Shira is one of the main characters of the famous Ice Age franchise. She is a cheeky but good-hearted saber-toothed tiger, at first she is the first companion of the evil Gigantopithecus Gutt but after falling in love with Diego she changed her mind and joined the pack by marrying Diego.
She's the secondary antagonist turned tetartagonist in Ice Age: Continental Drift, a mentioned character in the Easter short film Ice Age: The Great e Egg-Scapade and a minor character in Ice Age: Collision Course.
She is voiced by Jennifer Lopez.
Appearances
Ice Age: Continental Drift
She makes her first appearance in Ice Age: Continental Drift, when the pirates found the Herd on their "ship", Shira caught Diego's eye. After being left dead from her crew Manny, Diego, Sid, and Granny saved her from drowning. After being accidentally pushed by Diego (due to Sid breaking their ice boat) begins to complain of not be able to make it back home on their boat but Shira reminds Diego that it was his fault that their ship was destroyed and both began to call each other names. Both stop after Manny yells land.
After finding land Shira escapes from the Herd but Diego managed to pinned her. Shira is seen locked up in a giant tree. Later that night Shira is approached by Diego whom brought water for her at first she refused it but changes her mind after Diego tells her to die of thirst. Shira questions Diego about being soft for a saber, than sees why he wasn't in a pack but Diego responds that he choose to leave his pack and Shira tells him that she too left her pack as well. Diego tells her that she simply traded one pack for another, and that his herd always has each other's backs, pointing out that Gutt hadn't made any thoughts of planning a search party for her in the first place. After escaping from her prison Shira returns to her crew and tries to inform Gutt of the Herd, Shira finally realizes that Diego is right about Gutt not having any loyalty for her. After pinning Diego, he convinced her to be with him and join the Herd. Shira notices Gutt is right behind them; she push some ice to make sure Gutt doesn't make it to the Herd's new ship, Shira is left behind and stares at Diego, showing she is in love with him.
As the Herd is sailing home, Diego can not stop thinking about Shira and her safety and realizing he too has fallen in love with her. Shira is seen fighting against her former crew and trying to save Ellie. When Gutt and his pirate crew are defeated; Shira asked Diego if she's still in his scurvy crew; Diego welcomes her and both Sabers stared at each other romantically and now are lovers.
Ice Age: Collision Course
One day, Shira was seen ferociously chasing an elk. She chased the elk past her mate and snarled, when he begged her not to eat him. Later, Shira and Diego went to Manny and Ellie's anniversary party. They ate some berries and talked about having their own kids. However, Shira was reluctant because kids are afraid of them. A Young Start and Young Aardvark stumbled upon Diego and Shira and saw the berry juice dripping down their chin. The sabers acted friendly, but thinking the juice was blood, the kids ran away in fright. Shira was puzzled and told Diego that she even smiled. Later, there was a meteor shower and an asteroid approaching. They hid in an Ice Cave until they thought it was safe.
An old friend of the herd, a weasel named Buck, came back from the Underground Dinosaur World. The weasel greeted Shira who couldn't believe he was a dinosaur whisperer, and began salsa dancing with her. Buck then offered to let the saber count his teeth, which she declined disgusted. The herd learns from Buck that the meteor shower from last night was just the beginning and an even bigger asteroid is approaching. Luckily, he tells them that he has a plan to save the planet and asks the herd if they're in. Diego assures Shira that Buck has saved their lives before, but she still worries if he can this time. Convinced, the herd gets to move on.
Along the journey, the herd comes to a river. Buck comically commands it to let them pass which Shira and Diego express their doubt. Suddenly a moon passes over and gravitationally pulls the water causing a path to open up. The sabers dropped their mouths in surprise.
After crossing the river, the herd is led through a forest where an electrical storm hit. Shira stopped when she noticed her fur by her paw becoming fuzzy from the static. They safely made it out and Buck went in and saved a baby pumpkin, which he called Bronwyn. The herd thought it was quite strange. They stopped for the night then in the morning they found that Granny was missing. They heard her yelling and followed it.
They found that Granny was getting massages from a prehistoric rabbit called Teddy. They were in Geotopia, a land of crystals and where everyone stayed in their youth. Brooke, a sloth, fell in love with Sid and called her squad of Minicorns called Bubbles and Misty. They tapped their hooves on the crystal floor, releasing a crystal hoverboard, which took them to the Geotopian master, Shangri Llama. Granny voices her disgust for llamas as they spit and smell bad. Shira is amused when Diego points out that Granny does too.
After the Llama refused to help them the herd decided to spend their seemingly final moments exploring Geotopia. Shira and Diego are seen snuggling gently as they watched the crystals. After Sid broke the Geotopian wall, the Geotopians agreed to give up their crystals to save their lives. The crystals were put in a volcano, to move the asteroid elsewhere. The plan worked and they celebrated their victory.
Diego and Shira told the young start and aardvark a story about their adventure. Pleased with how the kids have warmed up to them, Shira happily told her mate they'll make wonderful parents. At Peaches' Wedding, Brooke sang My Superstar which Diego, Shira, and the young aardvark and start danced to.
Ice Age: The Hidden Treasure
Shira's makes a small appearance nearly the end of the issue, as she is seen with the other members of the Herd shouting "surprise" to the opossum brothers and celebrating their birthday.
Personality
At first, Shira appeared to be cold and gruff and she showed loyalty to those who helped her. Shira also shows a little immature behavior towards Diego calling him names but she also shows to be clever, smart, and not to be swayed by lies.
After being caught by Diego for trying to escape and putting her in "jail" Shira's face shows a little sadness and loneliness but changes quickly to her aggressive and being sarcastically towards Diego.
Later on she shows that she is very kind, brave and caring especially towards Diego. She left her whole pack mentality and decided to leave and she felt like she didn't felt like she belonged there. She got into Gutt's group and Gutt embraced her as First Mate.
Gallery
Trivia
- If Shira is anything like the female Tigers of today; she will be pregnant for five and half months and may have one to six cubs.
- Shira's fur color is a combination both of a White tiger and a Snow leopard.
- Shira appeared in the Ice Age comic book: The Hidden Treasure by Kaboom! Comics.
- Shira is Diego's weakness because he has romantic feelings for her.
- Shira is name of a Hebrew song.
- Coincidentally, both Denis Leary and Jennifer Lopez have previously voiced characters from two separate but very similar animated movies released in 1998. Leary voiced Francis the Ladybug from Pixar's A Bug's Life while Lopez voiced Azteca from DreamWorks' Antz.
- If there will be a sixth Ice Age movie Diego and Shira will probably finally have cubs.
