As “Ice Age: Laws of the Universe” airs tonight on TF1, discover how the most hilarious character in the animated saga was created.
While Ice Age: Laws of the Universe, fifth installment of the famous animated franchise, airs tonight on TF1, let’s go back 20 years, when Manny, Diego and Sid’s first adventure landed in barely in the cinema, and that the audience was writhing in laughter when they met the legendary Scrat.
Mascot of the saga, this little squirrel was indeed the first Ice Age character to appear on the screen, seeking at all costs to break the shell of his meager pittance before being pursued by a gigantic block of ice . However, even if it is legendary today for many spectators, the irresistible rodent only joined the adventure late, as director Chris Wedge told us in an interview in 2016:
“The Ice Age was the story of three mammals and a baby. It was a story that we took a while to develop. Everyone had to meet, get to know each other. (…)“, he explained to us. “And I wanted something fun really early on in the movie. I wanted to make sure the Ice Age itself was a character. I thought to myself that maybe the best way to do that would be to ‘have a giant glacier chasing someone. “
20th Century Fox
Once this concept was established, Chris Wedge then went to see artist Peter de Sève, famous character designer responsible for creating all the wacky bestiary of The Ice Age:
“I asked him what was the smallest character he had drawn,” continues Chris Wedge, “and he showed me a little squirrel. This species really did exist during the Ice Age. We added little saber-toothed teeth to it, and we decided that it would be him who would be chased. We developed a story. real quick with him trying to get his acorns together. And it boiled down to one acorn. And there it was, Scrat was born. “
20th Century Fox
As for the panicked cries of the little rodent, it was Wedge himself who agreed to lend him his voice, far from imagining that the adventure would last for at least 5 films. Because indeed, originally, Scrat’s first scene was also meant to be his last:
“At the end of the streak, he must have ended up being crushed by a mammalian paw after going through it all. He had finally got his penis back, and he was getting run over. And that was the end of it. But no one wanted to see him go, so we kept him alive. “
(Re) discover our full interview with Chris Wedge in video …
