The glaciers are on the move and “Ice Age – Adventures of Buck Wild” is finally here! Well,
not so much the glaciers as dinosaurs and rowdy rodents in this one but you get the idea. Buck
Wild is an adventurous weasel we were introduced to earlier in the saga.
His “from down-un’dah” persona called for its own chapter in the Ice Age stories.
And who better to explore it than our favorite and furry, problem-possums Crash and Eddie?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Ice Age – The Adventures of Buck Wild: Good to Evil.
Now forget that good and evil were hardly concepts back in the ice age;
we still like to rank our favorite characters accordingly. That said,
we’re going to keep our spectrum strictly to the characters seen in The Adventures of Buck Wild.
With the rules explained and out of the way, let’s dive in. Our first category we’re going to start
with is the kind, friendly, and morally upright members. Here is our line up for good characters:
Let’s get started with Buck Wild, the titular character of the movie who Crash and Eddie
are already familiar with, and the most good-hearted member.
Buck is hands down our character with the best qualities spanning from friendly and
caring to fearlessly adventurous. Aside from rushing into action without planning anything,
his heart always seems to naturally dwell in the right place. Originally he and his
old team established a peaceful time of order that provided harmony for all living creatures
throughout the lost world. When the pair Crash and Eddie couldn’t lie straight to Buck,
he could sense that something was up. And when he finally got to the bottom of things,
his first aim was to bring the audacious boys back home. Later on, we even learn of how much guilt
he still holds himself to after losing almost his entire team. This probably made him think
going solo and laying low was the best option to protect his remaining friends from the dinosaurs.
After Zee convinces him to get back on the saddle, and too many counters with an evil genius hungry
for revenge, Buck pointed his sights on thwarting the villain and bringing an end to his rise of
dominating the watering holes. This selflessness isn’t displayed in many other characters aside
from his likeminded colleague Zee. Buck can keep the momentum going even if the pack’s hunter
returns home empty handed. He gathers the supplies needed for the group to be able to move forward.
This can go as far as including events and individual characters – even his enemies. Now,
I know what you’re thinking: Buck should totally be the hunter. But let’s boil it down with how Zee
is constantly the one to save Buck when things start to get a little hairy for him. If it
wasn’t for her, the gang would never have gotten together to stop Orson from ruling the lost world.
Even though he can be a set ‘em up and knock ‘em down guy on his own, he faces whatever
obstacle too often alone and on a whim. It’s only after distracting his opponent for his partner to
finally hop in and give a better hand. But that kind of an intricate plan is a little
too advanced for Buck. For thick, hammer-headed characters like him, everything looks like a nail.
Which brings us to our lists next entry, Zee. Buck’s faithful companion and last remaining
member of his old crew. She’s the closest match with Buck compared to anyone else in
the lost world. They both go way back to a time shared when they basically served the inhabitants
as a league of super heroes writing the wrongs of a pre-civilized community. As the movie progresses
we can see that there’s a string of tension between her and Buck for the terrible cost
of their old team. Clearly, Zee never let that debt go by unpaid, and so she began tracking the
villainous reptile long before Crash and Eddie fell into Buck’s lap. There’s still a call of
duty that Zee takes very seriously, and it appears to drive her crazy that Buck’s answer was to walk
away and leave the mess in efforts to preserve what they still had. This is another reason why
she’s so essential for him facing this kind of peril and responsibility. Even though she’s her
own individual character, Zee acts as the Yang to Buck’s Yin. As crazy and fearless Buck may be, his
perspective from the outback needs some insight to coordinate a solid plan. He’s always rushing into
the middle of things, and Zee manages to pull him out of harms way time and time again. Her balance
to him is probably the only thing keeping Buck alive, even from out of sight or under a distant
shrub. The real heroine of this story is Zee for basically carrying the team when Buck was down,
and for keeping the entire story on track. Buck was going to waltz the boys back home before Zee
finally caught up with them after tracking Orson and his raptor peons. But more importantly,
she had been waiting for Buck to finally come back around and finish what they started. Only under
the condition however that Buck finally began making a plan for things instead of going in like
a ball of claws and blazing fur. She was cunning enough to stay under everyone’s radar, and smart
enough to know that taking time to make a plan is crucial when facing challenges. Ultimately,
Zee was the glue that brought back her and Buck’s team after it dissolved long ago. Without
her stealth and wit, everyone would have become dinner for the dinosaurs at one point or another.
