fox accepted it only as a children's comedy.
The first drawings seen in the cave (before entering the giant area with the mammoth drawings) are copies of the oldest known cave drawings (found at Lascaux in southern France). They have been dated to between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.
Initially, Sid was supposed to be a con artist and a swindler, and there were even two finished scenes in which the character swindles some aardvark children, as well as a very racy scene later in the film featuring two female sloths. Sid was also supposed to be pursued by a female sloth named Sylvia, who despised him and kept leaving him. All of the removed scenes can be seen on the "Super Cool Edition" DVD.
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.
While Sid, Diego, Manny and Roshan are in the ice tunnel, a flying saucer appeared and Roshan made a "Star Trek" hand gesture. (The Vulcan Salute).
No cave paintings of the saber-toothed cat Smilodon have ever been found.
Most of the animals featured in the film's sequels were originally designed for the first Ice Age but were cut.
Writer Michael J. Wilson stated on his blog that his daughter Flora came up with the idea of naming an animal that was a mix of both squirrel and rat Scrat, and that the animal became obsessed with chasing the acorn.
All of the ground sloths in this film and its successors were designed with features of both prehistoric ground sloths and modern tree sloths. In the original design, Sid, a ground sloth, resembled Megatherium, one of the most notable species of ground sloth, which was the size of an elephant. In the finished films, the sloth species that Sid and the others most resemble is the Caribbean ground sloth species, which was more the size of a pig.
20th Century Fox initially expected the film to open to around 30 million dollars. Its opening weekend was 46.3 million dollars.
The only condition insisted upon during production by anthropologists from the American Museum of Natural History in New York was that there be no dinosaurs. Although a large portion of the animals shown in the film did not live in the same eras or places as the main characters, they would have already been extinct 20,000 years ago. Dinosaurs were finally included in the second sequel, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009); the explanation was that they survived extinction in underground caves.
James Earl Jones and Ving Rhames were initially considered to play Manny.
It was Blue Sky Studios' only film nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar until Ferdinand (2017), fifteen years later.
Jack Black's first animated film. He later voiced Shark Lenny in Shark Tale (2004), Giant Panda Po in the Kung Fu Panda films, Ventriloquist Dummy Slappy in the first Goosebumps (2015) film, and Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie films.
The "rhinos" in the film are actually titanotheres (or brontotheres), mammals from the Oligocene period, 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 were covered in thick fur coats, just like mammoths.
Responsibility for animating Sid's snowboard scene was given to animators who snowboarded in real life.
The producers made sure that many of the scenes with Scrat appear right after the film's dramatic moments.
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.
Antonio Banderas was considered for the role of Diego.
It is thought that the reason Don Bluth refused to make the film was that 20. Century Fox told him they wanted the film to be CG after the failure of 2D animation, and Bluth refused because of his personal hatred of fully CG animation, angrily walking away from the project.
The production team initially considered turning the 20. 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 a bit so you can see its lower part.
Blue Sky Studios' first feature film.
When the saber pack attacks the human camp and Roshan's mother flees with him while Diego follows, Runar (the father) is blocked by the other sabers from helping him 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. While another group of hunters attacks them, a group of human hunters prevented Manny from coming to the aid of his mate and calf.
Hollywood's 8th fully CGI animated feature.
The film was released in March 2002. Within three weeks, it became the first film that year to pass the $100 million mark in ticket revenue.
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 the following nine countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland and Russia.)
In the film, Manny is referred to as Manfred, Manny, tiny mammoth Manny, Gloomy Mammoth Manny, Melancholic Manny, friend, Jumbo, mammoth, Fat-Haired Boy and buddy.
On the film's 2-Disc Special Edition DVD, Ray Romano calls the film a "dramedy" and explains why it is both a drama and a comedy, and this is confirmed by director Chris Wedge in his own interview about the special features. Fox wanted a children's comedy, so Blue Sky chose that direction but kept the drama side as a notable element of the film; that is why the cast and crew call it a "dramedy."
Chris Wedge regrets not putting the rabbit from his short film Bunny (1998) in the film as an Easter egg.
