This franchise already melted when we got to 5th film.

When you’re a little kid, you don’t really care about the special effects or the animation quality or the actors, you just see it as a fun movie. But when you reach a certain age, you realize you deserve more quality. This applies when you have to watch direct-to-DVD movies or animated films made by small Disney wannabe companies. “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” released on Disney+ and spun off of the popular “Ice Age” franchise, applies for both genres.

The franchise was already melted when we got to “Ice Age: Collision Course,” which had a variety of terrible jokes and a lame story about how the mammals battle an upcoming asteroid. “The Adventures of Buck Wild” is just as lame, but this time, the animation quality looks like something out of “The Nut Job,” the story is TV-made material, and all the original voice actors are replaced by obnoxious and annoying amateurs. Almost all of them, because Simon Pegg reprises his vocal role as the swashbuckling one-eyed weasel Buck, who lives in the dinosaur world, known as “The Lost World.” He’s the best thing about the movie with how he allows himself to have fun with the character, but a spin-off movie like “Puss in Boots” had more humanity to its title character.

In fact, this one is more focused on the possum brothers Crash and Eddie, who are tired of being protected by their adoptive mammoth sister Ellie, and decide to embark in the Lost World to find their own freedom and adventures. Now, they come at a bad time, because a small triceratops named Orson (voiced by Utkarsh Ambudkar) plans to rule all dinosaurs and mammals. The reason why he’s the only dinosaur to talk is because his brain on the back of his head is so huge, it looks like it’s about to pop. Ambudkar had better supporting roles in “Brittany Runs a Marathon” and “Free Guy,” but his voice role is so annoying, that you can’t even comprehend his needs. This is just a cartoon villain.

Then, there’s the zorilla named Zee (voiced by Justina Machado from “Six Feet Under” and “The Purge: Anarchy), who is like a skunk, and her running gag involves the possums trying to figure out what the “Z” stands for. She was part of Buck’s team, until circumstances have killed their other members and they can’t agree on the right strategies. He wants to take action, while she wants to make plans.

This “Ice Age” spin-off cuts back on the Scrat antics that have grown exhausting, so I’m glad “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” didn’t include the squirrel, because it would have been more dead in the water. Little kids may enjoy the cartoonish behaviors here, as long as parents don’t have to be roped into watching it with them on Disney+.

You know what? I think this merger with Disney buying Fox has really gotten out of hand. No one asked for “Home Sweet Home Alone.” That Disney+ Day special with “The Simpsons” was a missed opportunity from start to finish. We need to stop indulging into to this whole merger thing, and let our favorite characters live their lives. And even if “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” was released by 20th Century Studios, 20th Century Fox is always the better title. Fox rules, Studio drools.

And BTW: we’re still mad that Disney/Pixar’s “Turning Red” is the third would-be theatrical feature to go on the streaming service.

Streaming on Disney+

Categories: Action, Adventure, Animation, comedy, Family, List, Sequel, Spin Off