Manny (Ice Age)

""I'm not fat. It's all this fur. It makes me look...poofy.""

- Manny whenever someone calls him fat

"That's what you do in a herd: you look out for each other."

- Manny, after saving Diego from the lava

Manfred, better known as Manny, is one of the three main protagonists of the Ice Age Series. He is the main protagonist of the Ice Age, Ice Age: The Meltdown, Ice Age: Continental Drift and Ice Age: Collision Course, and the tritagonist of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. He is Ellie's love interest and later, her husband, Peaches' father, and Sid and Diego's best friend. In the first film, he befriends a ground sloth named Sid and a saber tooth tiger named Diego led him to rise above his pain. It's the same when he falls in love with Ellie and the two of them have a daughter, Peaches. Manny faces thugs and predators on his journey to becoming a noble hero and father.

He is voiced by Ray Romano.

Ice Age
Once a devoted father and husband, Manfred loved his wife and child dearly, protecting them well until a band of humans on the hunt came between them. Manny attempted to fend them off but was unsuccessful as his wife and child were killed. This left Manny embittered with the world at large, being cold and indifferent towards other creatures.

Manny, however, met a ground sloth named Sid one summer, who insisted on staying close to Manny as the mammoth had saved him from an attack brought on by two rhinos. Sid found a human baby named Roshan, who was separated from his tribe, and Manny, along with a saber-tooth tiger named Diego, helped him to return the baby to his tribe. Despite Diego's duplicity, Manny forgave him and formed a herd with both the saber and the sloth, heading south.

The Meltdown
By the second film, Manny and his herd made their home in a valleythat was surrounded by ice, which was due to flood as the immense amounts of surrounding ice were hastily melting with the spring. With this, Manny and his herd led the other herds of animals to safety, though throughout that time, Manny grew uneasy, thinking that he perhaps was the last mammoth alive. This changed when he met a female mammoth named Ellie, who believed she was a possum, along with her adoptive brothers Crash and Eddie. Manny led these three to safety as well, initially with the intent of choosing Ellie as a mate to spark the mammoth population.

Soon after, however, the flood ended and mammoths made their presence known as they marched through the valley. Regardless, Manny and Ellie stayed together, taking Sid, Diego, Crash and Eddie with them as part of their herd.

Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Some time later, Manny and Ellie were expecting a child of their own, and Manny grew uneasy with his status as a father. Manny grew protective of Ellie and was forced to deal with Sid's disappearance as he was abducted by a Tyrannosaurus named Momma, whose eggs Sid unknowingly abducted in the hopes of having his own family. Braving the perils of the underground dinosaur world where Sid was taken with the help of a weasel named Buck, Manny returned to the surface with his herd and his newborn daughter, a mammoth calf named Peaches.

Continental Drift
Years later, Manny grew more overprotective of his teenaged daughter : Peaches was growing up fast and he became more and more uneasy and overprotective with her social interactions with boys. It culminates when He embarrasses her infront of the all the teen mammoths. Fuming, Peaches stormed off. Manny followed, and an argument ensued, resulting in Peaches furiously disowning him. . At that point, the continent separated, sending Manny, Sid and Diego out to sea. Peaches was distraught over the loss of her father, and of the possibility that the last thing they did was fight.

The continental divides separated Manny from his family for a time, pushing him, Sid, Diego and Sid's irritable grandmother Granny out to sea on an ice floe. Manny, while at sea, encountered a group of animals that declared themselves pirates atop an iceberg ship: the pirate captain, an ape named Gutt who offered Manny and the herd to join the crew. Manny refused stating no one will stop me from getting back to his family. Gutt's calm demeanor quickly disappeared into a look of pure evil, stating to Manny that his family "will be the death of you." . The ape then tried to make them walk the plank, starting with Sid and Granny.

As the two were about to walk the plank, Manny, along with Diego, the saber, worked out how to escape their bonds and toppled the ship to the side, preventing the sloths from falling into the waters. Gutt noticed this and angrily leaped forward, pulling out his sawfish skull blade and engaging Manny in a duel, in which Manny fought using his tusks. Manny gained the upper hand and brought the mast that he was tied to crashing down on the ship's deck, splitting the iceberg in half during their escape, taking Shira  with him (who was abandoned by Gutt to drown).

After escaping Gutt and heading to Switchback Cove. Manny comes up with a plan to steal Gutt's replacement ship. With the help of some cute Hyraxes, Manny Sid and Diego eventually manage to steal Gutt's replacement ship. The furious ape then follows them in a new ship, vowing to destroy everything Manny holds dear.

