Scrat is a fictional saber-toothed squirrel (the species is also fictional) that appears in the 2002 film Ice Age and its sequel, the 2006 film Ice Age: The Meltdown. He is best known for being obsessed with his acorn and how he constantly puts his life on the line to get it. He is so obsessed with it, that even when it is stolen from him, he is determined to get it back (even if the animal that took it is bigger and stronger than him). Scrat has also appeared in two short films. In the first, entitled Gone Nutty, where he loses his meticulously-organized collection of acorns in a catastrophic chain of events occurring after ramming his acorn into the hole in the exact middle of the collection, and accidentally starting continental drift in the process.
In the second, No Time for Nuts, he finds a time machine left by an unfortunate time-traveller, and visits a number of historical events.
In both Ice Age movies, as well as in the short films, Scrat is "voiced" by Chris Wedge. Though he never actually speaks, his eyes acting, squeals, squeaks, grunts and (more often than not) screams, serve well enough to get his points across.
While constantly hunting for his acorn in order to either bury it or eat it, fate always seems to get in the way and throughout all the series he ends up in often painful and always hilarious situations ranging from being struck by lightning, chased by avalanches, and knocked unconscious repeatedly to running afoul of various animal life and having to fight for his acorn (and generally losing, except in two cases when he defeated a school of piranhas single-pawed and battled Sid for it, also winning.
His character has proved enormously successful and many have credited him as the most popular character of the franchise.
Trivia
* Scrat appeared on a Family Guy episode (Sibling Rivalry, episode #72) as a gag.
* Scrat appears in 8 scenes in each of the Ice Age movies.
* In South Park episode 10:04, 'Cartoon Wars', a creature that looks remarkably like Scrat can be seen on a spoof movie billboard for a movie called 'Cold Age: The Smackdown'.
* In an episode of Lilo and Stitch: The Series, Pleakly makes reference to a saber-tooth squirrel, stating he has never heard of one before.
* In the video game Whiplash, Spanx the long-tailed weasel is questioned by Raymond about what kind of animal he is, with Raymond later exclaiming "I know, you're a scrat!". Wikipedia
