Manny (Ice Age)

Manfred a.k.a. ""Manny" is a fictional bull wooly mammoth, who appears in the 2002 film "Ice Age" and its 2006 film sequel, "". He is voiced by actor Ray Romano.

Character and personality

Ice Age

At the start of "Ice Age", Manny is portrayed as an antisocial and inward-looking character who cares for no one but himself. However, throughout the course of the movie it is shown that he is a compassionate character who has just been through a lot of trauma and despair, and is in fact a very caring mammoth, though a little bull-headed.

Ice Age 2; The Meltdown

Once again, Manny's character is developed throughout the film. At the start he is again portrayed as pessimistic and antisocial, although he does have friends. By the end he has become much more light-hearted and fun, especially after meeting Ellie.

Attitude to relationships

Manny has a firm belief that an animal should only have a relationship with one other animal for as long as they are alive together. "If you find a mate in life, you should be loyal". [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268380/quotes IMDB] ] Since his partner was killed it is likely that he believes he should never have another partner, i.e. stay loyal. However, whether he revises his beliefs or is just has a strong friendship with Ellie, this idea is not retained in Ice Age 2.

History and background

In "Ice Age", there is a flash back which shows Manny's partner and child being killed by some humans out hunting. It is apparent that this is the reason he does not like socialising with any other animals - he is afraid that if he ever cared for someone again, there is the chance he will lose them. This has also lead to a dislike for creatures that kill for reasons other than food.

Physical appearance

Manfred, better known as "Manny", is a large 10 ton bull woolly mammoth. He has brown eyes and brown fur with dark highlights on his head and along his mane, he sports a large pair of tusks and a trunk. In both movies so far, whenever someone has described Manny as being "fat", he objects, stating that his fur simply makes him "look big" because it's "poofy".

Ice Age - 1: "I'm not fat. It's all this hair. It makes me look... poofy."

Ice Age - 2: "I'm not fat. It's this fur. It makes me look big. It's... poofy."Ellie whispers to Crash, though, "He's fat."

Role in the Movies

Manfred is a woolly mammoth shown as one of the main characters in both the first and second Ice Age films. While his true name is "Manfred", many other characters throughout the films refer to him as simply "Manny".

"Ice Age"

In the first film, Manfred is shown going the opposite way of the crowds of animals as they all head south to escape the ice age. Manfred does not care that they are leaving and curtly insists that he is glad that they are leaving. Manfred soon meets Sid the ground sloth, whom he saves from a pair of irate brontotheres, and ends up with Sid constantly at his side, bothering Manfred with his incessant talking and presence alone.

In time, Manfred and Sid discover a human mother by the name of Nadia, who is clinging to a log at a riverbank, and entrusts them with her infant son, Roshan, before drowning,unseen. While at first, Manfred appears shocked, he soon leaves the baby there on the riverbank, with Sid telling him that they must return him. Manfred sourly tells Sid that he must return the baby alone, for he wants nothing to do with it. Sid reluctantly accepts, but with Manfred keeping a close eye, Sid nearly drops Roshan. Manfred is ready to catch the baby, taking it away from a devious Diego first, and then tells Sid that the very instant that they return the baby to his family, Sid and he must go their separate ways. Manfred and Sid make it to the human camp only to find it deserted, when Diego appears, informing Manfred that Roshan must be entrusted to him. However Manfred does not trust Diego, and tells him that because he thinks that he can track better than either Manfred or Sid, that he must accompany them in tracking the humans.

It is not long before the three of the mammals begin quarreling (due in most part, to Sid) when Roshan begins crying, and Sid soon suggests that Roshan must be hungry. At that moment, Manfred, Sid, and Diego spot a melon, which is taken posthaste by a dodo named Dab. Manfred and the others follow Dab to a flock of half-wit dodos that are trying to prepare themselves for the oncoming ice age and soon take part in a skirmish against the dodos, winning the melon back in the process. Manfred and the others keep traveling on when they find an ice cave, which eventually leads to a cave with paintings of all kinds of animals. One painting shows the true reasons behind Manfred's irate persona: his wife and child of many years ago were killed by humans and, while Manfred tried his best to defend them, he could do nothing to stop the marauding humans.

