Scrat

### Aliases

Buddy (by Manny)Little Buddy (by Sid)Little Scrat Fish (by Squint)Brother (by Ariscratle)

### Affiliation

Ice Valley (formerly)Snow Valley (formerly)Nut Heaven (formerly)Dinosaur World (formerly)Herd Valley (currently)Scratlantis (formerly)Black Hole (formerly)

## Appearances

### Appears in

Ice Age (franchise; except for Buck Wild Spin Off)

### Debut

Ice Age (2002)

**Scrat** is an acorn-obsessed saber-toothed squirrel that lived during the ice ages, attempting to store his prized acorn. As of 2013, he became the mascot of Blue Sky Studios, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney and known as 20th Century Studios).

## Overview

During the days of the Ice age, Scrat took an acorn with him everywhere, hoping to find a place to store it for the winter. Scrat also went out looking for other acorns so as to further his storage, looking all over for acorns and nuts.

Scrat went on, fixated with taking his acorn until he met another saber-tooth squirrel named Scratte, whom Scrat fell for, forsaking his acorn for a time until he grew to miss it. He returned to his acorn, leaving Scratte behind in a world of dinosaurs.

Further on in time, through a mistake, Scrat was responsible for the separation of the continents, which divided Pangaea, the singular landmass, into various continents. After this, Scrat found a paradise on Earth for himself: an island populated by advanced saber-tooth squirrels known as Scratlantis. After finding it, however, Scrat sunk it by mistake, stranding himself in a North American desert.

After sinking Scratlantis, Scrat wondered through the landscape with a new acorn in hand. He ended up falling through the ice into a cave. There, he ended up finding a place to finally store his acorn. Apparently, his acorn ended up powering a UFO that was encased in the ice. After confusingly moving the lever, Scrat managed to blast out of the ice and into the cosmos. Up in space, Scrat ended up creating The Solar System, rearranging the planets and causing a collision between two planets, creating the asteroid belt. When the UFO rammed into a giant asteroid, Scrat ended up burying his acorn once again. As Scrat had finally managed to store his acorn successfully, the asteroid ended up cracking and made it's way towards earth. Scrat had once again put the earth in danger because of his obsession over his acorn. Later on, Scrat had no control over his UFO, and ended up crashing on Mars, which had similarly looked like Earth at the time, wiping out all vegetation, water and other life form on the planet.

At some point in his future, Scrat was frozen in ice and survived the ice ages, some twenty thousand years later, washing up in a block of ice on a tropical beach. Scrat lost his acorn and found a coconut, which he treated the same as his acorn; however, in storing it, Scrat started a volcanic cataclysm by mistake.

Scrat's wildest adventure that he ever embarked on was when he met a baby saber-toothed squirrel while on an acorn hunt, named Baby Scrat, who took an instant liking to Scrat. Scrat cooed how cute Baby Scrat was and took him in as his father. From then on, the two had a solid love for each other, as a happy Scrat cared for, taught, nurtured, and played with his son. Problems would arise between them though, whenever acorns appeared. Baby Scrat had the same love of Acorns that his father has. Acting on natural instincts, any sight of an acorn would set off a chase between them, tussling over who would get it, causing chaos and crazy adventures for both of them. Despite this, the two love each other very deeply, and they always still show affection towards each other.

His final known adventure simply consists of him finally eating his beloved acorn.

## Personality and Traits

As a saber-tooth squirrel, Scrat was small and furry with pink Fingers, pink Toes, long Gray Bushy tail and gray torso. Scrat sported a large set of Brown eyes, two Short furry ears, a small black nose and, most notably, a long set of sharp canine teeth, the trait most shared by all saber-tooth squirrels. With a blue eyelids, Scrat was almost always in the company of his beloved acorn. Through Scrat's instincts and interests being driven on finding a safe place to stow his acorn, he was capable of much, from fighting off a school of piranha single-handedly to surviving in conditions and stress that would severely harm other animals, from being stomped on, burned alive, electrocuted and even launched into space (more than once).

Scrat makes up for his inability to play with his fearlessness and persistence. He's very close to his prized acorn, keeping it close to him at all times and distressing or even losing his mind whenever it was lost. Scrat was obsessed over his beloved nut, a state of mind coupled with a lack of common sense and awareness to his surroundings, yet Scrat was not wholly incapable of other emotions. Upon meeting Scratte, Scrat formed a rivalry with her but he still saved her from falling to her death and they fell in love almost at once, forgetting all about his acorn for a time. He ends up getting better at being aware of his surroundings during the franchise.

