The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild Review: Simon Pegg's movie FAILS to add more heart to the franchise

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild Cast: Simon Pegg, Utkarsh Ambudkar

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild Director: John C. Donkin

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild Platform: Disney+ Hotstar

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild Stars: 2/5 

The Ice Age series was able to impressively sustain five theatrical movies, albeit with varying levels of quality. Seeing it continue via a sixth movie, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, is a little surprising. However, the movie is all startlingly different, as it attempts to shift attention away from the original stars: Sid the sloth, Mannie and Ellie the mammoths, and Diego the saber-toothed tiger, none of whom are voiced by celebrities this time. Simon Pegg, who portrays the film's namesake, one-eyed weasel Buck Wild, is the only returning major name. Crash (Vincent Tong) and Eddie (Aaron Harris), the chattering possums who are also Ellie's adoptive siblings, join him in the middle (Dominique Jennings).

As we've seen in all of the 'Ice Age' films, the possum brothers can always be counted on to cause fresh havoc. It's not any different in this film. Eddie and Crash leave their "family" in the hopes of discovering themselves and live independently after realising they don't want to be continually bossed about or looked of as inferior to the mammoths and a sabretooth. Soon after, they rip a large crack in the ice surface, sending them into the "Lost World," the warm subterranean habitat of the last dinosaurs, which Ellie had warned them to avoid. And, you guessed it, the twins march in and are swiftly attacked by the voracious raptor henchmen of Orson, the "big-brained" brilliant dino (Utkarsh Ambudkar).  Fortunately, an old friend, the gallant weasel hero Buck Wild, comes to their aid (Simon Pegg). Their refuge, however, is only temporary, as Buck informs them of Orson's secret plot to control the "dino paradise." 

We enter the superhero team story zone at this point in the film, since the primary dinosaur villain has a large brain, making him much more clever than the other dinosaurs. As a result, he can teach the lesser dinos to do his bidding. It's all fairly generic, and there's nothing unique to keep older viewers interested. In an unexpected change of events, Orson (the greedy Triceratops) clashes with the one-eyed weasel Buck and his friend, Zee the zorilla, in order to take over the Lost World. Interestingly, after spending some time away from their "herd" and training with Zee, the guys confront Orson and his flying companions, all with their senses and quick wit. Manny, Diego, Sid, and Ellie, who stumbled into the Lost World in quest of the small men, are surprised to see all of this with their own eyes. Even though Buck had informed the brothers that they might return home from the expedition to battle Orson, Eddie and Crash change their minds. They beg Ellie if they can stay since they like their exciting existence in Buck's realm. The family says farewell, but they know they will see the boys for meals practically every day.

 

There are hints of '90s extreme-itude to these comic-relief side characters given their own adventure—though the plot belongs more to Crash and Eddie than to Buck. Yeah, you'd think the movie was about Buck but apparently Crash and Eddie were the main characters. To be honest, this movie is acceptable for younger audiences who will love the simplistic premise and will overlook the film's flaws. However, older fans of the Ice Age films will surely find this picture to be a letdown. It just lacks the charm of the original movie. Worse, the series' greatest and purest character, Scrat—the sad-eyed small animal that lives in constant frantic quest of a single acorn is awol from the movie.

It also struck me as weird that the majority of the dinosaurs in the movie are around the same size as the mammals, which, given that they are a group consisting of a skunk, weasel, and two possums, simply seems unusual in terms of size. The original "Dawn Of The Dinosaurs" huge mother T-Rex makes a few cameos, but it was simply one of many things that irritated me about the movie. Overall, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is mediocre, not just for the franchise, but for animation in general. Moreover, our old ancient friends deserve a better farewell than not-so-nice THE ICE AGE ADVENTURES OF BUCK WILD.