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American Morning

New Yorker Looking for $10 Million Piece of Pie From 'Ice Age'

Aired March 13, 2002 - 08:51   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Filmmakers are hoping a new animated movie called "Ice Age" will be a box office success this Friday. But before ticket sales can warm up anyone's pockets, there's one New Yorker who's looking for a $10 million piece of the pie. She claims a rodent cartoon character she created was the inspiration for the star of the film.

CNN's Jeanne Moos has the tale.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What do you get when you cross a squirrel with a rat? A "Sqrat" fight.

IVY SUPERSONIC, PROMOTER: The first mistake was when they stole my Sqrat.

MOOS: With its animated movie "Ice Age," 20th century fox is about to make this character a star.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Sqrat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Only this character says Sqrat is hers.

SUPERSONIC: Millions of people associate Ivy Supersonic as the creator of Sqrat. Do they think they can get away with this?

MOOS: Ivy Supersonic is a New York hat designer and promoter. Three years ago, she says she spied a squirrel that looked kind of like a rat. Thus was born her Sqrat.

SUPERSONIC: This is going to be $100 million. I've got the next Mickey Mouse.

MOOS: Ivy admits she's no wallflower when it comes to promotion, particularly self-promotion.

Over the years, Ivy churned out Sqrat banners, T-shirts, stickers, even a Sqrat mouse pad and a puzzle.

SUPERSONIC: Is that nose?

MOOS (on camera): This is the nose.

SUPERSONIC: That's the eyes, look.

MOOS (voice-over): She pitched her character to entertainment executives from coast to coast, and then what to her wondering eyes should appear? Sqrat, the movie star.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, buddy, did you see any humans go by here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Sqrat squeaks softly but carries big schtick. There's the whack-a-Sqrat game at the movie's Web site. There are posters, tie- ins to Burger King, books.

SUPERSONIC: I've been jacked, Jeanne.

MOOS: As in hijacked, robbed. Ivy is going to court, seeking $10 million bucks, an eight-figure Sqrat. But the folks at 20th Century Fox say their Sqrat was created by an award winning animator inspired by a pre-historic mammal known as a leptictidium (ph), and that Ivy's sqrat is based on copyrighted art of a beaver.

SUPERSONIC: This is the year of the Sqrat attack.

MOOS: In her court papers, Ivy notes both Sqrats have round beady eyes, an elongated snout, a bulbous nose, not to mention the bushy tail that's nowhere to be seen the leptictidium. Ivy spelled Sqrat with a 'q.' The moviemakers used a 'c.'

SUPERSONIC: No matter how you spell the Sqrat, 'sc,' 'sk,' 'sq,' it all spells sqrat.

MOOS: To the movie makers, Ivy is poison.

SUPERSONIC: I'm a multimillionaire, just waiting to get paid.

MOOS: To which 20th Century Fox says, she has no case, and we're not giving her a dime. Looks like everyone's trying to horde their nuts.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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