Ice Age is a 2002 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox.

Set during the days of the Pleistocene ice age, the film centers around three main characters—Manny (Romano), a no-nonsense woolly mammoth; Sid (Leguizamo), a loudmouthed ground sloth; and Diego (Leary), a sardonic smilodon—who come across a human baby and work together to return it to its tribe.

Additionally, the film occasionally follows Scrat, a speechless "saber-toothed squirrel" (Wedge), who is perpetually searching for a place in the ground to bury his acorn.

Focus shifted from making an action-adventure drama film to a more comedy-oriented one, and several writers, such as Berg and Ackerman, were brought on to bring out a wittier tone.

Sid, a clumsy ground sloth, is left behind by his family and chases the herd by himself, but is attacked by an angry pair of brontotheres after he ruins their meal.

Soto, the leader of the surviving saber-toothed tigers, leads a raid on the human camp, intending to take his revenge by personally killing Roshan, the infant son of the chief.

Diego, beginning to second-guess his mission, decides to change sides completely after Manny saves his life from a lava flow.

He informs Sid and Manny of Soto's pack waiting to ambush them at Half Peak; though the pair remain skeptical having learned they were set up, Diego successfully convinces them their only chance is to trust him.

Soto is thrown against an overhanging rock, dislodging several large icicles, impaling and killing him; the rest of the pack flee.

Diego, having survived his injuries, catches up just in time to say goodbye to Roshan, and the reunited trio, now best friends, head back south with the rest of the animals.

[3] Michael J. Wilson, who had written and developed the film's original story treatments in conjunction with Forte, wrote the first draft for the script, and Chris Wedge, a co-founder of Blue Sky, was brought on to the project as the director in late 1998.

[3] Fox also opted for the movie to take a more comedy-oriented direction, and brought writer Michael Berg to help emphasize a more comedic tone.

Jon Vitti and Mike Reiss, both former writers for The Simpsons, were added later on after Berg and Ackerman left to further polish the script.

Scrat's opening adventure was inserted because, without it, the first real snow and ice sequence wouldn't take place until about 37 minutes into the film.

Rendering was completed using CGI Studio, an in-house ray tracing program being developed since Blue Sky's formation in 1987 and previously used for Wedge's 1998 short film, Bunny.

Manny was a particularly difficult character to animate due to his unique attributes as a mammoth, such as his long fur and massive trunks that covered up his face.

[11] Dealing with a creature which had seldom appeared in animation at the time, the team needed to figure out how Manny would realistically move with character designer Pete DeSeve explaining that "a wooly mammoth isn't simply an elephant with long fur".

Leguizamo came up with the final voice and trademark lateral lisp for the character after watching footage of sloths and learning that they store food in the pockets of their mouths which ferments over time.

[17] Leguizamo remarked in an interview with BBC that he had wanted to contribute to an animated project for a while, claiming that cartoon voice actor Mel Blanc was "one of my comedy Gods" and a large source of inspiration for him as a child.

The soundtrack consists of the original musical score composed for the film by David Newman and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.

[29] According to CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave Ice Age an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

[31][32] The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: The initial home video release for Ice Age was accompanied by an $85 million marketing campaign involving promotional partnerships with 14 different companies,[34] including Microsoft, Pizza Hut, Carl's Jr., Dole, Langer's, Valpak, Cold Stone Creamery, and the National Hockey League.

[37] The DVD release was THX certified and gave the viewer the option of viewing the film in either widescreen or pan and scan fullscreen.

Ice Age: The Meltdown, the first sequel, was released in March 2006, following the main characters trying to escape a massive flooding due to global warming, as well as Manny's concern over whether or not his species is going extinct.

With the release of Collision Course, the Ice Age series became the first computer-animated movie franchise to house five theatrical installments, not including spinoffs.