20 years on, Ice Age is one of the most beloved family movies out there. The animated tale tells the story of a group of mammals migrating south to escape the incoming ice age: Manny, the cynical woolly mammoth with attachment issues and Sid — the sloth so useless and devoid of any practical skill that his own family abandons him.
They come across human baby Grogu — I mean, Roshan — and decide to go on a journey to reunite him with his tribe. But the question is, does baby Roshan, who at one point, was estimated to be a freakish 6’10 on the official Ice Age Wiki, deserve happiness? I think not.
As we’ve seen from the recent crusade of hatred against Meena, the elephant from the musical Sing, the internet just loves to hate certain kids’ movie characters. The difference is, the hate for the Ice Age Baby has been going strong for over two years now and shows no signs of slowing down.
It all started with a (now-deleted) tweet that went viral where someone admitted their hostile feelings towards the Ice Age baby. From there, people felt brave enough to admit what they’d known all along: that a comedy movie character they were meant to find adorable and charming actually made them froth at the mouth with rage.
I remember sitting there, watching Ice Age at about four years old with my fists clenched, heart thumping and lips turning blue with pure, unadulterated anger.
Every single time that dumbass little baby waddled on screen, I wanted to throw my Capri-Sun at the TV and melt the ice caps myself. But I couldn’t admit it. You were meant to love the prehistoric crotch goblin and his gormless little face. You felt ashamed by your urge to dropkick him into the next ice age. But now, like thousands of others, I know I’m not alone.
We’re conditioned to think that hating the Ice Age baby to this extent as an adult is ‘weird’ and ‘disproportionate for a children’s movie,’ but the popularity of online communities united in their hatred say different. Facebook group ‘I hate the baby from Ice Age’ has 132,000 followers, while subreddit r/iceagebabyhate has over 3,000 members.
Here, like-minded people can find relief from Ice Age Baby apologists and connect based on their true passion: sharing memes, edits and even merchandise rooted in how all the world’s evils can be traced back to that watermelon-devouring freeloader.
In one Change.org petition fighting back against the demon child, several reasons are cited as to why he’s rightfully hated. Some of the reasons cited include the fact he’s “the most irritating thing to exist in history,” treated Manny and Sid with no respect, and committed various crimes like “lying, manipulating and kicking” poor Manny even after all the trauma he ensued.
According to the petition, “some people cannot sleep at night” because of the stupid baby, and some studies even show that the baby can cause high blood pressure. A source, you ask? Just trust me, bro. This petition has been signed by over 28,000 people, but that’s not the only way people are standing up and saying, “Enough is enough” to this real-life Palpatine.
Sound Cloud rapper Ginga Snap even made a diss track for the Ice Age Baby in October 2020. Lyrics from the tune, which has had over 500 streams, includes lines like, “That little baby from Ice Age, he drives me into a fucking rage” and “If I was his dad I would have thrown him off a cliff.”
I have a confession that from my earliest memory from way back in 2002 I have always hated the baby in Ice Age.
I vividly remember hoping it got eaten by the Sabre tooth tigers.
Disgusting child. pic.twitter.com/l6zKW3kkIe
— Sive 1️⃣ (@sivemorten) February 18, 2020
In an interview with Mel Magazine earlier that year, Snap, who has also made diss tracks for characters like Manny Heffley from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series, spoke for the nation in explaining why he despises the Ice Age Baby so much. “I hate that little damn baby,” he said. “I hate his li’l swoop haircut. I hate his tunic. He always crying like a bitch, too.”
Amen to that, Ginga Snap. It doesn’t matter if it’s been 20 years, two years or 20,000 years. The years may pass but my hatred for the Ice Age Baby will never fade.
If you can stomach it, Ice Age is available to watch on streaming service Disney Plus. Or instead, check out some of the various sequels on the platform: the baby isn’t in those ones.