In the 2002 film Ice Age plus its follow-up shorts and theatrical sequels, he is a saber-toothed, long-snouted rat-like squirrel with no dialogue who is obsessed with trying to collect and bury his acorn(s), putting himself in danger and usually losing his food in the process to his frustration.

The character in the trailer was well received by audiences for his involvement in circumstances of slapstick comedy, leading Wedge and his studio towards keeping Scrat alive and adding him to more scenes.

Scrat has been widely praised for his pantomime behaviors and comedic antics with his acorns, in particular his suffering from slapstick comedy, and has been considered the most iconic character of the Ice Age franchise by critics.

His simple and comedic storylines have frequently been compared to those of the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons from Warner Bros. Because of his popularity and history of expanded roles starting from the 2002 film, he was considered a breakout character by multiple writers along with de Sève and was a major factor of the franchise's success.

[3] Wedge noted that Scrat's skittish movements and exaggerated reactions were similar to those of "squash and stretch" cartoon characters in the golden age of American animation but then stated that his characteristics were actually derived from personal experiences by different studio staff members.

[3] Wedge credited himself, de Sève, and Frake for the creation of Scrat and noted that his conception came from him wanting to establish a comedic sequence in the film's introduction while showcasing the environment as a large-scale force.

The marketing department for 20th Century Fox then proceeded to use the clip as a teaser trailer, but Wedge initially disapproved of that due to wanting to keep the sequence from being spoiled to audiences.

[1][7] In May 1999, the New York City fashion designer Ivy Supersonic reportedly encountered a squirrel that apparently had a rat-like appearance while walking at Madison Square Park.

She formulated a "$100 million idea" of an animated squirrel-rat hybrid character that ends up in "wacky adventures" and is targeted for child audiences, comparing its potential value to that of Disney's Mickey Mouse.

She was hoping that her idea would be used in mainstream media, hiring a lawyer to apply for an intent-to-use trademark for "Sqrat" and recruiting her friend Peter Levine to create concept art for it on a banner.

[8] Her project at first attracted interest from other people according to 2003 court documents, as the film producer Lou DiBella and the TV director Michael A. Simon commissioned a pilot script by Norah Lally for an animated series about Sqrat, who was potentially to be voiced by the American musician Tommy Lee.

Afterward, Supersonic discussed an animated web series for Sqrat for the internet company Urban Box Office Network but rejected their $50,000 offer because she felt that her concept was worth "7 figures".

Referring to her directing role in the 2011 television special Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas, she also mentioned that Scrat "is the greatest and most fun character to work with" because of his flexible and comedic romance-like relationship with his nut.

[1] The studio staff wanted Scrat to play an even larger role in the 2012 sequel Ice Age: Continental Drift by having him escalate events that affect the other major characters.

[3] Scrat is a major character in the Ice Age franchise since his debut in the 2002 film, relentlessly seeking to retrieve and/or bury his acorn only to be disrupted by external factors and/or personal errors.

His storylines in the theatrical films and spinoffs are largely independent of the main "herd" characters like Manny (a mammoth), Sid (a ground sloth), and Diego (Smilodon), although he at times has encountered them and has caused natural disasters that put them in danger.

[12][13] After narrowly escaping from the avalanches with his acorn, Scrat is accidentally trampled then carried away by multiple animals, indicating a shift in the film's focus towards different characters.

Nonetheless, Scrat has sporadically appeared in several scenes including with "The Herd" consisting of Manny, Sid, and Diego, being repeatedly thwarted in his efforts to retrieve or bury his acorn by external factors.

[13] Scrat is also an important character in Ice Age: Continental Drift as his chase of his acorn over the Earth's core causes the breakup of the landmass into different continents and formations of iconic monuments, becoming a catalyst for natural disasters that the Herd is forced to endure.

The fifth film Ice Age: Collision Course and the prequel short Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe involves him piloting a UFO spaceship and colliding with different objects in outer space, resulting in the formation of a modern solar system.

[23] Another reviewer for the 2006 film, Monterey County Weekly writer Scott Renshaw, wrote that Scrat stood out to him and other people as the "real star of the show", warming them up to the movie's beginning then eventually being a highly entertaining final act to them.

[24] The storyboard artist Francis Glebas also compared Scrat to Wile E. Coyote, considering both to be the "perfect cartoon character[s]" because of their linear storylines involving simple goals that end in disaster for both.

Diego's voice actor, Denis Leary, expressed praise for Scrat being the funniest part of the films and said that he was worthy of his own TV show or movie series.

[11] Kathryn M. Ciechanowski, writing for the journal The Reading Teacher, attributed the effective comedy of Scrat to him being a tiny creature who caused an event as massive as the beginning of an ice age and his visible anthropomorphic emotions such as fear.

Ben McLeay of Pedestrian recognized him as the "beating heart of the Ice Age franchise" and said that the first thirty seconds of his onscreen appearance in the first film alone made it easy to understand the premise of Scrat's craving of acorns and external factors preventing him from achieving his goals.

[27] Anna Menta of Decider described Scrat as being the "absolutely the best part" of Ice Age and the "true hero" of the film, starting from its introduction scene that made him relatable to her.

[28] Similarly, Parth Thaker and his fellow co-authors for Journal of Science & Popular Culture saw Scrat's irrational behaviors plus accidental individual ability to engineer his surroundings as being sources of humor to audiences that also highlight the impact of human destruction on their environments.

Scrat's actions in the second film, they said, was one instance of the theme of global warming being highlighted (the others being a Palaeotherium couple arguing about the weather and an armadillo trying to profit from climate change).

Hence as part of the Hobbesian philosophical model in which humans naturally fight each other for their own interests, Scrat as a result ends up in battles with other characters such as Sid for his acorn due to his primal sense of competition for resources.

As a result, he expressed concern that the upcoming film Ice Age 6 was going to nullify the personal closure that the studio's animators created for Scrat and suggested that another character replace him instead.