Scrat Ice Age Guide: The Character Behind the Acorn Chase

Scrat is the acorn obsessed character of the Ice Age saga, a creature who sits outside the herd and cares about one thing only. He is credited in Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), directed by Carlos Saldanha, and he features again in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and Ice Age: Collision Course (2016). All four carry a PG rating in the US and a U rating in the UK.

What kind of animal is he? The credits list him only as Scrat, and the studio and trade sources give no species, so the films leave it open. Are saber tooth squirrels extinct? Because Scrat is fictional and never named as a particular species, there is no real animal to check. The real saber-toothed cats in the saga belong to Diego, not to Scrat.

Who voices him? Chris Wedge is the credited voice of Scrat in The Meltdown and Dawn of the Dinosaurs, and one credit reads "Dodo / Scrat". If you searched for the Scrat screaming sound effect, those voice credits are where the trail starts, because the films list Scrat as a voice role.

He also has a counterpart. Scratte, voiced by Karen Disher, is credited in Dawn of the Dinosaurs as a separate character. The credits do not state Scrat's sex, so the page calls him he. Scrat lives apart from Manny, Sid and Diego, which is why you can drop into any of these films and enjoy him without knowing the rest.

Scrat's story is a running chase for an acorn, and in each film that chase pushes the plot somewhere unexpected. In The Meltdown, he pokes a hole in the glacier wall that holds back the valley's floodwater. The crack drains the water and washes him away, and it also lets a herd of mammoths emerge, which shows Manny he is not the last of his kind. Scrat then has a vision of an acorn heaven, is revived by Sid, and attacks Sid because he believes Sid took his acorn.

In Continental Drift, his pursuit of the acorn cracks the Earth open and reshapes the continents, which sweeps Manny, Sid, Diego and Granny out to sea on a slab of ice. His own thread ends with a map shaped like an acorn. It leads him to the lost city of Scratlantis, which then sinks and leaves him stranded in a desert.

In Collision Course, his chase sets asteroids on a course for Earth. That accident drives the whole plot: the herd shelters from meteors, Buck finds the stone pillar that explains past extinctions, and everyone travels to Geotopia to save the planet.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs credits him as Scrat and gives him a counterpart in Scratte.

Scrat has very few relationships in the saga, and the ones he has are mostly accidents. The first is with Sid. In The Meltdown, Sid revives Scrat after his acorn heaven vision, and Scrat repays him by attacking him over a missing acorn. That is as close as the two come to friendship, and it is a typical Scrat exchange.

The second is with Scratte, voiced by Karen Disher and credited in Dawn of the Dinosaurs. She is a separate character with her own credit, and she gives Scrat something other than the acorn to react to.

The third is the herd as a whole, but only through consequences. His chases create the cracks, collisions and floods that Manny, Diego, Sid, Ellie, Peaches and the rest then have to survive. In Continental Drift the herd is swept out to sea because of his chase, and in Collision Course the asteroids come from it too.

On the production side, Chris Wedge directed Ice Age (2002) and is the credited voice of Scrat in The Meltdown and Dawn of the Dinosaurs. The films were made by Blue Sky Studios, and Disney+ now carries the saga.

Scrat never settles: the films keep him running, and none of the endings shows him keeping his acorn. In The Meltdown he is washed away by the water he released, then revived by Sid. In Continental Drift he ends up stranded in a desert after Scratlantis sinks, which is the film's last gag. In Collision Course his chase has already triggered the asteroids, and the herd, not Scrat, saves the world.

So, did Scrat ever eat his acorn? Based on those endings, the answer is no, or at least not in a way the films treat as a victory. The point of the character is the pursuit.

What about the future? Is Scrat going to be in Ice Age: Boiling Point? The film is set for a US theatrical release on February 5, 2027, according to TheWrap and Box Office Mojo, and it is in production. No cast has been announced in that reporting, so Scrat's return is not confirmed. For release news, see Ice Age Boiling Point. Meanwhile, his status is open ended: he is alive, hungry and still chasing.

In my opinion, Scrat's best moments are the ones where the gag changes the story, and The Meltdown is the strongest example. The hole he pokes in the glacier wall looks like a throwaway joke, yet it drains the floodwater, washes him away and opens the way for the mammoths who tell Manny he is not alone. A single gag ends up solving the film's biggest worry.

Second, I would pick Continental Drift. His chase literally cracks the Earth apart and launches the entire plot, and his own thread ends with Scratlantis sinking and a stranded desert finish. It shows how the saga uses him: a short, wordless detour that frames the main story.

Third comes Collision Course, where the acorn chase goes cosmic and sets the asteroids moving. It could be argued that this is the biggest escalation of the running joke, since the stakes jump from a valley to the whole planet.

If you are a parent choosing tonight's film, Scrat is the part that works for every age in the room, because the humor is physical and the PG rating applies across all four films. To follow his story in sequence, start with Ice Age movies in order. For the rest of the cast, see Ice Age characters.