It's unclear what motivated The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild — other than a quick buck, that is. Following the Disney tradition of releasing cheap straight-to-video sequels to blockbuster animated films (The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and even The Hunchback of Notre Dame II: The Secret of the Bell — the list goes on), the 2022 Ice Age sequel is a budget entry that lacks the charm, wit, and frankly the star talent of its predecessors. The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is the sixth movie in the Fox animated franchise, and it is easily the worst entry in the series so far.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is a spin-off of sorts, shifting the main narrative focus away from the beloved found-family of the original Ice Age movies, instead, making the prehistoric possum twins Crash (Vincent Tong) and Eddie (Aaron Harris) the protagonists. When their adoptive big sister Ellie (Dominique Jennings) suggests they stop doing incredibly reckless actions that could result in their family's collective death, the possums rebel, running away to the underground "lost world" where they reconnect with Buck Wild (Simon Pegg).
Simon Pegg is the only actor who returns for The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, and it's readily apparent why. The story sees Crash and Eddie rescued by Buck when they venture back into the Lost World, and quickly, they find themselves caught up in Buck's feud with Protoceratops villain Orson (Utkarsh Ambudkar). Orson wants to destroy the "harmony" Buck Wild has worked so hard to develop in the tropical lost world (although the fact that Buck needs to rescue Crash and Eddie in the first place somewhat undermines this claim of "harmony"). The villain's motivations are as thin and undefined as the rest of the script, but with the added (problematic) shorthand of the character being evil because of a deformity. At best, the script by Ray DeLaurentis, Jim Hecht, and William Schifrin is lazy — at worst, it's borderline offensive.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild is a stale, uninspired sequel to a much-loved franchise. Much like the critically maligned Ice Age: Collision Course, the sixth Ice Age movie relies far too heavily on retreading familiar territory. However, while Collision Course was largely a rehash of the earlier Ice Age movies, Buck Wild is even more egregious in borrowing heavily from children's media in general. The kind of gags here felt stale in 2010, and virtually none of the jokes land. The originality, the pure zany energy, and the sense of fun and wonder in the earlier movies are completely absent, with Disney+ instead offering audiences a bland, cheap-looking knockoff devoid of any artistic merit.
Actual budget aside, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild feels very cheap. The choice to have new actors essentially do impressions of comedians Ray Romano and Denis Leary doesn't really work — given the basic premise, none of the original trio needed to be in this film, and Sean Kenin's attempt to sound like Romano (who voiced Manny in the previous films) lacks the comedian's inherent charisma and comedic timing. Similarly, Diego (Skyler Stone), Sid (Jake Green), and Ellie are extremely one-note compared to the versions played by Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, and Queen Latifah, respectively, in the other Ice Age movies.
There are some baffling choices in The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild. The one character the movie should have been able to nail without its original actor, Scrat, never appears. The animation varies from impressive textures, fur effects, and lighting to moments of clunky and weightless action like that found in those creepy, algorithm-gaming YouTube videos aimed at preschoolers. The raptors — the unspeaking henchmen of the movie's main villain — look ripped from the How To Train Your Dragon franchise. It's unclear what, if any, real-life prehistoric creature these are inspired by (all evidence points to Velociraptor, but again, they look nothing like the real-life dinosaur). It's extremely distracting how much their design contrasts with the rest of the world. There are also, inexplicably, fire-breathing reptiles. This movie confounds all reasoning — but, unfortunately, not in the fun way.
With The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild being yet another major property acquired by the 20th Century Fox deal, one can't help but wonder if Disney is intentionally sabotaging the IP. More likely though, this is just another example of Disney releasing a poorly made sequel in a highly successful franchise — banking on the name recognition to attract viewers. To be fair, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild will probably entertain young viewers; after all, the kind of tired, slapstick gags that adults roll their eyes over are brand new and hilarious to a two-year-old. In terms of legacy, however, the film does nothing to rehabilitate the pop culture significance of Ice Age — suggesting perhaps this period of history is now, finally, over.
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild debuted on Disney+ on January 28, 2022. It is 82 minutes long and is rated PG for some action and mild language.
