Manny

Maciege (also known as "Maciege") is a male bull woolly mammoth, who appears in all five Ice Age films and is the protagonist. He is voiced by Ray Romano.

History and background[]

Main article: Manny's family

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".

During the scene with the cave paintings in Ice Age, we learn that Manny's first mate and son were killed by a clan of Neanderthals out hunting. It is apparent that this is the reason he does not like socializing 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.

Character and personality[]

Personality[]

In the first movie, Manny was a grouchy, antisocial mammoth with a firm belief in staying loyal to others, and was easily annoyed, mostly at Sid's idiosyncrasies. But as the film went by, he revealed himself to be a good person who had just lost his way after the loss of his family. And his new friends, Sid and Diego, helped him develop into a more social and nicer guy.

In the second film, Manny has developed into a "leader" sort of character, but in denial that mammoths could go extinct, due them being the biggest things on earth. He was also reluctant to try to make a relationship with a female mammoth he met named Ellie due to lingering feelings for his family. It was made even harder due to the fact Ellie thought she was a possum like her adoptive brothers, Crash & Eddie, and because they were apprently the last of their kind t was their "duty" to procreate and continue their species. But after much soul-searching, Manny and Ellie finally found their feelings for each other and became mates, even after they were revealed to not be the last of their kind. He also stated he likes Diego better than Sid. In the third film, Ellie is pregnant with Manny's child, causing him to become over-protective of her, and to get a little overly dramatic over even little details, likely from how he lost his first mate and child and didn't want to go through that again. Manny focused all his attention on Ellie that he disregarded Sid most of the time, and wasn't able to see eye-to-eye with Diego's notion of leaving the herd. When Sid was captured by Momma Dinosaur, Manny, Ellie, and Crash & Eddie went to rescue him, although Manny tried to get Ellie to stay home. He then said they needed a codeword for Ellie to say "the baby's coming", which he chose to be "peaches" because he likes peaches. Upon meeting the wacky weasel, Buck, he became more concerned with Ellie, but still willing to save Sid. When Ellie went into labor, he got frantic but was backed up by Diego, who ran to protect Ellie while Manny fended off a pack of predators. Ellie woud soon give birth to their baby daughter. Manny wanted to name her after her mother, but Ellie suggested using the codeword Peaches instead, and they agreed. He became a loving father, a loyal mate, a good friend, and a worthy leader.

Manny's friendship with Sid the Sloth "began" when he saved him from a pair of rhinos, after which Sid stuck with Manny for protection and annoyed him with his endless jabbering and stupidity. But as time went by, he became somewhat protective of Sid, mostly because he thinks that whatever Sid's gonna do he's gonna wind up hurting himself. But they became true friends, enough to risk their lives for the other. Manny met Diego under very different circumstances than he had with Sid. At first, they seemed to keep their relationship professional. But they soon found they had more in common, especially in how they were annoyed with Sid's antics. This would further to the point where Manny risked his life to save Diego, after which he said, "That's what you do in a herd, you look out for each other."

When Diego admitted to setting them up, Manny threatened to kill him, but gave Diego a second chance, and Diego returned the debt he owed to Manny by saving him from a fatal attack from Soto, although was seriously injured. Manny stated he didn't have to, to which Diego replies with the same words Manny said to him before; That's what you do in a herd. He was glad to see Diego all right at the end of the film and offered him a ride due to Diego's injury, but was turned down.

In the next film, Manny would meet another mammoth after he began to think he was the last of his kind. This mammoth would be a female named Ellie, but was under the impression that she was a possum, who was rather silly. He was reluctant to enter a relationship with her, asking Sid, "You think she's the girl for me?" Sid answered by saying, "Oh yeah, she's tons of fun, and you're no fun at all. She completes you." Manny eventually got through to Ellie in telling her she was a mammoth, and then nervously tried to explain how to save their species, which she took very offensively. But they managed to work it out and eventually became a couple. Manny's relationship to Ellie's adoptive brothers, Crash & Eddie, is weird. They act like they're better than him, have talked him into doing silly and/or stupid things. But they eventually became friends.

