Ice Age is definitely one of my favorite animated movies.  And one thing that sets it apart from the other animated films out there, is that it has a character that scene shifts in and out of the movie.

That character even has its own short films.  The first being “Gone Nutty,” where he is surrounded by a myriad of acorns he has collected up to when he accidentally rams the last one in the middle of it all and caused a continental drift.  The second installment called “No Time for Nuts,” finds him still searching for his acorn, but this time also finds a time machine that transports him to different historical events.

Not many people actually know that the name of the character is Scrat.  A pesky saber-toothed squirrel in search of the acorn he will forever have for himself.  In the second short film, while trying to bury his acorn in the Ice Age, Scrat uncovers a frozen time machine. Accidentally activating the machine, he goes on a hilarious adventure chasing his precious acorn through time.

This short film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject, unfortunately it didn’t win.  But for a 7 minute plus short, it had had great visual effects in terms of where Scrat ended up and how he kept shifting from era to era.  The gags were very clever and funny and Scrat’s character looks as polished as ever.  If you want to take a look at a clip of the short, click HERE.  For the complete short, it is available in the Ice Age: the Meltdown DVD