Ellie in Ice Age: Voice Actor, Daughter and Story

Ellie is a female woolly mammoth who first appears in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), directed by Carlos Saldanha, and she becomes one of the herd's central figures from that film onward. Her first big surprise is that she was raised by possums and believes she is one, which is why she travels with her possum brothers Crash and Eddie. Manny, the grumpy mammoth who fears he is the last of his kind, meets her on the trek toward the boat at the far end of the valley.

If you remember the "mammoth girl" of the series from childhood, this is her. Ellie spends most of the saga alongside Manny and, later, their daughter Peaches, which makes her one of the herd's steadiest family members. You can meet the rest of the herd on our Ice Age characters page.

Who voices Ellie in Ice Age? Queen Latifah plays her in Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and Ice Age: Collision Course (2016). In The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022), directed by John Donkin, the credits list Dominique Jennings as Ellie. Ellie is not in the first film, Ice Age (2002).

Ellie moves from an orphaned calf who thinks she is a possum to the mother of the herd's next generation, and each film gives her a new role. In The Meltdown, she is an orphaned mammoth adopted by the possum mother of Crash and Eddie. She and Manny grow close on the three day trek to escape the flood, but Manny hesitates because of the family he lost long ago. When the dam bursts and Ellie and her brothers are trapped in a cave, Manny rescues her. A herd of other mammoths then appears through the crack that Scrat opened, which proves Manny is not the last of his kind, and with encouragement from Sid and Diego he chooses to stay with Ellie.

In Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Ellie is expecting a baby while Manny fusses over every danger near their home. When Sid is carried off to a lost jungle beneath the ice, she follows with Manny, Diego, Crash and Eddie. She goes into labor during an attack in the dinosaur world, and the herd has to protect her while still trying to reach Sid. She gives birth to a daughter named Peaches.

By Continental Drift, Peaches is a teenager, and Ellie is the parent on the other side of the split. Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny drift out to sea, while Ellie and Peaches head for a land bridge that is about to disappear. Captain Gutt later takes Ellie and the others hostage, and the family is reunited after Manny beats him. Collision Course (2016), directed by Michael Thurmeier, finds the herd dealing with family changes as Peaches gets engaged to Julian. In Buck Wild, the herd, including Ellie, promises to visit Crash and Eddie in the Lost World.

Ellie's closest relationship is with Manny, and her family has two sides: the daughter she has with him and the possum brothers who raised her. Manny and Ellie grow close during The Meltdown, where he chooses to stay with her, and they are expecting a baby together in Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The films do not state how many years separate the two mammoths, so any figure for how much older Manny is than Ellie is a fan guess.

Peaches is Ellie's daughter, born at the end of Dawn of the Dinosaurs. In Continental Drift and Collision Course, Keke Palmer voices Peaches. In the first of those films Manny struggles to let his teenage daughter grow up, and Ellie is the one who heads for the land bridge with her when the continents split. When Peaches gets engaged to Julian in Collision Course, the herd's family changes again, and Ellie is right in the middle of it.

Crash and Eddie are Ellie's possum brothers. Seann William Scott and Josh Peck voice them in the theatrical films, and in Buck Wild Vincent Tong and Aaron Harris take over. Their mother adopted Ellie as a calf, which explains why a mammoth jumps around like a possum. Granny joins the herd in Continental Drift. For the rest of the herd, see the pages for Manny Ice Age, Peaches Ice Age, Crash and Eddie Ice Age, Sid Ice Age and Diego Ice Age.

Ellie is still with the herd and with Manny in the most recent released film. After the flood in The Meltdown, Manny stays with her. After the birth in Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the family returns to the surface. In Continental Drift, Captain Gutt holds her hostage, she is freed when Manny wins the final fight, and the herd settles on a green island. In Collision Course, the eruption pushes the main asteroid away from Earth, and the film closes on the wedding of Peaches and Julian.

In Buck Wild, Ellie is among the herd members who say they will visit Crash and Eddie in the Lost World, and that is her last appearance in a released film. Ice Age: Boiling Point is in production, with a US theatrical release set for February 5, 2027, according to TheWrap. For the latest on that film, see Ice Age Boiling Point.

In my opinion, Ellie's best scenes are the ones where she holds her own against Manny rather than simply supporting him. Her first real test is the rescue in The Meltdown, when she is trapped in a cave with her brothers as the dam gives way. It matters because it forces Manny to choose between his fear of loss and the family in front of him.

The second is the labor scene in Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Ellie is giving birth in a jungle full of living dinosaurs, and the herd has to guard her while still trying to reach Sid. It is the saga's best mix of comedy and real stakes, and it gives Queen Latifah plenty to play.

Did Ellie overreact in Ice Age 2? In my opinion, the film does not present her that way. Manny hesitates because of the family he lost long ago, and the group splits over which route to take to the boat, but the story never frames Ellie as the one in the wrong. That being said, this is a matter of taste.

The third is the stretch in Continental Drift where Ellie and Peaches race for a land bridge that is about to vanish, and Ellie is later taken hostage by Gutt. Perhaps it is the film where she is most clearly a parent in the middle of a crisis. I would add the wedding in Collision Course as a last pick, because it pays off the baby from Dawn of the Dinosaurs.