No Time for Nuts (2006) Online

I love time-travel stories and this was wildest I've ever seen. The only problem was that it was only a seven-minute cartoon. Man, this was so good and so much fun, I'd love to see a feature-length film done by the guys who make this fabulous "Scrat" cartoons. These additions to the "Ice Age" feature movies are just terrific.

Here, Scrat the squirrel discovers a time machine buried in the ice near where he lives. He discovers that by hitting the machine in one spot, he instantly (and his favorite acorn) travels to a new time and era.

The story accelerates as it goes on, with Scrat getting into one disastrous situation after another quickly hitting the machine to get away. It's amazing how many places he travels in such a short cartoon but all of them are not only funny but beautifully drawn. As with Ice Age, the animation is absolutely spectacular.

I think there are just two "Scrat" cartoons, one accompanying the DVD of each Ice Age film, but I could watch hundreds of these. They are so well done, it's hard to describe. I agree with those who say this should have won an Oscar. I saw the winning one and this is superior, entertainment-wise.

Just like the other short, but with a twist to it.

Scrat was wandering around the snow to find something glowing in the snow. Which is a machine of some sort. He has no idea what it was an presumed that it was an acorn. But after tampering with it, he made his acorn disappear within thin air, as well as him. And before he knew it he's traveling through time. And time travel can be dangerous and rough for a squirrel like Scrat.

This short contains some great visuals and plenty of humor to give you at least a chuckle. It still has THE Chris Wedge as the voice of Scrat. And it still proves that acorns always put him in the heap of trouble.

Another guaranteed short for all the Scrat/Ice Age/Blue Sky Fans. Found exclusively on the second Ice Age movie DVD.

Another uproarious Scrat adventure! In this short Scrat, busy as usual hunting down his acorn, discovers a time machine along with the frozen remains of an unfortunate mad scientist. When the device zaps away his treasured nut, Scrat is off on a hilarious, preposterous pursuit across time and space - only to end up trapped in a future world without oak trees! This short, like the previous one, has excellent timing, great voice work from Chris Wedge, flawless animation, and as always slide-splitting humor. The only problem is the rather predictable plot, but that's easily excusable for the impeccable comedy! The most convenient place to find this little jewel is on the "Meltdown" DVD, but you can more than likely find it online as well. All in all, Scrat's gotten away with another real gut-buster, far more clever than anything to be found in the Ice Age films themselves.

In 2004, Fox Studio's little film GONE NUTTY was released in the theaters with the film ICE AGE. GONE NUTTY was a cute little film starring that little mouse-like creature as he tries to fetch an acorn and it was highly original--hence an Oscar Nomination for Best Animated Short. Now, two years later, another installment of the short film was released in conjunction with ICE AGE II and once again, the short film is quite cute and funny---however, it's not exactly original--being in many ways just a continuation of GONE NUTTY. In light of this, I am very surprised that it also received an Oscar nomination--especially when Pixar's nominated film for the 2007 Oscars was so much more original (it, too, did not win--this honor went to a rather flat Norwegian film THE DANISH POET).

So if you watch it, be prepared for more of the same--more laughs, more action, more excellent CG animation and more of the same plot. Very good but also not exactly new.

This Oscar-nominated short film stars Scrat once again, the speechless creature we originally met in 'Ice Age'. Since then he appeared in the brilliant animated short 'Gone Nutty' and was responsible for a lot of laughs in 'Ice Age: The Meltdown'. Here he finds a time machine which puts him in another setting, a lot actually, which is refreshing and a problem at the same time.

After having seen him in three different things basically repeating the same joke the new settings give the creators a lot of possibilities. With the time machine Scrat goes back to ancient times, but also to the far future, all good for at least a smile. But we used to laugh about Scrat and his pursuit of happiness, in his case a nut to eat. Now we laugh less about him and more about the gags created with both the time travel and the new times Scart finds himself in.

Still, 'No Time for Nuts' makes us laugh enough about Scrat himself and with a slightly different approach this is another entertaining thing with his presence.

This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short, losing to The Danish Poet. There will be spoilers ahead:

This short is visually rather nice and there are a few funny gags. A lot of its potential is blunted, however, toward the middle, when some of the jumps are really too short to be more than a blur. It's probably a good idea to watch this more than once in order to catch some of the gags.

Scrat is carrying a nut when he sees a glow, digs and comes up with a gadget. Look very closely in here for a very quick, throwaway sight gag which explains the presence of the device instantly with a rather sick (and funny) joke.

Never having learned the truism, "If you don't know what it is, leave it alone", Scrat starts messing with it, it flashes and his nut disappears. Scrat freaks, attacks the device and off we go. It's a time machine.

The first for jumps are a bit longer and more satisfying bits. They'll all be recognizable bits, all well developed and most enjoyable. I won't spoil them here. The short gets a bit frenetic here, with the jumps short and almost too chaotic to really take in easily. There's a nice bit dealing with time itself, which has its painful side for Scrat.

The last bit has Scrat creating his own problems and the ending is perfect, with several mood shifts in the last few seconds.

This short is available as an extra on various releases of Ice Age: The Meltdown and is well worth seeing. Most recommended.

This is a an animated short film from almost 10 years ago and it runs for 7 minutes, unusually long compared to the other Scrat short movies. Here he has trouble with a time machine that keeps teleporting him and his beloved acorn to different periods throughout the centuries. So he pulls the famous sword out of the stone, but also collides with the Titanic. And there is a scene where he sees the main characters from the "Ice Age" films (pretty uninspired how they were standing there looking) including his own self. Well... I watched almost all the Scrat short films and I cannot say I was impressed by a single one of these. This one here is certainly not the worst, but it's not particularly good either. I would not say that it deserved the Academy Award nomination, but at least it did not win like the equally mediocre Danish entry. I was really hoping for "The Litte Match Girl" back then. Anyway, I do not recommend "No Time for Nuts". Director and writer Chris Renaud really improved afterward with the "Despicable Me"-movies.

This short is about Scrat desperately clinging onto his nut through time travel.

I am not a fan of "Ice Age", but I find "No Time for Nuts" very likable. Scrat is cute and adorable. The way he clings onto his nut just like a piece of priceless jewel is hilarious. His reactions are over the top and fun, making the short very entertaining. The pace is quick, packed with humour and action. The creative scenarios created by the time machine provide different backgrounds to his adventures; everyone of them is fun. The filmmakers must have spent a long time thinking what scenarios they could have incorporated into the short!

The makers of Ice Age seem to understand well the likability of the character of Scrat, which is why they made this short, presumably as a bonus short on the Ice Age: Meltdown DVD and as an Academy Award nominated work unto itself. In making this short, Fox Animation is taking a page from Pixar and including separate entertaining works for moviegoers in addition to the feature, which is a method I stand behind because I really enjoy short films and I really want there to be a wider recognized market for them.

That said, Scrat's slapstick-style existence doesn't really get much more here than he had before. It would seem that a time-traveling Scrat would provide a lot of opportunities for some interesting situations, which I guess they do, but they're more surprising in how reserved and predictable they are than the wide range of other situations he could have gotten in. I guess it was a funny short, but it often seemed to miss some grand opportunities while searching for more obvious visual gags.

I think the best part of this short entirely is Scrat's sudden acquaintance with himself. I think that one part entirely redeems this short, because it's not only really funny but has reactions that fit perfectly with Scrat's character... and what he'd think of himself. Being that Scrat never has any dialog, the mirror-like movements and the animation of his facial reactions are spot-on in interpreting both the hilarity and confusion of an already spastic character.

--PolarisDiB