Manny and the gang finally reach the continent, only to find that Gutt and his crew had beaten them there, having tied Ellie to a pillar and Gutt holding a dagger near Peaches' neck. Manny called out to Gutt that he would willingly turn himself in if Peaches was spared, which Gutt dismissed, but regardless allowed Manny to board the Sweet Revenge. Manny came aboard Gutt's ship to exchange himself for his daughter, but the Gutt went back on his word, stating that Manny took everything from him and the evil captain intended to do the same. Manny tried to charge at the evil captain but the crew quickly lassoed him.

Just as everything seemed hopeless, Louis then stood up to the big ape, demanding him to release Peaches. Amused, Gutt accepted Louis' challenge, telling Gupta to let the molehog have a weapon. After a few struggles, Louis managed to unearth the huge knife and fearlessly pointed the knife at Gutt. Louis then threw the weapon into the air, distracting everyone as he burrowed into the ice, popping up by Gutt and smashing a heavy piece of ice onto Gutt's foot. The pain distracted Gutt, enabling Peaches to escape as an all-out brawl between the Sub-Zero Heroes and the pirates ensued. Gutt has the herd cornered, but his pirates are defeated by Granny's pet whale Precious. Gutt is swift enough to dodge the blasts while Squint, Raz, Flynn, Dobson, Silas and Gupta are washed and knocked onto the side of their ship and into the sea,and the ape leaps away, now not caring for his crew. Gutt then headed to kill the bound Ellie. Peaches, using her "half-possum" skills, gave the evil ape a powerful kick, sending him to the ice wall, saving her mother just in time.

Manny rushed in to escape with his family, but was impeded by Gutt, who held him back: the two stopped in their tracks long enough to watch as massive chunks of the continent's cliffs came down hard and fast into the oceans, bringing chunks of land surging up from the waters, which split the Sweet Revenge into pieces and brought Manny and Gutt upwards, where they fought on, standing on a piece of the Sweet Revenge. As the ice chunk that they stood on slid down toward the sea, Gutt produced his sawfish skull blade and Gupta's tooth dagger, splitting the sword in half down the middle, and dueled with Manny, declaring that the oceans were his to control, and swung his sword at the mammoth, barley missing his eye. Manny, however, took the upper hand and blocked Gutt from attacking by standing on his arms: Gutt then clawed Manny's feet, broke loose and jumped up, swinging on a passing branch and over a land bridge brought up from sea. Gutt landed a kick to Manny's face and takes in with a heavy log to finish him off. Manny, however, tilted the slab of his to his side, launching Gutt into the air, where Manny struck him with another log, sending the evil ape flying far away into the distance.

A triumphant Manny then reunited with his wife and daughter. Manny soon after led the other herds of animals, who had been driven out of their homes by the continent divides, to a new home across the seas. Manny sailed the ship of the entire herd to Switchback Cove, where Sid happily hugged is Hyrax buddies.. To her delight, Peaches was encouraged by her father to explore and have fun. Ellie assured to Manny that both him and Peaches are going to be just fine.

Collision Course
At the start of the 5th film, Manny and Peaches were playing hockey on a frozen lake, which Peaches beats him in. Later Peaches' fiancé, Julian, a fun and loving mammoth, tries to get on the ice. He slips, making Peaches try to help him, only to spin around the ice, laughing. Manny, a little bit sad, picks up the hockey sticks, thinking his daughter would want to play with him any longer now that Julian was there. Ellie slid on the ice, with their friend, Granny. Julian came up to his mother-in-law and gave her buttercup flowers. Manny is a little annoyed by this. Julian claims he'd give Manny the best gift of them all. He gives Manny a giant bear hug, making Manny feel uncomfortable, gently pushing him off. Peaches was going to go, but Ellie reminded her of "the thing". Manny confused, said he could do "the thing." Ellie quickly said no and Peaches said it was a girl thing. Ellie said that he should hang out with his friends. She then wiggled and giggled. Manny is confused.

Manny meets up with his Diego, at a fruit bar. Manny tells Diego that he doesn't get women, saying Ellie did something odd. Manny asks Diego if Shira ever giggled, for which he glanced to see Shira chasing a gazelle. Diego replied she wasn't much of a "giggler". Sid, their friend, looked like a mess, for he got dumped. Manny told him that he should get cleaned up.

Manny, Diego, and Sid then noticed that hardly anyone was around. Ellie and the other animals came out of their hiding places, as Ellie told Manny Happy Anniversary. Manny had forgot their anniversary. He was nervous, as the mammals began to chant his name, one called out that he had forgot. Everyone was disappointed. Then fireworks colored the sky, and everyone was amazed. Ellie asked Manny how he did it and Manny told her he couldn't reveal his secrets, though he didn't do it. Julian commented about how he'd miss them so much when they left. Manny and Ellie were shocked by this. Peaches told Julian he hadn't told them yet, for which Julian said surprise as he backed up from Manny. Diego growled at Manny that they had a problem. Manny thought it was not as big as his problem with his daughter and his soon-to-be son-in-law. He then noticed the fiery object in the sky.He told everyone the party was over and to leave quickly, grabbing drinks out of guests' hands, such as Louis. Not long later, they were running from the asteroid and quickly made it in an ice cage. He reached for his daughter's trunk, hoping to calm her down, only to see that she was already holding Julian's. This sadden Manny.

Later, after hearing strange growling sounds, Manny yelled hello into the smoking hole. Manny helped their old weasel friend, Buck, out of the hole. With him, Buck brought a stone tablet that he had found, saying that they were likely going to get knocked out by an asteroid. They followed Buck into a forest where they were hit with an electrical storm. The storm made Manny's fur poof. While Peaches was trapped by the lightening, Manny didn't understand why Julian wasn't helping her. He then broke the rock cliff, though Julian warned him. Manny and Ellie were stuck as the purple lightening zapped around them. Diego was able to save them. Buck went inside the forest, and saved a "baby." It turned out to be a pumpkin, and the herd thought it was rather strange. Buck named the pumpkin Bronwyn. Manny and Ellie decide to try and get Julian and Peaches to stay. Manny plays hockey with Julian. At first, Manny gently slides the puck toward Julian, for he hadn't been able to stop any of them. Julian stopped the puck and was so excited he told Peaches that she'd have a new hockey partner. Manny, angry, hit the puck as hard as he could, only for it to hit Julian in the head, knocking him into the ice water. Peaches was mad at her father for doing so. Later they decide to stop for the night. In the morning the herd discovered that Granny was gone. Buck wasn't able to hide the fact from the herd that giant Dino-Birds were following them. Sid, upset that his Granny was gone, cried, saying he could still hear her voice. They noticed that Granny's yelling was not in Sid's head and it was coming from a crashed asteroid.

They found a prehistoric rabbit, called Teddy, giving Granny massages. They found that they were in a crystal place, called Geotopia. Brooke, a sloth, found the herd and fell in love with Sid, even calling her Brooke's Squad|squad of Minicorns to get them to bring Sid toward her. Brooke decided to take the herd to the leader that "knows all". The minicorns tapped their hooves on the crystal floor, releasing the crystal hoverboards, taking them to her master. They made it to Geotopian master, who they were confused by. Doing strange poses, the Llama, called Shangri Llama greeted the herd, and decided to teach them yoga. Later Sid had broke the walls of Geotopia, making Shangri Llama lose his cool. The Geotopians agreed to give up crystals to a volcano, in order to save themselves from the asteroid. The dino-birds knocked the crystal done, but agreed to help to save their lives as well. Manny and Julian were able to get the giant crystal in the volcano, saving everyone. Manny and Julian bonded over a hug and everyone was well and happy.

At the end of the film, Manny walks Peaches down the aisle. He passed her trunk over to Julian. Julian and Peaches get married and Brooke sings a song for the herd and other animals called My Superstar.

Personality
As a mammoth, Manny was short for words, and often came off as cross, surly and cold: this demeanor was brought on by the loss of his family at the hands of a pack of humans. Though he was often bitter, Manny was loyal to those he cared for and watched closely over any that he formed bonds with; though he was dedicated to anyone he was close to, Manny was never above his usual sarcasm, or, as Sid was concerned, a sharp slap to the head. In later years, Manny's demeanor softened as he grew into a herd and found a wife in the form of Ellie: perhaps due to his losses in life, Manny was greatly protective of Ellie and loved her dearly, this love furthering itself as he became a father for a second time to Peaches, his daughter. With his daughter, Manny grew overly protective and somewhat doting, thinking that Peaches was always going to be his helpless baby; this perspective changed as Peaches proved her self-sufficience.

Manny was built as all other mammoths were, large with a thick brown woolly coat, long, curved tusks, flappy ears, four large feet and a long prehensile trunk. Though better groomed by far than Sid, Manny still had some hygiene issues, from overly-long trunk hairs to his toenails, under which were insects that still believed the Jurassic was going on. Due to spending a good part of his time frowning, Manny had a fixed scowl, which he continuously  wore, in addition to his surly mood. Manny's eyes were brown and his scalp hair was dark brown, parted down the middle, a style that had been out of fashion since the Pliocene. Perhaps most notable of all was Manny's weight: even for a mammoth, Manny was somewhat portly, blaming his fat appearance on his thick fur. Manny's favorite fruit was peaches, which led to his daughter's name.

Trivia

 * A running gag for Manny, shown in all four films, is that if a certain character were to refer to him as fat, he would often deny it, saying that "his fur is what makes him look big" and that "it's poofy".
 * Ray Romano and John Leguizamo's children have voiced small cameos in almost all the sequels. For instance, Ray's elder Daughter Ally voices one of the teen girl mammoths in the forth film.

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