No Time for Nuts

No Time for Nuts
Promotional poster
Directed by	Chris Renaud Mike Thurmeier
Produced by	John C. Donkin Lori Forte Chris Meledandri
Written by	Chris Renaud
Starring	Chris Wedge as Scrat
Music by	Christopher Ward
Studio	Blue Sky Studios
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	November 21, 2006 (2006-11-21)
Running time	7 min
Language	English

No Time for Nuts is a computer animated short film from Blue Sky Studios (20th Century Fox Animation), starring Scrat of Ice Age fame, premiering on the DVD release of Ice Age: The Meltdown, much in the same vein as Gone Nutty on the previous movie's DVD release. It was also included in the Animation Show of Shows in 2006.

Synopsis

Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel (a fictional animal from the Ice Age film series), while trying to find a place to hide his acorn, finds a buried time machine next to the ice-encased skeletal body of a human time traveler. He accidentally activates the machine, sending the acorn away. Scrat gets mad and tries to beat up the time machine and it sends him to the Middle Ages. Finding the acorn wedged under a rock, Scrat sees the Sword in the Stone and decides to use it as a lever to move the rock. He pulls out the sword but then finds himself under attack by a group of unseen archers, and uses the sword to block the arrows fired by the archers. He frees the acorn and takes it and the time machine and races off to find cover, only to hide in the barrel of a cannon. The cannon fires him into the path of hundreds of incoming arrows. The time machine teleports the acorn mid-flight and Scrat just barely manages to activate the machine again for himself.

He materializes in an arena in Ancient Rome. Scrat reaches for his acorn, but is dragged off when his tail is caught on a passing chariot pulled by a horse. Scrat manages to free himself just as a fanfare sounds. He thinks it is victory music introduces himself to the crowd like a triumphant gladiator, proudly holding up his acorn. Then he hears the growl of a lion coming from the tunnel behind him. He activates the time machine again, and lands on a field of ice. He is overjoyed, thinking he is home, but he soon learns he's really in 1912 when he sees the RMS Titanic heading straight towards him. The time machine is activated after impact, and Scrat finds himself in the first Ice Age movie, where he encounters himself and fights himself for his acorn. (Manny, Sid, Diego, and Roshan made a cameo watching the fight.) The acorn is teleported again, much to the distress of both Scrats.

The time traveling Scrat is sent to many dangerous situations where he would have been killed if he had not activated the time machine in time; firstly to the bottom of a launching rocket, Scrat desperately activates the time machine again, and is sent to a jewelery store, and is caught in red laser, and then he is sent to a girl's locker room where he is hit by a roller brush, and then he sent to the French Revolution where he appears under the falling blade of a guillotine, during Benjamin Franklin's famous kite flying experiment, in front of a wrecking ball, in front of Hiroshima, on the tracks in front of a speeding train, and in front of Michelangelo's David (this actually isn't a dangerous situation, but Scrat displays discomfort.). Frustrated, Scrat punches the machine, which sends him into a strange realm of floating timepieces. Scrat spots his acorn and grabs it, just before being drawn into a wormhole along with his acorn and the time machine.

The wormhole lands Scrat in front of an enormous oak tree. Overjoyed at the sight of so many acorns, he tosses away his time traveling acorn, which lands on and activates the time machine. Before it can fire again, Scrat smashes the time machine. Scrat attempts to remove the nuts from the tree, but soon discovers that it is only a sculpture, with a plaque on it reading "Here Stood the Last Oak Tree." Scrat realizes he's in the far future, where oak trees (and acorns) are extinct. He realizes that the acorn he brought with him is the only one real one around. He makes a dash for it, but the time machine manages to fire one last time, transporting the acorn right out of his paws right before the time machine collapsed into pieces. Stranded in the acorn-less future, Scrat lets out a scream of frustration, ending the film.

Then the lost acorn ends up floating behind the credits of the film.

Awards

Won

• 2006 - Annie Award - Best Animated Short Subject

Nominated

• 2007 - Academy Award - Best Animated Short Film

External links

• No Time for Nuts Official Blue Sky Studios Website
• Co-director Chris Renaud on No Time for Nuts Animated News & Views interview
• No Time for Nuts at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• No Time for Nuts at the Internet Movie Database