The Real Reason Scrat Wasn't In The Ice Age Adventures Of Buck Wild

Scrat is an anxiety-ridden prehistoric rodent who communicates exclusively in high-pitched yelps and screams. He appears in all five of the previous films, often following his own B story alongside the main plot as he tries (and fails) to find acorns. Though he serves mainly as comic relief, Scrat is an absolutely essential part of the series — so why is he not in the newest film?

His absence has to do with the long-running dispute over who actually created Scrat. Ivy Silberstein (a cartoonist and fashion designer based in New York) claimed to have created "a squirrel-rat hybrid animal" back in 1999. According to Silberstein, Fox took notice of the character and repurposed it for use in the upcoming animated film "Ice Age" (via Disney Fanatic). Silberstein spent 18 years battling for the trademark in court and went to various news outlets to try to get the story out about who really created the character. She didn't have any success until 2019, when the Fox-Disney Corporation officially agreed to settle the case.

Silberstein finally received her trademark on July 7, 2020, and on January 28, 2022 (the day the new "Ice Age" film was released), she tweeted a photo holding the trademark with the caption "No #Scrat in #Disney #IceAge 6." Silberstein won her 20-year battle for Scrat to be removed from "Ice Age," resulting in his very notable absence in "The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild."