Scrat is a fictional rodent in the Ice Age franchise and the mascot of 20th Century Animation subsidiary and animation company Blue Sky Studios until its closure in 2021. In the 2002 film Ice Age plus its follow-up shorts and theatrical sequels, he is a saber-toothed, long-snouted rat-like squirrel with no dialogue who is obsessed with trying to collect and bury his acorn, putting himself in danger and usually losing his food in the process to his frustration. He additionally is a catalyst for major natural disasters that drastically alter the world around him and at times sets the stage for the main conflicts of the films. Scrat's storylines are mostly independent of those of other characters of "the Herd", though the two do intersect at times. While Scrat is a side character for the theatrical films that he appears in, he is the protagonist of other media such as certain shorts and his own miniseries Ice Age: Scrat Tales. In all of his appearances, his vocal effects were provided by the studio co-founder Chris Wedge, who also directed the first film.
The origins of Scrat are unclear because of inconsistent creation stories by different studio staff members combined with the prior existence of a squirrel character named "Sqrat" who was conceived as an unused character by Ivy Supersonic. His design and personality were probably shaped by multiple staff members and ultimately finalized by Chris Wedge, the lead artist Peter de Sève, and the storyboard artist Bill Frake. Scrat was reportedly conceived midway through the film's production and was planned on being killed off by the end of the introductory scene. Despite Wedge's protests, 20th Century Fox released a teaser trailer for Ice Age featuring Scrat. The character in the trailer was well received by audiences for his involvement in circumstances of slapstick comedy, leading Wedge and his studio towards keeping Scrat alive and adding him to more scenes. His personality and greater plot involvement were standardized by the release of the 2002 short Gone Nutty and implemented into subsequent films.
Scrat has been widely praised for his pantomime behaviors and comedic antics with his acorns, in particular his suffering from slapstick comedy, and has been considered the most iconic character of the Ice Age franchise by critics. His simple and comedic storylines have frequently been compared to those of the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons from Warner Bros. Because of his popularity and history of expanded roles starting from the 2002 film, he was considered a breakout character by multiple writers along with de Sève and was a major factor of the franchise's success. He was also said to represent personal struggles with the pursuit of happiness and obsessed persistence by Wedge, de Sève, and other staff members, a sentiment followed by critics. Despite not being based on any animal species, Scrat has also been compared to more recently described species of Mesozoic cynodonts by paleontologists, namely Cronopio dentiacutus and Pseudotherium argentinus on the bases of their small sizes and long fangs plus snouts.
Conception and development Early conception and design
Scrat is a fictional species of rodent from the Ice Age franchise with both squirrel and rat physical traits and movements. The origins of Scrat's conception is unclear, with Louisa Mellor of Den of Geek stating that he "seems to have more origin stories going around than Spider-Man". According to The Art of Ice Age by Tara Bennet, multiple artists had encountered different inspirations that all led to the development of Scrat's characteristics. During the production of Ice Age, the Blue Sky Studios co-founder and film director Chris Wedge struggled to think of an introduction showcasing the setting's climate but imagined the possibility of a glacier pressuring one small character or a group of characters. The studio artist Peter de Sève was the lead designer for the Ice Age characters and derived his animal designs from his research at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, New York. He noted that he was told not to design any rodent character for the film but later took design inspiration from kangaroo rats in his research. According to Wedge, de Sève dug through hundreds of his sketches, pulling out a drawing of a squirrel character with large eyes and striped body later known as a "proto-version of Scrat"; the movie director then accepted the character concept for his film and told him to simply add saber teeth to the design. Later at the same day, the storyboard artist Bill Frake suggested that the squirrel be used for a storyline involving him burying his nuts for the winter and storyboarded it with the approval of Wedge. The film producer Lori Forte similarly recalled that she and Wedge wanted the "pre-historic squirrel, a sabre-tooth squirrel" to be in the movie after having observed de Sève's works in his office.
Wedge noted that Scrat's skittish movements and exaggerated reactions were similar to those of "squash and stretch" cartoon characters in the golden age of American animation but then stated that his characteristics were actually derived from personal experiences by different studio staff members. He recalled that the fictional squirrel's movement was inspired in part by the chipmunks that quickly scattered, stopped, and twitched outside his studio's window. Frake meanwhile reportedly drew his inspiration from a "peanut-obsessed" squirrel in his backyard in Lake Arrowhead, California that distracted him while he was storyboarding for Ice Age. He said that it sought nuts on the porch and repeatedly tapped on his sliding doors. He attempted to ward it off by throwing a pizza crust at it and yelling at it out of frustration, resulting in the squirrel tearing his deck chairs and chattering at him.