Soon however, Manfred, Sid, and Diego become closer as friends and are soon on their way to returning the baby to his family, when Diego confesses that he was conspiring to kill him along with Sid and the baby. Manfred nearly kills Diego in his rage at this news, but spares him when Diego informs him that he can help them escape. Diego comes up with a plan for he, Manfred and Sid to fight back against the other saber-toothed cats, which ends up with Diego being seriously wounded. Manfred, Sid, and Roshan assume that he is dead and disconsolately leave him there soon so that they may move on and find Roshan's father. Manfred is at first suspected of trying to kill Roshan's father, but rather proves his benevolence by returning Roshan to his father.

As Manfred and Sid leave the father and son to be reunited, they too, are reunited with their old friend, Diego who is shown stumbling behind them. They are overjoyed (namely Sid) and the three friends leave the frozen lands to head down south together(but Sid annoys them again).

"Ice Age 2; The Meltdown"

By the second film, Manfred is acclimated to being a "herd" with Sid and Diego, and helps Sid with his goal of opening a day camp for smaller animals by telling them a story. With some of the young animals asking him questions and making comments on his stories, one eventually strikes a nerve: a small bird makes the question of where Manfred's family is. This being a serious question to Manfred, he gives no answer, and proceeds on to discredit a conniving Fast Tony, when he sees that Fast Tony is telling other animals lies about the earth coming to its end. With this train of thought, one aardvark among the crowds soon asks Manfred when the last time was that he had seen another mammoth. Manfred curtly replies that mammoths cannot go extinct, being the largest animals on Earth.

Eventually though, he and Diego meet up with Sid, who is trying a daredevil act of jumping off a massive ice water slide called "The Eviscerator", and they prevent the fool from jumping. However, they discover the horrible truth: the ice surrounding the valley where all other animals live is slowly melting and being held together only by a dam of ice. At first, no one believes him, but the masses are soon persuaded otherwise by the Lone Gunslinger.

Manfred gets the masses of animals moving along towards the end of the valley, where a massive fallen tree exists and can act as a boat to help everyone escape. As he and the others keep moving forward, he apparently notices something in a huge block of Ice but dismisses it as nothing, this turns out to be a grave mistake as two monstrous creatures within it begin to stir back to life, during the journey Sid keeps joking about how he is the last mammoth. Manfred is soon beginning to be convinced that he truly is the last of the mammoths, when he meets another: a female mammoth, (also known as a "She-Mammoth/Shemmoth"), named Ellie. Manfred at first is overjoyed that he has found another mammoth, but is soon dismayed to see that she believes that she is an opossum. Sid, however, sees this as the ideal chance to set Manfred up with Ellie, as they are the last two mammoths to be seen. Manfred is hesitant to go along with Sid's idea, but at least goes along with the idea of having Ellie and her brothers travel alongside them.

Manfred and the others eventually reach a great frozen lake, where they encounter Cretaceous and Maelstrom, the two monstrous sea reptiles and the last of the dinosaurs (which are the only creatures larger than Mammoths), and Manfred wards them off by flinging Cretaceous high into the air (hoping to impress his herd or more specically, Ellie) and back into the water.

In time, Manny and Ellie become closer, until the moment that Manfred suggests mating in order to save the mammoth species, but Ellie hesitates angrily. Manfred did not imply it to be so rude, but Ellie hardly believes him, until the exact moment when she, her brothers, Sid, Diego, and Manfred are all in peril of falling down into a deep canyon.

Soon, Ellie and Manfred are much closer than before, and Manfred realizes that he and the others must cross a field of geysers in order to reach the "boat", but Ellie hastily insists that she and her brothers must not cross, or they'll be blown to bits. In time, Manfred, Sid, and Diego all cross the geysers, but cannot find Ellie on board the "boat", and as he looks for her, he soon finds Crash and Eddie telling him that Ellie is trapped in a cave. Manfred rushes to her rescue, almost getting killed by Cretaceous and Maelstrom in the process, but letting loose a great rock on them in the process.

Manfred rescues Ellie from the cave and soon the two are reunited with their friends. However, the flooding waters seem to get the better of them, and almost drown them, but thanks to Scrat's unknowing actions, the flood was diverted. As Manfred and Ellie regroup with Sid, Diego, Crash and Eddie, a herd of mammoths appears, and thus eliminates the need for Manfred and Ellie to be together. But Manfred decides that he truly lives in his herd, and so remains with it, taking Ellie, her brothers, as well as Sid and Diego along as they all head to some new home.

Friends

Ice Age

*Sid
*Diego
*Scrat
*Roshan (aka "Pinky", "Lumpy" and "Junior"), the human baby

Ice Age: The Meltdown

*Ellie
*Crash
*Eddie

ee also

List of characters in the Ice Age films

References