The eighth highest-grossing film of 2002.
Before John Leguizamo was cast, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Knoxville, Dave Foley, Adam Sandler, Michael J. Fox, Ewan McGregor, Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal, Eric Idle and Danny DeVito were considered for the role of Sid.
Pre-production lasted more than a year before any animation took place.
Chris Wedge claims that Scrat's saber-toothed squirrel species has a scientific name given by the writers, but that Wedge has since forgotten it.
It earned $383 million on a budget of $59 million.
Diego is named after Diegoaelurus, an extinct saber-toothed mammal (technically not a cat) that existed during the Middle Eocene Epoch. Diegoaelurus takes its name from San Diego, where its fossilized remains were found.
Gone Nutty (2002), also known as "Scrat's Missing Adventure", was created specifically for the DVD release.
The fat saber-toothed cat named Lenny was actually described as a saber-toothed tiger in the film's Essential Guide book.
This feature is included in the first wave of Fox's Blu-Ray releases. The list included five films in total: Fantastic Four (2005), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) and Kiss of the Dragon (2001).
James Earl Jones, Ving Rhames, Johnny Depp, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro, Albert Brooks, Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Costner, Keith David, Bruce Willis, Jeff Bridges, Jim Belushi, Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer were considered for the role of Manfred before Ray Romano was cast.
In the film's billboards and book version, there is a female sloth named Sylvia who does not appear in the released film. In the book, Sid manages to avoid accompanying her as she migrates south because he is not interested in a commitment.
This film was initially planned to be directed by Don Bluth and Gary Goldman for Fox Animation Studios, until the failure of Titan A.E. (2000) paid the price for it. With Bluth and Goldman's departure, the project was moved to Blue Sky instead.
It is the first film produced by Fox Animation since Titan A.E. (2000), which also featured John Leguizamo.
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).
This is the only Blue Sky Studios film to carry the "Twentieth Century Fox presents" credit.
Denis Leary's second animated film. His first was A Bug's Life (1998).
20th Century Fox released the film domestically with an $85 million marketing budget, the largest amount they had spent on a DVD release up to that time.
It was Diedrich Bader's first time voicing a character in a theatrical film. He would later voice Ted Bedderhead the Bear in The Country Bears (2002), and went on to voice characters in Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone (2005), Tank the Penguin in Surf's Up (2007), one of the Veteran Cats, Penguin, in Bolt (2008), and Bing the Goose in Duck Duck Goose (2018).
Alan Tudyk's first animated film to be released in theaters. He would later voice Chalicotherium Cholly in this film's sequel Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), Milton the Sloth in another sequel, Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), Mr. Squeegee the Robot in Astro Boy (2009), and would voice characters in Wreck-It Ralph (2012), the Duke of Weselton in Frozen (2013), Alistair Krei in Big Hero 6 (2014), Duke Weaselton the Weasel in Zootopia (2016), Heihei the Chicken in Moana (2016), and KnowsMore in Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018).
After the closure of Fox Animation Studios, this project was offered to Disney, but was rejected. Ironically, with Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox (including Blue Sky) in 2019, the property now belongs to the House of Mouse.
Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for the role of Sid.
This is 20th Century Fox's second animated film scored by David Newman. The first was Anastasia (1997), released five years before this film.
Kelsey Grammer was considered for the role of Diego.
According to the promotions, Scrat was originally going to be Manny's pet squirrel and the film's comedic sidekick to Manny, Sid and Diego, helping them return the baby to its family and fight Soto and his pack. However, when the film was released, it turned out that Scrat was a minor character in a subplot in which he actually chases an acorn.
This and Rio (2011) would be the only Blue Sky Studios films to produce sequels.
With a 77% freshness rating, this is the only film in the Ice Age series to be certified fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, let alone be fresh at all, as all four of the sequels are rotten. It was also Blue Sky Studios' only certified fresh film until Horton Hears a Who! (2008) and The Peanuts Movie (2015).
Kristen Johnston voiced Sylvia in three deleted scenes.
