Chris Wedge entrusted the direction of the production of Ice Age 2 to Carlos Saldanha, co-director of the first film. However, he could not completely leave the crazy world he created and was keen to continue voicing Scrat! The main voice cast including Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary also returned for the sequel to voice their beloved characters.

    

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Given the enthusiastic response towards Scrat, who was not to reappear after the first few minutes of the original film, Blue Sky decided to enrich the character, bringing him some new facts and also improving his appearance and movements.

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Before Ice Age 2, Blue Sky released an animated short film staring Scrat called Gone Nutty a year after the release of the Ice Age in 2002. This was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short film. The short can be viewed on the VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray of the first film, and in the Short Films section of this site.

  

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The number of staff that worked on Ice Age 2 was doubled from the first film. They provided the movie with more sophisticated effects and animations by using advanced animation controls, and they gave the returning characters new models to accompany these upgrades.

Blue Sky used new ray tracing software was used to project lighting in a unique way. The studio chose to reinforce this realism with Voxel software, which allows volume effect on the hair and fur of the characters. It could count more than two million hairs on the back of Manny! The  fur is shiny and thick, and light interacts with it in a very natural way.

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The difficult part of the animation was not only the water, but there was also the big challenge of making the moments when the characters naturally swim, dive, and touch the surface. A software was then created especially for this task to manipulate and animate the characters in the water.

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For the recording sessions of Sean William Scott and Josh Peck (the voices of Crash and Eddie respectively), they performed in the same recording booth to enhance the chemistry between the two crazy possum brothers, which is rare in animation.

  

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Ice Age 2 introduces a new villain, the solitary vulture who sees the flood as an opportunity to make a fabulous feast. This perspective inspires a musical number, which was a reinterpretation of "Food, Glorious Food" from the musical Oliver!.