One walking, talking contradiction coming right up – When I was growing up, one film franchise I loved was Ice Age, and always enjoyed the films. However, the newest addition to the collection, the Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, is not worth the effort. The film is essentially a middle finger to what came before it. Scrat, Peaches, Shira, Brooke, and Julian were all omitted with not even a single reference. As a fan, this is the world’s largest insult.
The Adventures of Buck Wild holds no consistency to the franchise entries that came before. When this film was originally announced as a television series, I was excited. However, upon reading the reviews upon the film’s release in the US and Canada, I knew it would be a letdown since it wasn’t produced by Blue Sky Studios. Usually, I don’t read reviews or listen to what the critics say, but they’re right in this instance.
Blue Sky Studios was shut down due to the economic hardships the studio faced due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. While I don’t blame the studio heads for being unable to keep the company afloat during the pandemic, they should have axed the Ice Age franchise as they did the newer Rio franchise, which was also due to receive a series but was cut upon the Blue Sky shutdown.
A Break From Continuity
Anyone who has seen any of the previous Ice Age instalments will know that there is a working formula that always begins with Scrat. Also, in the narration done by Ellie (not voiced by Queen Latifah), she skips over details. One of those details is why the herd ended up in the Lost World in the first place. For those who are only new to the franchise, let me explain.
During the third film, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Sid (John Leguizamo in the first five films) takes three seemingly abandoned T-Rex eggs and attempts to raise them as his own. It’s also during this time that Ellie is heavily pregnant with Peaches. Manny (not voiced by Ray Ramano in The Adventures of Buck Wild) is the overprotective father, desperate to protect his family from the same fate as his first family who was killed by humans prior to the first film.
When the herd realises Sid has been dino-napped, they mount a rescue mission to find him and end up in the Lost World. Ellie wants to save their friend, despite her husband’s vocal protests. Eventually, she goes into labour with Diego (definitely not Denis Leary in The Adventures of Buck Wild) at her side as Manny is preoccupied with fighting off Rudy, a T-Rex enemy of Buck’s (Simon Pegg).
Was The Adventures Of Buck Wild Trying To Cut Corners, Storywise?
One question that needs to be answered is whether the film was trying to cut corners to make us forget that the omitted characters existed. Here’s the thing. If there are other films out there in the franchise and if people have seen them, they’re going to notice changes.
This occurs in a lot of franchises with multiple films. They’ve done this before with the Scream and Halloween franchises. Terminator did it as well where movies three through five are no longer considered canon while movie six serves as the new third installment.
While the production of the Adventures of Buck Wild likely started with Blue Sky, it transferred to another animation company. It was here in which the new company continued to use the animation style that Blue Sky is famous for. No one could’ve predicted the pandemic ruining the company’s survival, but we think given the story, they took liberties to change the story to include a character we haven’t seen since Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
Cutting characters without explaining why is a corner that you shouldn’t cross.
Pointless Storyline Elements And Comedy That Falls Flat
A big part of the Ice Age franchise is the humour. However, the comedy in The Adventures of Buck Wild falls dangerously flat. This is due to the change in cast. The only actor that returned from the previous films is Simon Pegg, who plays Buck.
We need to ask, why was Ellie the narrator when she wasn’t around for the events of the first film? Second, why show her backstory with additional material when it’s not about her? Why not do it from Crash and Eddie’s perspective when they were the main focus? Also, the film was more about the possums than it was Buck.
If the movie was truly about the fearless weasel, wouldn’t it begin with him in the Lost World? In all honesty, the story was all over the place regarding who the main focus was.
To end this post, I wanted to finish on the use of the comedy aspect. As I stated earlier, the humour fell flat. It also felt very forced. Now I’m not criticising the actors. But, I will say that the delivery of dialogue isn’t as good as it was with the original cast. The dialogue was written as if it were meant for John Leguizamo or Ray Ramano or Denis Leary.
In the end, the movie is a disappointment.
