Michael Thurmeier

Michael Thurmeier is a Canadian film director and animator. He is best known for directing the Blue Sky Studios animated films Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), which are the fourth and fifth installments in the Ice Age franchise. Along with Chris Renaud, he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for the Ice Age short film No Time for Nuts (2006).

Early life and education

Thurmeier was born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and went to Archbishop M.C. O'Neill High School. Although he enjoyed drawing for much of his early life, he was more interested in becoming a lawyer, but he changed his mind after seeing Aladdin in his last year of high school.

Career

After he joined Blue Sky Studios, Thurmeier served as an animator for Fight Club and The Sopranos. He later served as a supervising animator for Ice Age, Robots, and Ice Age: The Meltdown.

His first directing job was in 2006, when he co-directed the short animated film No Time for Nuts, starring Scrat for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. He was a co-director on Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), and made his feature directing debut with Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012). Thurmeier returned to direct Ice Age: Collision Course (2016).

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Director	Animator	Other	Notes
1999	Fight Club	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Animator: Blue Sky Studios
2002	Ice Age	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Additional Story, Lead Animator
2005	Robots	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Supervising Animator
2006	Ice Age: The Meltdown	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Supervising Animator
2008	Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Senior Supervising Animator
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:No
2012	Ice Age: Continental Drift	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
2016	Ice Age: Collision Course	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Voice of Gravedigger Beaver/Party Molehog
2019	Spies in Disguise	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Senior Creative Team

Short films

Year	Title	Director	Animator	Layout Artist	Other	Notes
2002	Gone Nutty	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2006	No Time for Nuts	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Also 4-D extended version
2010	Scrat's Continental Crack-Up	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Act as Ice Age: Continental Drift Teaser Trailers #1 & #2
2011	Scrat's Continental Crack-Up Part 2	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2015	Cosmic Scrat-tastrophe	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Acts as extended Ice Age: Collision Course Teaser Trailer
2016	Scrat: Spaced Out	Template:Partial	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Ice Age: Collision Course archive and deleted footage
2022	Ice Age: Scrat Tales	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Disney+ Original Short Films; Ice Age Creative Trust; Story - Episode: "Nut the End"

Television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2000	The Sopranos	animator: Blue Sky Studios	episode: "Funhouse"

External links

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