Captain Gutt

Captain Gutt (simply known as Gutt) is the main antagonist of Blue Sky's 7th animated feature film, Ice Age: Continental Drift. He is a Gigantopithecus ape pirate who is the self-proclaimed "undisputed master of the seas" and is the captain of a group of pirates.

He was voiced by Peter Dinklage who also played Dr. Bolivar Trask, Tyrion Lannister, and Simon Bar Sinister.

Personality
Gutt is a haughty, prideful, autocratic, disrespectful, supercilious, manipulative, and egomaniacal pirate, hiding his deceitful, fraudulent, and easily-provoked nature through an amiable facade he first presents to Manny in an effort to win him over. However, this covers a destructive, murderous, sadistic, cunning, and greedy ape who is more than willing to treat his own crew as disposable and goes to any length to hurt Manny, seeking excessive means to try and hurt him. Gutt seems incapable of not having everything his way and will fly into wrath if he is defied or fought against in any way, and over the course of the film, develops a deep-rooted and obsessive grudge against Manny. Gutt rescued his crew prior to the events of the film, suggesting a barely implied softer side that most likely has died well long ago. Gutt is so evil, nasty, and ruthless that he was utterly willing to kill Manny's family just to get back at him.

History
During the Meltdown event, he and his crew conquered seas and formed a crew of pirates. He and his crew plundered as much as they could. Raz, a member of his crew, was the first to use weapons from the bones, starfish, shells and sticks that the crew had gathered. Gutt even commands certain sea creatures like Flynn and several Narwhals in the film, Shira was his pawn and later Squint takes over Shira's role.

In Continental Drift, he and his crew encounter Manny, Diego, Sid and Granny on a small, defenseless iceship. Threating them to surrender their ship or face his fury, he destroys their vessel and captures them. Captain Gutt tries to recruit Manny to his crew because his size is useful and needs more help raiding other animals' food supplies.

Early Life
Gutt (having undergone a rough relationship with his own parents back home, who never showed him much love or affection) chose instead to live out on the seas on a massive ice floe that he fashioned into a ship with the use of trees, rocks, and vines. Having established his ship, the ape found a number of animals that he had rescued and brought them aboard his ship, where, out of for saving their lives, they pledged themselves as his crew, Shira being appointed as Gutt's first mate, with Flynn as his second.

Gutt's crew went on aiding him in scouring the world for whatever fruits and vegetables, deemed their "bounty", they could find. Gutt felt that, as the world was changing and "going under", the only means of survival was to loot whatever he and his crew could to live and thrive out at sea. These animals the ape deemed his own family, though, due to his own strained relationship with his family, his temper remained volatile and harsh.

At some point in his life, the ape began to use his claws as weapons to gut foes, which earned him the name "Gutt".

New Crew
At some point, Gutt and his crew captured Scrat, who was lost at sea, half-swallowed by a fish and had found a map of sorts, etched onto an acorn shell, which led to a land rife with acorns: Gutt and his crew forced the saber-tooth squirrel to board their ship as a captive. Later, the pirates forced Scrat to dance on the decks with the fish still attached.

Further on, while at sea, a member of Gutt's crew, a blue-footed booby named Silas, brought news of other animals out at sea stranded on an ice floe: a mammoth, two ground sloths and a saber-tooth cat. registering this, Gutt declared that the four mammals' marooning in his waters was a tragic event, which he loved greatly. Taking action, and with the intent to enlist the mammals into his crew, Gutt set a course for the ice floe, where his crew latched onto the floe by flinging down skulls on vines so that they latched onto the ice floe.

Gutt, climbing down the vines nonchalantly, called down to the animals on the ice floe that the waters they were in were swarming with pirates and that they were fortunate to have been found by Gutt and his crew first. Explaining his motives, Gutt was mocked by a small rat and flung the rodent into the water in annoyance before continuing. Gutt stated that out at sea, there was no land and that their "ship" belonged to him. With that, Gutt ordered his crew to attack the animals on the ice floe. Gutt himself managed to knock the largest of them, the mammoth named Manny, unconscious with a large boulder of ice.

Gutt had an unconscious Manny tied to a large tree that formed his ship's mast. As Manny was coming to, Gutt appeared and extended his foot as a "hand of friendship". The ape then explained his plans out at sea with the help of his crew in the form of a shanty: Gutt, proclaiming himself as the master of the seas", had rescued all those "lost souls" in his cadre and recruited them as his own piratical crew of animals, sailing through the seas, taking whatever foods they could find as they would treasure.

