Moviegoer: The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild
Disney should have let this property go extinct
By Diana Beechener
Possum brothers Eddie (Aaron Harris) and Crash (Vincent Tong: Strawberry Shortcake) are feeling some growing pains. Though they love their herd, they’re tired of getting bossed around. Mammoths Ellie and Manny, saber-toothed tiger Diego, and Sid the sloth just want the two knuckleheads to stop causing chaos.
Convinced they’ll be just fine on their own, Crash and Eddie take off to prove how mature they are—by falling through the ice and tumbling back into the Lost World (a pre-historic realm that’s still thriving trapped beneath the glaciers). There, the duo finds their old pal Buck (Simon Pegg, who must have missed his pandemic stimulus check), a one-eyed weasel adventurer.
The boys think they’re signing up for a fun time with an old friend, but Buck has bigger problems than two pesky possums. Dino Orson (Utkarsh Ambudkar: Ghosts) is planning to take over the Lost World and kick all the mammals out. Orson sees mammals as a plague on their perfect society and won’t stop until he’s achieved dino-domination.
Can Buck put a stop to Orson’s plans? Can Crash and Eddie grow up? Can we please have a better budget for a blockbuster animated franchise?
The sixth feature film in the wildly popular Ice Age franchise (with a seventh film already announced by Disney), there’s no doubt that The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild has a built-in audience. But while little viewers may find the silly antics of Crash and Eddie enthralling, anyone older than 8 will likely be praying for an extinction level event.
The movie is clearly produced for TV—using the standard television broadcast ratio instead of the cinematic—with the budget cuts to show for it. Pegg is the only member of the original cast to return, and most of the voicework is listless. Animation was also produced on a shoestring. Blue Sky Studios, who animated the films until this point, closed and Disney is not willing to shell out any of that Mouse Money to make backgrounds look good or textures seamless. The animation on an average episode of Paw Patrol looks better, and it’s a shame that this latest film looks worse than the first film, which came out 20 years ago.
Director John C. Donkin, a longtime producer and first-time director, makes his inauspicious debut with a film that has clearly been cobbled together. The story, which doesn’t mention Diego’s mate, Ellie’s daughter, or basically any plot points from the previous films, isn’t even really about the madcap Buck. The movie wants to be a coming-of-age story about the two most obnoxious characters in a film franchise that featured a lisping sloth. The boys don’t really learn any lessons, nor do they change, but it doesn’t matter, because nothing matters in this stakes-free film. It’s a maddeningly shallow, silly script. There’re a few moments that might have been expanded into nice life lessons, but no one involved in this production has the energy or budget to do so.
Most unforgivably, the film doesn’t feature the fan-favorite character Scrat, the little squirrel-rat hybrid that chases an acorn doggedly through every film. This reviewer can forgive shoddy animation, but it’s inexcusable to exclude a character that’s become arguably the most recognizable creature in the entire franchise. Instead, we’re treated to goofy raptors, which have only two character designs that the animators copy and paste to fill scenes.
If you’re already paying for Disney+ and you just can’t watch Encanto one more time, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild will kill 80 minutes. Still, after listening to the inane musings of Crash and Eddie, and squinting at the jerky animation, I’m willing to bet you’d rather talk about Bruno.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild comes to Disney+ Jan. 28
Poor Animation * PG * 82 mins.