## Appearances

* *Ice Age* (First appearance)
	+ *Ice Age: The Movie Novel*
	+ *Ice Age (video game)*
* *Gone Nutty*
* *Family Guy*:
	+ "Sibling Rivalry"
* *Ice Age: The Meltdown*
	+ *Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (video game)*
* *Ice Age: The Great Escape*
* *No Time for Nuts*
* *Surviving Sid*
* *Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs*
	+ *Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (video game)*
* *Scrat's Continental Crack-up*
* *Scrat's Continental Crack-up Part 2*
* *Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas*
* *Ice Age: Continental Drift*
	+ *Ice Age: Continental Drift - Arctic Games*
* *Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe*
* *Ice Age: The Great Egg-Scapade*
* *Ice Age: Collision Course*
* *Scrat: Spaced Out*
* *Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure*
* *Ice Age: Scrat Tales*
* *The End*

## Behind the Scenes

Scrat was voiced in all his appearances by director Chris Wedge.

Scrat's species, designated the "saber-tooth squirrel" by Wedge, who gave the species an undisclosed scientific name, was a fictional animal that he developed for the first *Ice Age* film, its name an amalgam of "squirrel" and "rat".

In 2011, scientists in Argentina uncovered the remains of an extinct, shrew-like mammal with long fangs which was dubbed *Cronopio dentiacutus*, in tribute to Scrat, which resembles *Cronopio.*

Originally intended to be a bit part character that only appeared in the beginning of *Ice Age*, Scrat proved such a success with test audiences that he was made a more important character, made mute for comedic purposes and vital to the story's advancement - for without Scrat, the first real snow and ice sequence wouldn't take place until about 37 minutes into the film.

Writer Michael J. Wilson has stated before that his daughter Flora came up with the idea for a creature that was the mixture of a squirrel and a rat, dubbing it Scrat and deciding that Scrat was after his acorn.

### Disputed Accounts of Scrat's Creation

Scrat's creation is disputed. Fashion designer Ivy "Supersonic" Silberstein designed a character named "Sqrat" on May 19, 1999. She has gone on to claim that her character was stolen and repurposed by Blue Sky Studios for *Ice Age's* Scrat back in 2002. She later settled a trademark lawsuit with Disney in 2020; resulting in her acquiring a trademark for her "Sqrat" character. . Ivy would then claim that Scrat would be removed from the *Ice Age* franchise (this was said to be responsible for his absence in *Buck Wild*).

However, with the release of *Scrat Tales*, it appears that Disney still owns S***c***rat separately from Ivy's S***q***rat character. An analysis on the controversy with input from both parties can be read via the *Insider* website.

## Trivia

* The saber-tooth squirrel is a fictional creature, as explained by Chris Wedge, who voices Scrat.
* In 2011, scientists in Argentina uncovered the remains of an extinct, shrew-like mammal with long fangs which was dubbed *Cronopio Dentiacutus*, in tribute to Scrat, which resembles *Cronopio.*
* Scrat has 887 joints, which that's over four times as many as a human.
* Although the majority of the main characters are aware of his presence, Scrat is the only main character of the Ice Age series to not follow along with the rest of the main characters on their adventures. Nevertheless, his actions throughout every movie have always indirectly impacted the group greatly one way or another.
	+ The only times Scrat doesn't interact with the herd is in the fifth and sixth movies.
* Scrat is mostly unable to talk. The only sounds he can make is when he's muttering, moaning, yelling, screaming, sighing, and excited having his acorn. However, he very briefly speaks in the second movie, saying a single word-"peep"-in an attempt the mimic the baby vulture so he can get away from his actions without consequences.
* It is unknown on whether Scrat froze before or after the sequels. It is possible that he froze after the films and all of the sequels take place before he froze at some point. He may have traveled back in to his time period using the machine from No Time For Nuts.
* Scrat is one of several solitary creatures, others being a Glyptodon heading South by itself, Rose, Fast Tony, Cholly, a hawk, the Secretary Bird, Scratte, the Archaeopteryx, Giant Crab, a small crab, sharks, a fish, Precious, and Francine.
* Scrat makes a cameo in the *Family Guy* episode "Sibling Rivalry", where he quarrels with Peter Griffin over acorns.
* Scrat made an appearance in the animated film, *Dragon Rider.*
* He is a playable character in the *Ice Age: The Meltdown* video game, where he serves as the main protagonist as the game serves as a midquel of the film which shows what else Scrat during the events of the film.
* A running gag in the franchise is Scrat being stepped on by someone due to his little dimensions or when he's in trouble in fighting a character for the acorn: In the first film he's stepped on by several animals, in the second film he's stepped on by the baby condor, in the McDonald commercials he's squashed by Ellie's butt and stepped on by Momma T-Rex, in the third film he's stepped on by Manny, Crash, Eddie, Sid and later by Scratte.
* It's currently unknown if Scrat will appear in the Buck's film, Ice Age: Adventures of Buck Wild since it's a spin-off and not a true Ice Age film but he will most likely make at least a cameo since he appeared in every Ice Age's media so far including even Sid's own short Surviving Sid. It's already been confirmed that Scrat is absent from the 2022 movie.
* Despite his reboot in The Meltdown sequel his old design is used in the poster.