Loss of Ship
Manny derided Gutt's name, to which the ape explained that it was not based on his stomach, but rather his jagged sharp claws got him the name "Gutt". Sid, one of the ground sloths, not understanding Gutt's moniker. Gutt then demonstrated on Sid how he used his claws to obtain his name: with the use of his sharpened claws, Gutt would eviscerate other creatures, demonstrating it on Sid without harming him. Regardless of Gutt's offers, Manny turned the ape down, declaring that no one would stop his return to his family. Squint took this as an insult and leapt forward with his blade to attack the mammoth, impeded by Gutt, whose calm demeanor quickly disappeared into a look of pure evil as he stepped close to the mammoth and whispered that Manny's family would "be the death" of him.

Gutt then ordered his first mate Shira to prepare the plank for the castaways to be jettisoned off of, forcing them all to walk the plank off the ship and into the ocean, where angry narwhals awaited them, ordering Sid to go first. At that moment, Gutt halted the walk, to Sid's temporary relief, so that Granny, the older sloth, would go first, offering his hand in an oily manner to help the old sloth move. 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. Gutt himself held on with his claws as the ship was split in two, lamenting his lost bounty of food as it fell into the ocean. As the ape held on, he spotted Manny and the others on the other side of the iceberg and snarled angrily. The ape held onto a floe of ice that had once been his ship, along with the others in his crew, save for Shira, who was missing in action. Gutt then angrily called out to Flynn, who thought he was drowning, that the seal was a sea creature and couldn't drown, before directing his ire towards Gupta, who suggested running himself as a white flag of peace, smacking the badger. Flynn then called out that Shira was lost, but Gutt dismissed this, instead ordering Flynn to swim them all towards land.

New Ship
Furious about the loss of his ship, Gutt and the remainder of his crew reached an island and stopped at Switch-back Cove, where they found enough ice to carve a new ship and hyraxes, which they enslaved to build the new ship and to bring more food aboard, Gutt lashing out at the small mammals with a whip fashioned from bones and vine, calling out for them to finish the ship by sunset or suffer.

Stolen Ship
The following day, Shira returned to her captain, having been kept as a captive by Manny and the others. Gutt put on a falsely relieved attitude at seeing her alive when she revealed that she washed ashore with Manny and his friends. Gutt then eagerly asked her whether she caused the mammoth pain and suffering for his actions, but Shira responded that the saber in Manny's group impeded her. Upon hearing this, Gutt branded his first mate a failure, calling out that he needed a real action-worthy crew, instead only having "kitty cats and bunny rabbits". Gutt then ordered Shira to bring the saber down or die in the attempt, relieving her of her rank as first mate and giving the position to Squint.

Shira (attempting to explain what Manny and the others had planned to Gutt) was interrupted by the sound of a conch horn, and Gutt, leaping forward with a spyglass fashioned from a conch shell, spotted a number of free hyraxes in the distance, rallied up to fight. Gutt, however, laughed derisively upon seeing their tiny size in the distance, but quickly stopped laughing once he heard a second, louder trumpeting, which brought the silhouette of a mammoth: Manny. Gutt, filled with ire for what Manny had done, rallied his crew to action, rushing forward to do battle with them all, but calling Flynn out on his lack of a weapon, as the seal thought a spoon would be a useful weapon.

Gutt led his crew into battle, armed to the teeth, and the pirates reached the mammoth, stopping cold in their tracks as the hyraxes fled the scene, flying off on leaves. Squint, who eyed Manny's apparent silhouette, rushed in with his blades to tear the mammoth to pieces: instead of a mammoth falling, a large melon with branches tied to its sides fell down. In anger, Gutt stomped the melon, destroying it as he spotted the real Manny quickly making off with the ship. Gutt and his crew rapidly chased them, but Manny and his herd outran them, reaching the ship first. Gutt whistled for his narwhals, who came quickly, and the ape jumped on their back, quick to resume the chase. Manny, however, tilted a nearby ice floe on its side in the water, blocking the narwhals from reaching the herd. Gutt continued his chase, eventually reaching a long ledge where he ran after the ship, only to be tripped up as Shira, in a turncoat move, pushed large ice blocks in Gutt's path, causing him to lose his footing and be launched into the air towards the ship. Gutt nearly had the ship in his grasp, but instead fell down hard on his back, landing on a patch of ice.

Sweet Revenge
Enraged at having lost his ship again, Gutt's anger was stoked all the more as he watched the hyraxes and the herd taunt him at their escape. Gutt, however, quickly set his sights on a giant ice wall. With a tremendous roar, he dislodged a massive chunk of it with his bare hands, which quickly fell into the ocean and resurfaced. Gutt harshly ordered his crew to board at once and whistled once more for his narwhals, who stuck their tusks into the back of the ship and pushed it on.

