He may be giving the performance, but Ray Romano knows he's not the star of Ice Age.

        The animation is.

        “Man, it really looks good,” says Mr. Romano, 44. “The way they get the expression in the eyes? It's great.”

        He pauses, then adds in that deadpan manner, “And I get all the credit. People look in that mammoth's eyes and see the pain he's going through and they say, "Ray, you were great!' ”

        Mr. Romano provides the voice for Manfred, a mammoth who is part of a trio of prehistoric animals at the center of Ice Age. The film, which opened Friday, follows them as they attempt to return a lost human baby to its parents.

        It's Mr. Romano's first film role, though he's been looking for a movie to do during the summer hiatus from production of his hit TV show, Everybody Loves Raymond, for a couple of years.

        “This will be the third hiatus where I've wanted to do a film,” he says. “In each one, I've been offered maybe two things. And they weren't something I wanted to do. I've been turning down what I'm offered and not getting the projects I want.

        “I don't know if I'll have a film career but if I do, I'll have to make a transition from being identified with my TV character. So I don't want to do the same thing in a movie. But I can't do something that's too different. I'm trying to be careful with that first one.”

        Once he read the Ice Age script, however, he knew it was something he wanted to do — particularly after watching a tape of director Chris Wedge's Oscar-winning computer-animated short, Bunny.

        “I thought, "If that's an example of what this will look like, I'd like to do it,' ” Mr. Romano says. “I'm a fan of the animated movies that have something for adults as well as the kids. They're doing more of those now. My kids aren't at an age where I can just drop them off at the theater. A couple of the ones I've taken them to, I hoped I could take a nap. But a couple of them, I was happy to have kids so I had an excuse to see them. I wanted this movie to be like that.”

        Mr. Romano's casually sarcastic tone and distinctive voice were perfect for Manfred, says Mr. Wedge. Though other actors had been mentioned, tests in which recordings of their voices were played with initial animated scenes showed that bigger wasn't always better, even when playing a mammoth.

        “When we first started trying to voice the mammoth, we were looking at people with big voices: James Earl Jones, Ving Rhames,” Mr. Wedge says. “But it sounded too obvious when we tested it. When we put Ray's voice on our character, it became complete instantly. It pulled together what we'd been doing. His personality is tempered, with that sarcastic edge. And, obviously, he has a way with comic timing.”

        It was a revelation for Mr. Romano to record his lines for the film — because, though most of his scenes in the film are with John Leguizamo and Denis Leary (who voice a sloth and a saber-toothed tiger, respectively), they all recorded their dialogue separately and never acted together in the recording studio.

        “It's difficult because acting is about responding to people, so not having the people there is hard,” Mr. Romano says. “Plus you're stuck in front of the microphone and you can't really move around to act things out. I thought it wasn't working. After the first couple of sessions, I said, "I think I'm going to be fired.' But they kept telling me it was going fine.

        “I did see John at the Golden Globes a year ago, when we were two months into the project. He was saying how well our stuff went together — and he looked like he was being genuine. I didn't see him again until the press junket for the film.”

        Wanting to make movies doesn't mean Mr. Romano isn't hit, Everybody Loves Raymond. “I'm surprised this year how good a year it is. Last year it was hard to come up with fresh ideas. This year is the best year yet.

        “I like the small stories, ones that are simple and not plot-heavy that people can relate to. I like taking something small and making it big. Like, I don't want my wife to sleep on my side of the bed. That's a whole show.”

        full-time stand-up comic since 1984, he based the show on his onstage routine, which he drew from his own life: stories about his parents, his wife and his kids.

        “It's everybody's life, really — the writers and Phil Rosenthal, the producer, who brings a lot to it,” Romano says. “But my family and friends are not in the TV business. To them, it's a documentary. It took them a while to realize we were making stuff up.”

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