Ice Age Timeline Movie Guide: The Story in Order

Ice Age (2002), directed by Chris Wedge, is where the timeline begins, with a lone sloth, a grumpy mammoth and a reluctant sabertooth thrown together on a southbound trek. Sid has been left behind by his own group, and he tags along behind Manny, who would much rather travel alone. Meanwhile Soto, who leads a pack of saber-toothed cats, sends his lieutenant Diego to steal a human baby so the pack can repay the hunters who went after them.

The baby's wounded mother escapes over a waterfall and entrusts the child to Manny and Sid. When they find the human camp empty, Diego volunteers to guide them, while secretly planning to hand the baby and a mammoth to Soto. A cave of human paintings stirs Manny's memories of his lost family, and Diego's loyalty begins to shift. At a cliff edge he fights Soto to protect Manny and is badly hurt, and falling icicles finish the pack leader. The baby goes home to his father, who thanks Manny with a necklace, and the three friends carry on south together. As the first chapter, it sets up the bond that every later herd addition depends on.

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), directed by Carlos Saldanha, is the second film on the timeline and finds the herd in a valley that has turned into a paradise of water slides as the ice age begins to end. A vulture warns that the ice wall around the valley is really a dam, and the animals have about three days to reach a boat at the far end.

On the trek the trio meet Ellie, a mammoth raised by possums who thinks she is one, along with her brothers Crash and Eddie. Manny quietly fears he is the last mammoth alive, and he hesitates over Ellie because of the family he lost long ago. When the dam bursts, Manny rescues Ellie, and Scrat accidentally opens a crack in the glacier wall that drains the floodwater. A herd of mammoths emerges through that crack, which proves Manny is not alone, and he chooses to stay with Ellie.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), also directed by Carlos Saldanha, is the third film and the point where dinosaurs enter the Ice Age timeline. Manny and Ellie are expecting a baby, Diego feels restless, and Sid longs for a family. Sid finds three big eggs and treats them as his children, and they hatch into baby Tyrannosaurs.

Their enormous mother drags Sid down into a lost jungle full of living dinosaurs beneath the ice. The rest of the herd follows and meets Buck, a daring one-eyed weasel who has lived among the dinosaurs for years and is locked in a feud with a huge albino dinosaur called Rudy. Ellie goes into labor during the rescue and gives birth to a daughter named Peaches. Rudy survives a fall from a cliff, so Buck chooses to stay below and seal off the lost world while the herd returns to the surface. Diego decides to stay with the herd after all.

Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), directed by Michael Thurmeier and Steve Martino, is the fourth film, and Peaches is now a teenager who wants to fit in with cooler young mammoths. Scrat's pursuit of his acorn cracks the Earth open and reshapes the continents. Manny, Sid, Diego and Sid's Granny drift out to sea on a slab of ice, while Ellie and Peaches head for a land bridge that is about to vanish.

The drifting group is caught by pirates led by the ape Captain Gutt. His first mate Shira, a sabertooth, is ordered to deal with the heroes and grows close to Diego instead. Peaches realizes her new friends are shallow and makes up with Louis, who had always been loyal to her. Manny beats Gutt, who is eaten by a siren, and the herd settles on a green island where freed hyraxes can rebuild. Shira joins the herd as Diego's partner, and Scrat ends up stranded in a desert after the lost city of Scratlantis sinks.

Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), directed by Michael Thurmeier, is the fifth Ice Age film and the most recent main theatrical entry to date. Scrat's chase after an acorn accidentally sends asteroids toward Earth, and the herd shelters in a cave while meteors fall. Peaches is engaged to Julian, so the family is also adjusting to a wedding.

Buck finds an ancient stone pillar showing that asteroids have caused extinctions before, and that the next major impact will hit near an ancient volcano. The search for special crystals leads the herd to Geotopia, a hidden city whose residents depend on the crystals to stay young. Sid destroys the city's crystals by mistake, and the residents begin to age. Together the herd and the Geotopians fill the volcano with crystals, and the eruption repels the main asteroid. A shard that lands in a hot spring restores the Geotopians' youth, and the film closes at the wedding of Peaches and Julian.

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022), directed by John Donkin, is a Disney+ original and the sixth film on the timeline, released on January 28, 2022. Crash and Eddie accidentally cause an avalanche that ruins the herd's summer habitat. The older members of the herd doubt the brothers can cope alone, so the two leave to prove them wrong.

They stumble into the Lost World, where raptors chase them until Buck rescues them. Orson, a small Protoceratops once banished for his ambitions, has returned with a pack of raptors and wants to rule the land. Crash and Eddie team up with Zee and a Tyrannosaurus called Momma, and the herd joins the fight. Fire-breathing lizards turn the raptors against Orson, and Crash and Eddie decide to stay in the Lost World. Manny, Sid, Diego and Ellie promise to visit often. Simon Pegg, who has voiced Buck since the third film, is the only returning voice actor.

Ice Age: Boiling Point is the next film on the timeline, with a confirmed US theatrical release date of February 5, 2027. TheWrap reported on August 30, 2025 that the film was first set for December 2026, and that the new date and title were announced at Destination D23.

For the latest on dates, cast and rumors, see ice age boiling point, and for the teaser see the ice age boiling point trailer page.

In my opinion, the Ice Age timeline is one of the easiest to follow in animation, because story order and release order are identical for all six films. The herd also grows in a clear line: Manny, Sid and Diego become friends in Ice Age (2002), Ellie, Crash and Eddie join in Ice Age: The Meltdown, and Buck arrives in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Peaches is born at the end of that third film, and by Ice Age: Continental Drift she is a teenager, so the family changes visibly from one film to the next.

It could be argued that the dinosaur thread is the real spine of the saga, since the lost world appears in Dawn of the Dinosaurs and returns in ice age buck wild.

You may also see the Scrat shorts Gone Nutty and No Time for Nuts, and the TV special Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, mentioned in timeline searches. Shorts and TV specials are not counted as films on Cinvibe, so they have no place in the film order above.

If you are choosing tonight's film for a family, start at the beginning and watch straight through, then check the ice age movies in order guide for where to stream each one. The wider franchise lives on the ice age movies hub.