Before Goran Visnjic was cast, Christopher Walken, Alan Rickman, Sam Elliot, James Gandolfini, Patrick Stewart and Michael Wincott were considered for the role of Soto.
This is the only film in the Ice Age series whose music was composed by David Newman.
Jeremy Irons was considered for the role of Diego.
Werner Herzog was considered for the role of Soto.
Burt Reynolds was considered for the role of Soto.
Warren Beatty was considered for the role of Manfred.
Hank Azaria was considered for the role of Sid.
Dan Castellaneta was considered for the role of Manfred.
George Carlin was considered for the role of Diego.
Clancy Brown was considered for the role of Manfred.
Bob Saget was considered for the role of Sid.
Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Soto.
Robert De Niro was considered for the role of Manfred.
Scrat was supposed to be part of the herd but was cut from it because Chris Wedge said he needed to have his own story.
Brad Pitt was considered for the role of Diego.
It is the only Blue Sky Studios film to receive more than one sequel.
Before Denis Leary was cast, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, Kiefer Sutherland, Toby Stephens, Kevin Spacey, Liam Neeson, Tommy Lee Jones, Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Tim Curry, Ian McKellen and Lance Henriksen were considered for the role of Diego.
Ray Romano (Manny) and Denis Leary (Diego) were both born in 1957, but four months apart. Leary was born on August 18, and Romano on December 21.
Some of the screams in the film were reused several times.
It is the only film in the Ice Age series to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature.
The first choice for the role of Sid was Leonardo DiCaprio, for the role of Diego was Antonio Banderas, and for the role of Manny was James Earl Jones.
Jane Krakowski's first animated film and the only one outside of Sony Animation's Open Season series.
This is the first Blue Sky Studios film to use Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Trax Volume 1 sound effects.
Bryan Cranston was considered for the role of Manfred.
Tom Hanks was considered for the role of Manfred.
Jackie Mason was considered for the role of Sid.
Stacy Keach was considered for the role of Manfred.
Billy Connolly was considered for the role of Manfred.
Ben Kingsley was considered for the role of Diego.
Harry Shearer was considered for the role of Diego.
Patrick McGoohan was considered for the role of Soto.
At 1 hour 21 minutes, this is the shortest film in the franchise.
The only Blue Sky Studios film with a blue-striped logo, it does not include Robots (2005), which was released three years later and had an updated logo for release, but the old blue-striped logo appears on the poster for Robots.
Albert Brooks was considered to voice Manny.
Denis Leary (Diego), Cedric The Entertainer (Carl) and Stephen Root (Frank) also appeared in Pixar films. Leary had previously appeared in A Bug's Life (1998) as Francis the Ladybug, Cedric later appeared in Planes (2013) and its sequel Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014) as Leadbottom, and Root later appeared in Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016) as Bubbles the Yellow Tang.
If Scrat had spoken, voice actors Robin Williams, Louis C. K., Patton Oswalt, Eddie Izzard, Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey and Bill Burr would have been considered as the voice of Scrat.
Cedric The Entertainer's first animated film. He later went on to voice Maurice the Aye Aye in the Madagascar films, Golly the Goose in Charlotte's Web (2006), Leadbottom in the Planes films and Caloo the Pookoo in Swapped (2026).
Paul Newman was considered for the role of Diego.
Stephen Root's first animated film. He later voiced Zeb Zoober the Bear in The Country Bears (2002), Bubbles the Yellow Tang in the Finding films, in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), the Rabbit Doctor in Rango (2011) and Grandpa Crud the Cat in Dog Man (2025).
For most of the cast, with the exception of John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Diedrich Bader, this film was their first voice role in an animated film for all the main characters' voices: John Leguizamo in Don Bluth's animated film Titan A. E. (2000), another animated film from 20th Century Fox, Denis Leary in A Bug's Life (1998) and Diedrich Bader in Bartok the Magnificent (1999), also from 20th Century Fox, and Recess: School's Out (2001).
The names Oscar and Lenny for 2 of the Smilodons would later be used for characters in Dreamworks Animation's Shark Tale (2004) 2 years later. Jack Black, the voice actor for the smilodon Zeke, also appears in this film.
