''Gone Nutty'' (also known as ''Scrat's Missing Adventure'') is a 2002 American

computer-animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating animations. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both static scenes ( still images) and dynamic images (moving images), while computer animation refe ...

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

directed by

Carlos Saldanha Carlos Saldanha (; born 24 January 1965) is a Brazilian animator, director, producer, and voice actor of animated films who worked with Blue Sky Studios until its closure in 2021. He was the director of '' Ice Age: The Meltdown'' (2006), '' Ice ...

for

Blue Sky Studios Blue Sky Studios, Inc. was an American computer animation studio based in Greenwich, Connecticut. It was founded on February 22, 1987 by Chris Wedge, Michael Ferraro, Carl Ludwig, Alison Brown, David Brown, and Eugene Troubetzkoy after their e ...

. The short features the character

Scrat Scrat is a fictional character in the ''Ice Age'' franchise. He is a saber-toothed squirrel who is obsessed with collecting acorns, constantly putting his life in danger to obtain and defend them. Scrat's storylines are mostly independent of ...

from ''

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

'', who is yet again having troubles with collecting his beloved

acorn The acorn, or oaknut, is the nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'' and '' Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains one seed (occasionally two seeds), enclosed in a tough, leathery shell, and borne ...

s. It was released on November 26, 2002 on the ''Ice Age'' DVD and VHS. This film was later shown in theaters with '' Garfield: The Movie'' in 2004. The film was nominated for the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

Plot

Twenty thousand years later,

(

Chris Wedge John Christian Wedge (born March 20, 1957) is an American animator, designer, film director, voice actor, film producer, screenwriter, and cartoonist. He is known for directing the films ''Ice Age'' (2002), ''Robots'' (2005), '' Epic'' (2013), a ...

), after having found a new acorn, discovers a huge tree hollowed out and filled to the brim with acorns. There is one more empty spot in the middle of the acorns where Scrat tries to stuff the last acorn he brought with him (he first tries to put it in the same way he had done in the opening of the first film, but he seems to remember what would happen if he did, so he gently screws it in instead). However, it pops back out when his back is turned and after two more tries at getting it in place—both with the same result—Scrat gets frustrated and stomps it into place, unwittingly causing all the acorns to fall out of a hole in the tree. The

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

of acorns sends Scrat sliding down the side of a mountain. The acorns and Scrat then go into

free fall In Newtonian physics, free fall is any motion of a body where gravity is the only force acting upon it. In the context of general relativity, where gravitation is reduced to a space-time curvature, a body in free fall has no force acting on i ...

. A short musical scene follows (to the tune of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz) with Scrat collecting acorns as he falls. Eventually Scrat collects and forms a 3-D sphere with the acorns, but then (with Scrat on top of it) it tilts upside down so Scrat and the acorns finally land hard on the icy land down below. There is one lone acorn left in the atmosphere (presumably the one he was trying to stuff into the tree). Scrat, stuck in the snow, is only able to free his arms before the acorn impacts right between his eyes with the force of a

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

. The extreme force with which the acorn hits the ground results in a great big earthquake, shaping the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

's continents (probably

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...

) into their present-day form, taking all the other acorns with them and trapping Scrat on the original spot from the center of the impact. When Scrat digs out the acorn that hit him, he finds it has been charred and thus crumbled into ash. Disappointed and defeated, he turns to the camera, sighs and puts on the remaining acorn cap as a

beret A beret ( or ; ; eu, txapela, ) is a soft, round, flat-crowned cap, usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fibre. Mass production of berets began in 19th century France and Spain, and the beret remains ...

Voice cast

References

External links

* * * {{Blue Sky Studios Ice Age (franchise) films 2002 films 2002 computer-animated films American animated short films 20th Century Fox short films Computer-animated short films Blue Sky Studios short films 2000s American animated films Films directed by Carlos Saldanha 2002 short films Animated films without speech American comedy short films Animated films about squirrels