Shira stepped forward to apologize to Gutt, but Gutt would not hear of it, declaring that, once he caught the herd, he'd have a saber-tooth's skin hanging on his wall, regardless of whose it was. Gutt further declared that Manny had cost him his ship, along with his bounty and, to further it all, the loyalty of his crew. Setting a course for the continent, Gutt declared that he would destroy Manny, along with all that he loved. To crown his retribution against Manny, Gutt dubbed his new ship the Sweet Revenge.

Herd vs. Pirates!
Gutt reached the continent before the herd did and took Manny's family, consisting of his wife Ellie and their daughter Peaches, hostage, along with all the other herds of animals that were led away from the continent by Ellie. Gutt held a shark-tooth dagger to Peaches' throat, introducing his new ship, the Sweet Revenge, on which Ellie was tied up and restrained by Gutt's crew. 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 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 Gutt's crew rapidly tied him up.

Just as everything seemed hopeless, at that moment, Peaches' friend, a molehog named Louis, stood up to the big ape, demanding that he release Peaches. Gutt, amused at Louis' imaginative gumption, accepted the challenge laughingly, ordering Gupta to let the molehog have his blade. Gutt then openly laughed at Louis, who could barely pull the blade out of the ice where it stood, but stopped his laughter once he saw that Louis pulled the blade out. Calling for Louis to fight, Gutt stood by, watching as Louis flung the blade into the air, where it fell into the ice: Louis instead burrowed through the ice towards Gutt, where he leaped out at once and slammed a heavy piece of ice on Gutt's foot, the pain making him release Peaches. Gutt, called for his crew to attack as Manny and Peaches escaped their bonds. During the fight, Gutt chased Diego into the masts and got the upper hand as he, Raz and Dobson cornered Manny and the rest of the herd on the deck's edge. Gutt stood ready to attack when Precious, Granny's pet whale, arose from the waters, and Sid positionining himself on her blowhole, directs the sprays of water to blast away Gutt's crew, one by one, with only Gutt dodging them, now not caring about his crew.

Ellie still remained tied up on the Sweet Revenge and Manny rushed in to save her, but was stopped by Gutt, who cut the mooring lines that connected the two ships. Dragging his clawed hand on the icy surface of the ship, Gutt moved closer to Ellie, but was knocked aside by Peaches, who swung on a vine and gave the evil ape a powerful swinging kick, knocking him into an ice wall on the Revenge.

Final Showdown
Manny rushed in to escape with his family. But Gutt, finally losing his sanity, blocks his path; just 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 lifting Manny and Gutt hundreds of feet high. As the ice chunk that they stood on slid down the ice, 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 swings his sword at the mammoth, barely 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 then takes out a heavy log to finish him off. But Manny jumps onto the very back of the ice, acting like a seesaw, launching Gutt upwards. Manny catches the log and bats Gutt to the rock wall, sending the evil ape flying far, far, away into the distance.

Downfall
Gutt flew through the air, landing on an ice floe, where he laid in pain, watching as a number of fins swam past him. At that moment, something shining caught Gutt's eye: in front of Gutt was a massive seashell where a female ape with flowing blonde hair lay amidst a bounty of fruits inside. The female ape called out to Gutt that they could rule the seas together and Gutt, smitten, swam closer to the female ape, reaching the seashell. At that moment, the female ape revealed her true nature: she was really a siren casting an image and seized Gutt by the face, pulling him into the shell as it snapped shut, trapping the captain inside as more sirens swam towards them. All that could be heard of Gutt were shouts of pain as the siren eats him alive. It is unknown if Gutt survived or not.

Trivia

 * Jeremy Renner was originally going to voice Gutt, but later on, he left because of scheduling conflicts. Peter Dinklage soon replaced him.
 * He appears to be based on the legendary killer pirate, Captain Blackbeard.
 * The role of the antagonist was originally going to be filled by a bear, but the filmmakers either had trouble with drawing or animating a bear, so they had to replace the bear with an ape, and that eventually became Gutt.
 * It was never revealed if Gutt was eaten by the sirens or if he survived, making the only main Ice Age villain whose fate remains ambiguous. Even if Gutt did survive, he doesn't have anything left of his crew or his ships, possibly leaving him harmless.
 * Gutt is the second main antagonist of the fourth film in the computer-animated film series, after Rumpelstiltskin of the DreamWorks film, Shrek Forever After.