No stars, no Scrat, no point: It's Disney+'s The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (PG, 82mins) Directed by John C. Donkin *½

Twenty years ago, a mammoth, a sabre-toothed tiger, a sloth and a sabre-toothed squirrel captured the world’s hearts.

With chunky, but cute animation and an eclectic vocal cast that included Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary, Ice Age became a massive hit, both in cinemas and on DVD. Like the similarly timed Pirates of the Caribbean, a series of sequels inevitably followed, delivering diminishing return both in terms of quality and – eventually – box office.

Now, six years after Ice Age: Collision Course marked a new low-tide mark, the series is back – with the 2022 equivalent of a direct-to-video knock-off (one originally intended as a TV series). Not only does just one of the series’ galaxy of stars show up for vocal duties on The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (Simon Pegg as the eponymous, one-eyed weasel), but creator Chris Wedge and everyone’s favourite scene-stealer Scrat are nowhere to be seen and a new studio is on animation duties.

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If that wasn’t bad enough, the wafer-thin plot is essentially a rehash of 2009’s Dawn of Dinosaurs, with the trio of writers, whose combined credits include Winning Time and Fairly Odd Parents, struggling to raise many laughs and not even introducing the weasel whose name is in the title until the 20-minute mark.

Instead, the main focus is on opossum brothers Crash (Vincent Tong) and Eddie (Aaron Harris).

Tired of being “smothered with reasonable advice”, the adventure-loving duo’s antics are starting to test the patience of the rest of the herd. Admonished after causing an avalanche that wipes out their “summer habitat”, the boys decide that maybe it is time to move on and make their “own mark, own destiny and maybe even our own lunch”.

However, upon discovering that they’ve left, adopted “big sister” Ellie (Dominique Jennings) is seriously concerned for their safety. “The only thing worse than their survival skills is that they have zero sense of direction,” she frets.

What follows is a ploddingly predictable trip back into familiar territory, a bizarre threat involving an exiled big-brained dinosaur “jonesing” to make life miserable for mammals and japes that mainly involves pratfalls, Buck’s rather loose grip on reality and escaping bodily gases.

“I love the smell of skunk gas in the morning,” Buck says, one of a few lame nods to cinematic culture from around 40 years ago.

Naturally, there are life lessons to be had – make sure you live in harmony and you’re a part of the herd, even when you’re apart from the herd, being the main two – but although producer-turned-director John C. Donkin and his team emphasise the importance of family, the action is far from being fast and furious, even at such a slim running-time.

The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild are now available to stream on Disney+.