In the next film, when Manny is now an overprotective mate to Ellie, who is expecting, they meet a wild and crazy weasel named Buck, whom Manny regarded initially as a crazy hermit. But soon came to respect him, like him, and was kind enough to invite him to be a part of their herd. Finally, Manny was granted a second chance at being a father by the birth of his and Ellie's baby daughter. Manny suggested naming her after her mother, but Ellie changed his mind by suggesting the baby's name to be Peaches.

Attitude to relationships[]

Manfred 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". Since his partner was killed it is likely that he believes he should never have another partner, i.e. stay loyal. This led to great inward conflict for him due to his feelings for Ellie in Ice Age 2, with his friends advising him to move on with his life. This is actually in stark contrast to how modern elephants behave, as elephant bulls are promiscuous and play no part in parenting. It seems likely that mammoths behaved similaly.

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 all three 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 fur. 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."

Ice Age - 3: Buck first states, as Diego and Manny are supposedly "being eaten" by live floral, "They'll be nothing but bones in three minutes. Well, maybe five for the fat one," he adds, referring to Manny. Manny shouts from inside the plant, "I'm not fat!"

Role in the Movies[]

Ice Age[]

In the first film, Manny 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. Manny soon meets Sid the Megatherium, whom he saves from a pair of irate brontotheres, and ends up with Sid constantly at his side, bothering Manny with his incessant talking and presence alone.

In time, Manny and Sid discover a female Cro-Magnon named Nadia, who is clinging to a log at a riverbank, and entrusts them with her infant son, Roshan, before drowning,unseen. While at first, Manny appears shocked, he soon leaves the baby there on the riverbank, with Sid telling him that they must return him. Manny sourly tells Sid that he must return the baby alone, for he wants nothing to do with it. Sid reluctantly accepts, but with Manny keeping a close eye, Sid nearly drops Roshan. Manny 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 Manny that Roshan must be entrusted to him. However Manny does not trust Diego, and tells him that because he thinks that he can track better than either Manny 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, Manny, Sid, and Diego spot a melon, which is taken posthaste by a dodo named Dab. Manny 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. Manny 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 mate and child were killed by humans and, while Manny 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. Manny, 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. Manny is at first suspected of trying to kill Roshan's father, but rather proves his benevolence by returning Roshan to his father.

As Manny 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: The Meltdown[]

File:Mannyelliemeet.jpg

Manny and Ellie meet.

By the second film, Manfred is acclimated to being a "herd" with Sid and Diego, and helps Sid with his goal of opening a 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, two monstrous sea reptiles and the last of the dinosaurs (which are the only creatures larger than Mammoths) who were frozen in the ice, and Manfred wards them off by flinging Cretaceous high into the air (hoping to impress his herd or more specifically, Ellie) and back into the water. Ellie does not seem impressed and says that bravery was dumb and maybe mammoths were going extinct because they put themselves in danger too much.

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, and is attacked by Cretaceous and Maelstrom again and dragged under the water. However, he manages to fight the two reptiles off, but they press their attack. Thinking quickly, Manfred baits them into ramming into a log he had wedged into the cave where Ellie was trapped, freeing Ellie and also apparently crushing them to death under a rock.

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 he truly is madly in love with Ellie, and so remains with his herd, taking Ellie, her brothers, as well as Sid and Diego along as they all head to some new home.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs[]

File:MannyDiego.png

Diego stays in the herd, contrary to what he said at the beginning of the film

In Ice Age 3, Manny and Ellie are waiting for their first baby, which makes Manny to become over protective with her.

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Quotes[]

(To Sid) "You're an embarrassment to Nature, do you know that?"

"Please tell me that's not our idiot..."

"We should all have our heads examined..."
(To Sid) "One day, you'll meet a nice girl with low standards, no real options or.. erm... sense of smell..."

(To Sid) "Whattya want, a birth certificate?! She's a dinosaur!!!"

(To Crash & Eddie) "After we save Sid I'm gonna kill him."

"I'm the biggest thing on earth!"

(While affected by the fumes in the Chasm of Death) "'What's Rule #1?!'"

Trivia[]

James Earl Jones, Ving Rhames, Johnny Depp, Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Kline, Robert De Niro, Albert Brooks, Nicolas Cage, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Costner, Keith David, Bruce Willis, Jeff Bridges, Jim Belushi, Michael Keaton & Val Kilmer were all considered for the role of Manfred before Ray Romano was cast.