Both Ray Romano and John Leguizamo grew up in Queens, New York City.
John Malkovich was considered for the role of Diego.
Nathaniel Parker was considered for the role of Soto.
John O'Hurley was considered for the role of Manfred.
There was an alternative scene showing 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. This was cut because it was not suitable for children and could have earned the film a PG-13 rating.
Coincidentally, both this film and Matilda (1996) feature a score by David Newman and the use of Rusted Root's song "Send Me on My Way".
Chris Rock was accepted as the voice of Sid.
Brad Garrett was accepted as the voice of Manfred.
Sid says that "Iceberg Ahead" is a reference to the film Titanic.
Mark Hamill was considered for the role of Diego.
The main trio in the film have the same personalities as the main characters of The Powerpuff Girls (1998). Manny is similar to Blossom (the fiery commander and leader), Sid to Bubbles (joy and laughter) and Diego to Buttercup (the toughest fighter). The film was released in the same year as The Powerpuff Girls Movie (2002).
Brad Garrett was considered for the role of Carl.
Cody Cameron was considered for the role of Lenny.
Chris Miller was considered for the role of Oscar.
Ray Liotta was considered for the role of Soto.
Dabney Coleman was considered for the role of Manfred.
Kevin Conroy was considered for the role of Manfred.
Josh Hamilton's only animated film.
Bob Hoskins was accepted as the voice of Deigo.
Don Rickles was accepted as the voice of Manfred.
Detlef Bierstedt is the regular Voice of Commander Riker.
Michael Pan and Detlef Bierstedt regularly voice Star Trek - The Next Generation Characters.
Detlef Bierstedt is the regular voice of Commander Riker in the Star Trek: Titan Audiobook.
Detlef Bierstedt regularly lends his voice in the John Sinclair Radioplay.
Detlef Bierstedt is the regular dubbing voice of Jonathan Frakes.
The audio play brings together some of Star Trek's leading voice actors: Jörg Hengstler (Sisko), Michael Iwannek (Kim), Michael Pan (Data), Detlef Bierstedt (Riker) and Reiner Schöne, who was an actor in Star Trek TNG.
Jörg Hengstler, Michael Iwannek, Michael Pan, Detlef Bierstedt and Reiner Schöne voiced in the John Sinclair Radioplays.
Ulrike Lau and Detlef Bierstedt regularly voice Star Trek - The Next Generation Characters.
Marie Bierstedt is the daughter of Detlef Bierstedt.
Detlef Bierstedt is the regular dubbing voice of George Clooney.
Arne Elsholtz was one of the most recognized and leading voice actors. He passed away in 2016.
Arne Elsholtz is known as the Voice of Tom Hanks in German dubbing.
Arne Elsholtz is known as the Voice of Bill Murray in German dubbing.
Michael Iwannek later became the main voice in the Ice Age Franchise.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Dr. Scott Sampson from Dino Zug.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Zach Galifianakis.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Buck in the Ice Age Films and Short Films.
Michael Iwannek is best known as the voice of Harry Kim on Star Trek Voyager.
Jörg Hengstler is known for dubbing the voice of Sisko on Star Trek - DS9.
Jörg Hengstler is best known for dubbing the voice of Adrian Paul.
Jörg Hengstler is known as the dub voice of Connor MacLeod in the Highlander series.
Michael Iwannek is the German voice of Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek Voyager.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Jon Favreau.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Matthew Perry.
Lutz Mackensy is known as the regular voice of Al Pacino (in the '70s).
Lutz Mackensy's full name is Lutz Werner Mackensy.
Tobias Kluckert is the son of actor Jürgen Kluckert.
Michael Iwannek and Jürgen Kluckert both voiced characters in Dino Zug.
Lutz Mackensy is best known as the regular voice of Christopher Lloyd.
Lutz Mackensy is known as the regular voice of Stanley Tucci.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Garrett Wang.
Michael Iwannek is the regular German voice of Danny McBride.
