r/IceAge_Franchise

In the original script for Ice Age (2002), Scrat wasn’t going to be in the movie at all but instead the movie was going to start on a downer beginning focusing on Manny and his woolly mammoth wife and calf who both had names and a voice actress and voice actor as a woman and child at the time happily migrating south together, talking about the good times they will have while there, when suddenly a tribe of humans (Different from Roshan, Runar, Nadia and their tribe.) ambushed and chased the woolly mammoth family and Manny tried to draw his mate and calf away from the humans and have them hunt him instead sacrificing himself to save them but to no avail, and the humans slaughter his mate and child and Manny does nothing but watch in horror and shout, “Noooo!” as this happens before he reawakens in the morning revealing that it was a nightmare experienced by him while sleeping at night, but it was all real and a painful flashback of what had happened three days prior, and Manny sighs sadly and then proceeds to unlike the other animals who were heading south, walked the other way north to freeze to death seeing no other point in living after losing his family as suicide, and then the title card happens and the main plot of the movie begins after we cut to Sid.

Four reasons why the scene was cut:

1. Many writers thought that the scene would have been too scary and heartbreaking for younger audiences despite the deaths of Manny’s mate and child happening entirely offscreen just as Nadia and Soto’s deaths would later on.

2. They also thought that it wasn’t original or engaging enough, in that it would make it so the snow and ice sequences would appear in the movie until its first twenty minutes, and many fans had paid to see a movie about snow and ice, so they replaced it with the scene with Scrat trying to bury his acorn in the glacier in a more comedic scene to introduce the snow and ice to the movie. Scrat was originally only going to appear at the very beginning of the movie, but test audiences loved the character so much that they added him as a comedic plot-irrelevant character for the rest of the movie and in the sequels despite him causing the conflicts for the second, fifth and fourth movies accidentally.

3. The writers also thought that it introduced the reason for Manny’s flawed character before he undergoes his character arc too early into the movie, and they decided instead to make Manny a “What is wrong with his guy?” character in terms of making him a grouchy and cynical loner who rejects friendship from Sid and Diego and only agrees to help Roshan out of obligation, before we finally find out the motive for his flawed character when we see the safety first cave painting flashbacks for how he lost his mate and child which would have been more too depressing to show in actual computer animation in that it also would have allowed Diego and Sid to find it out themselves and have Sid see Manny in a different light and see Manny’s flawed character caused by grief, not selfishness, and for Manny to undergo his character development in terms of finally opening up to Roshan getting over his hatred towards humans costing him his family and deciding to go the rest of the way to reunite Roshan with Runar as Nadia asked of him and Sid to do before she died, and accepting friendship from Diego and Sid and apologized for mistreating them at first finally finding the isolation and suicide not as the solution to his grief and depression over his losses but rather accepting new friends into his life. It also caused Diego to realize that Soto’s obsession with having revenge on Runar for hunting the other members of his Pack by costing him his wife Nadia and son Roshan was not worth it anymore, as the humans had a Freudian excuse for doing so for having to hunt the skins and flesh from the Ice Age mammals for the meat and clothes needed to survive the winter, and if Manny could get over his losses, Soto can too, and this combined with the kindness he got from Manny for risking his life to save his caused Diego to renounce his villainy and reform and after failing to reason with Soto and the rest of his pack, he kills Soto and cuts ties with the rest of his pack nearly sacrificing himself to do so and afterwards Roshan is reunited with Runar by Manny and Sid and Diego joins Manny and Sid as his new friends.

4. The scene would have alongside the other original scenes for the first movie like Diego dying for real, and Nadia dying onscreen made the movie too depressing for audiences so they removed and changed it and had Diego survive after being wounded by Soto and rejoin Manny and Sid after they return Roshan to Runar to soften the movie’s bittersweet ending over Manny and Sid having to part ways with Roshan for good and Manny’s family and Roshan’s mother Nadia still being dead and Sid being unable to reconnect with his own, (As we saw in the fourth movie.) in terms of Diego still being by Manny and Sid’s sides. As well as for having Nadia die offscreen.

Although the scene was cut, it was later revised by Pixar for the downer beginnings for Finding Nemo (2003) and Up (2009) in terms of the main protagonist, Marlin and Carl Fredrickson losing their wives, Coral and Ellie and all of Marlin and Coral’s unborn children expect Nemo, (Marlin lost his family minus Nemo to a barracuda and Ellie died of her old age or a sickness before Carl could take her to Paradise Falls.) whicj would cause their flawed characters like Marlin’s overprotectiveness towards Nemo out of fear of losing him like how he lost his wife and other kids and dislike of his friends and family committing reckless choices like Coral did that caused the death of her and the other eggs and Carl’s grief and depression over never getting Ellie to paradise falls like he promised that Dory and Russel and Dug would help them resolve as the story progressed.

Speaking of, Ice Age (2002) also feels like a Pixar movie in that it has similarities to both Monsters’ Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) but also so to the DreamWorks Animation movie, Shrek (2001).

We need more stuff of the Dodos birds

Don't get me wrong, there are stakes like Earth drifting and Manny getting separated from Ellie and Peaches' teen angst.

Suspense moments like Pirates being led by psychopath ape that gives Proximus Ceaser feel like a chimp who just wants a banana from a horde of gorillas.

vivid coloful animation great for cinamatrography (unlike Minions or Despecable me 3-4 who went too much)

character dynamics and osticles in there own sub-plots like in Sing films/ Secret Life of Pets flicks

thoughts

https://preview.redd.it/08nrf278rn9h1.png?width=452&format=png&auto=webp&s=bbd8306b9d7d00c3f4df756be2ce99671f2566fa