Chris Wedge is the director of "Ice Age" and an Oscar-winner for his animated short, "Bunny". He founded Blue Sky Studios, the animation company behind "Ice Age".
What are the origins of this movie?
I could say it began 20,000 years ago, but it was really about three years in production. We worked very quickly and I think in doing that there is a lot of spontaneity in the movie that might not have been there otherwise. And there are some mistakes we've just had to live with.
You've been dubbed the East Coast John Lasseter (head of Pixar). Is there competition between your companies?
There's nothing any of us can really do to each other. The only competition there would be is if we and the another animation studio were both making an "Ice Age" movie, at the same time, and it was a case of who is going to get it finished first and which one is everybody going to like the most? But you know, people go to the movies more than twice in a season and kids love to watch things over and over again, so really, the competition is more for who can come up with the best idea.
The movie's smallest star, a squirrel-like creature called Scrat, has become a massive Internet star, thanks to the teaser trailer. Are you aware of his fame?
It's hard to see from my perspective because we just came up with something that we thought was funny. Scrat's an energy you've seen before in movies, but maybe it's just fresh now because we haven't seen it for a while. But he's going to be scratching some autographs at some point, so look out for him.