Lutz Mackensy is the narrator in the Hanni und Nanni audio plays.
Michael Pan is known as the German voice of Data in TNG, the films and Picard.
Lutz Mackensy is the narrator in the audio plays of the 1990s Simpsons cassettes.
Michael Pan voiced the Beasts in Ben and My Beast.
Michael Pan voiced Jago in the Aladdin series.
Lutz Mackensy is known as the regular voice of Mr. Ping in the Kung Fu Panda film and series.
David Nathan is the son of Michael Pan, who voiced Data in Star Trek TNG, the films, Star Trek Picard, Ninjago, Jago in the Aladdin films and series, and many other different films and series.
Lutz Mackensy is the narrator in the audio plays of Burg Schreckenstein.
Lutz Mackensy is best known as the regular voice of Rowan Atkinson.
Michael Pan is the regular dub voice of Martin Short.
Michael Pan is the regular dub of Christian Clavier's voice.
German actor Reiner Schöne appeared as a guest star on Star Trek - TNG.
Reiner Schöne is the regular German dub voice of Mickey Rourke.
Michael Pan is the regular dub voice of Brent Spiner.
Michael Pan had a recurring role in Ninjago.
Reiner Schöne is the dub voice of Darth Vader for new films, series or new scenes in old films.
Reiner Schöne is the regular German dub of William Dafoe's voice.
Reiner Schöne is the dub voice of Optimus Prime.
Thomas Fritsch is the German voice of Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia films.
Thomas Fritsch is the German voice of Scar in The Lion King films and series.
Thomas Fritsch is the German voice of Diego in the Ice Age films.
Thomas Fritsch is the German voice of Goliath in the Gargoyles series.
Thomas Fritsch is the German dub voice of Jeremy Irons.
Thomas Fritsch is the German dub voice of John Hurt.
Daniela Hoffmann has a recurring role in John Sinclair.
Otto Walkes is best known for the film Help, I Shrunk Myself… film series.
Otto Walkes is best known for 7 Dwarves - Forrest is not enough.
Daniela Hoffmann is the German voice of Julia Roberts.
Daniela Hoffmann is the German voice of Calista Flockhart in the series Ally McBeal.
Otto Walkes also sings bonus songs on the German audio plays of the Ice Age films.
Otto Walkes is best known for Otto - The Film.
Daniela Hoffmann was the German voice of Janine Turner in the dubbed version of Northern Exposure (1990).
Daniela Hoffmann has a recurring role in the new Hui Buh radio plays.
Besides the cave paintings that are even used to represent Manny's background, this is the only Ice Age film that does not feature any Mammoth other than Manny himself; whether any other Mammoths remain is left unclear for the others until the events of the next film.
In an interview for the film, Denis Leary said that voicing Diego in this film was much cooler than the ladybug Francis in A Bug's Life, but that he might be joking. (I'm not joking).
James Earl Jones for the role of Manny: before Ray Romano was cast, the producers heavily considered James Earl Jones to give Manny a "god-like," authoritative presence as a mammoth.
John Leguizamo and Jack Black started with Mario films. Leguizamo played Luigi in Super Mario Bros, and Black voiced Bowser in Super Mario Bros Movie.
Arne Elsholtz is best known as the German dub voice of Kevin Kline.
Arne Elsholtz is known as the German dub voice of Jeff Goldblum.
Jörg Hengstler is best known for the dub voice of Avery Brooks.
Lutz Mackensy is the narrator in the audio plays of Fünf Freunde.
Michael Pan is the regular dub voice of Richard Kind.
Thomas Fritsch is the German voice of Maxwell Sheffield in the series The Nanny.
Thomas Fritsch is the German dub voice of Tim Curry.
Thomas Fritsch is the German dub voice of William Hurt.
Thomas Fritsch is best known for the series "Rivalen der Rennbahn".
Thomas Fritsch took on the narration of the series "Pro 7 Märchenstunde".
Arne Elsholtz and Thomas Fritsch both voiced characters in the Ice Age films and short films.
Thomas Fritsch was the narrator of the Three Question Marks audio play.