In a 2009 blog, the film co-writer Michael J. Wilson said he took inspiration for the character from his daughter, Flora, who at age 3 called a squirrel "Scrat", combining the words "squirrel" and "rat". His account conflicts with court documents in 2003 that reported de Sève being the character creator and the film model maker John Dodelson naming the character "Scrat" while sculpting a clay model for the squirrel.
Wedge credited himself, de Sève, and Frake for the creation of Scrat and noted that his conception came from him wanting to establish a comedic sequence in the film's introduction while showcasing the environment as a large-scale force. The sequence for Scrat involved him trying to store his acorn for the winter season only for the glacier to disrupt his practice, in fact being responsible for cracking the glacier using his acorn and causing it to move. He initially conceptualized Scrat having stored many nuts but later simplified the number to just one to highlight Scrat's scarce food management. Scrat at the end of the introduction sequence was originally going to be killed by a mammoth stepping on him to set a dark comedy tone for the entire film. The marketing department for 20th Century Fox then proceeded to use the clip as a teaser trailer, but Wedge initially disapproved of that due to wanting to keep the sequence from being spoiled to audiences. However, the director found out that preview audiences had positive receptions towards the teaser and wanted more screen time for Scrat, then keeping him alive for more of the movie's scenes. From there, Scrat became a prominent character of the 2002 film. Since the first Ice Age movie, Scrat's dialogue-free voice was provided by Chris Wedge in the franchise.
Shortly after the 2002 release of Ice Age, which received positive receptions, Blue Sky Studios, the studio behind the film, sought to have a project to fill in a production gap before the start of their next feature film. The director Carlos Saldanha and the same creative team for Ice Age produced the 2002 short film Gone Nutty, an animation that features Scrat as the protagonist. The team developed a better understanding of Scrat's character and improved their technological uses in animation.
Frake defined Scrat as "the personification of [the] struggle" between characters trying to survive and the environment that threatens them as if it was an antagonistic character. He said that he worked around tight budgets and technological limitations by using the art styles of both German Expressionism and abstract art to portray Scrat as an individual escaping from a hostile environment while trying to keep his much-needed food intact. Similarly, the Gone Nutty story artist William H. Frake III explained that Scrat never keeping his nut in the end is a metaphor to humans and their struggles to keep what they need, that he is meant to be relatable to audiences in his joy and pain.
Copyright and trademark controversies
In May 1999, the New York City fashion designer Ivy Supersonic reportedly encountered a squirrel that apparently had a rat-like appearance while walking at Madison Square Park. She formulated a "$100 million idea" of an animated squirrel-rat hybrid character that ends up in "wacky adventures" and is targeted for child audiences, comparing its potential value to that of Disney's Mickey Mouse. She was hoping that her idea would be used in mainstream media, hiring a lawyer to apply for an intent-to-use trademark for "Sqrat" and recruiting her friend Peter Levine to create concept art for it on a banner. The furry rodent in question had large buck teeth and a poofy tail. Iris Cole-Hayworth, a former friend of Supersonic, revealed that she was very passionate about her project, gave away merchandise of Sqrat in 1999 and 2000, and even did an interview about her character with CNN in February 2000.
Her project at first attracted interest from other people according to 2003 court documents, as the film producer Lou DiBella and the TV director Michael A. Simon commissioned a pilot script by Norah Lally for an animated series about Sqrat, who was potentially to be voiced by the American musician Tommy Lee. However, the two producers could not come to an agreement with Supersonic's lawyer and father Jerome Silberstein, resulting in the project's cancellation. Afterward, Supersonic discussed an animated web series for Sqrat for the internet company Urban Box Office Network but rejected their $50,000 offer because she felt that her concept was worth "7 figures".
In November 2001, a friend of Supersonic from Los Angeles, California informed her about the film Ice Age and its character Scrat and told her to get a lawyer. Supersonic said that she was in Los Angeles in 2000 and had a suitcase of Sqrat plot scripts, then trying to figure out who stole her idea. On 30 February 2002, a month before the theatrical release of Ice Age, she filed a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox for copyright infringement. The 2003 court documents and later accounts have recorded the inconsistency of Scrat's origins according to Blue Sky Studio staff members. While the two characters have their names spelled differently, John Dodelson told Business Insider that he originally spelled Scrat with a "q", evident by internal emails from the studio. Besides the name, the lawsuit alleged copyright of artistic choices of the two similar characters. The cartoonist Mort Gerberg, brought in by Supersonic's attorney, noted similarities between the two in their long snouts, overhanging front teeth, and projecting eyes and therefore came to the conclusion that Fox copied from Supersonic.