Sliding in at third is Mama Tee, another character we were introduced to earlier in the saga.
Although she didn’t play too much of a bigger role than Manny, Ellie, Diego, or Sid in this movie,
she was certainly helpful to Buck with keeping both Crash and Eddie safe – Or at least when
not being knocked out by Zee’s noxious gas. They were unfortunate with horrible time to get a bad
tooth pulled, and this leads up to Buck’s capture. A huge dinosaur like that could have come into
some serious use fending off the Raptor pack, and we see her kick some butt later in the movie. But
let’s mention how fast the T-Rex Express was able to get Ellie and the herd down to the lost world
in time to help the gang. The Tee should stand for tank given how massive she was in the heat
of action going up against Orson’s army of raptors. Ultimately, Mama Tee was just doing
what a good friend does lending a tiny hand when caught between a rock and a hard place.
Sure –they may be individual twin brothers, but Crash & Eddie both think and act too much alike to
get their own places. They’re more two halves of a whole brain than separate individual characters.
And that’s where their innocence might have such a strong influence on their actions between each
other. Although they have a keen sense for finding themselves into trouble, that rascality is just a
side effect of their curious independence. Some might say it’s their fault for running away
without saying goodbye, but let’s keep in mind that Manny pushed them a bit to do hit the road.
Not only do they think and act alike, but they’re twins for ice’s sake. For each other they’re easy
to differentiate the two, but for the rest of us, they both look exactly the same. I mean even Buck
had trouble identifying who was which. Although that could be something anyone with an eye patch
might struggle with, I found myself trying to figure out how to tell who was who.
In the end, we were shown how the pair became more responsible and really stepped up their
game helping Zee rescue Buck, all thanks and due respect to her training them of course.
Next up we have Ellie, the twin’s protective mammoth of a sister. In this movie however
she certainly fills more of a motherly role looking after the boys. Playing peace keeper
when everyone starts to butt heads sets her off on Manny for challenging the twins to go off
and live independently like mom reprimanding stepdad for being grouchy toward her kids. So
clearly all she wants is for everyone to stick together and get along.
Even though the herd wants to split apart – that herd is her entire life’s only sense of
family to have entered her life and grow. Crash and Eddie had been part of their sister’s life
for even longer. And the passing of their shared mother had only strengthened her unrelenting
duty to watch over her little brothers. This never necessarily had to be her responsibility,
but that kind of job can fall onto anyone’s shoulders without notice or even choice.
The lesson that usually follows is learning to let them move on when they’re ready,
which she does learn to let her loved ones go and grow to be their own individuals by the end
of the movie. Ellie’s motherly instincts and pack orientation is what keeps her so high on the list.
Our last place for good characters is given to Sid, the poster-sloth of our favorite herd – Next
to that nut-chasing, glacier-moving rodent Scrat of course. Sid clearly has zero plan
besides staying alive. But when things get serious, he cares very deeply about anyone
if they ever begin to wander too far from their oddball herd. However, his dopiness and lack
of intelligence or common sense for that matter landed him pretty far down the list. At one point,
not taking the initiative to sharpen wits is about the same as choosing to stay willfully oblivious.
This immediately puts his survival onto the responsibility of someone else in his herd,
and prehistoric eras don’t typically contain the best moments to just “go with the flow”.
How many times can we count where predators almost enjoyed a big dish of mammoth with a side of sloth
in the movies? But his obliviousness doesn’t come from a bad place by any means. He’s just… trying
his best? Innocence certainly does him no justice in primal times. Time and time again, Sid proves
to us how much of a dimwit he always manages to become. His stroke of luck with fire and evading
hunters turning him into lunch is just an epitome of how fortunate he is to avert being a predator’s
prey. I think the most intelligent choice he made through all of the animations was clinging to
massive herbivores for shelter and protection in effort to survive. Well, that… and probably making
friends with Mama Tee after watching after her babies in Dawn of the Dinosaurs.
He has a great heart, but even his family left him behind – how dangerous of a threat do you have
to pose for yourself and others around you for everyone to sneak away in the midst of migration?
Up next we’re ranking our neutral members who typically
fall in the middle. Not evil, but not really good either. These characters
are generally indifferent to the outcome, as long as they don’t wind up on the menu:
Let’s be honest, Manny was never much of a herd member after losing his mate and child to human
hunters. And he never seemed to really fall far from that either even after meeting Ellie
and the boys. In fact, Manny seems kind of annoyed and fed up with Crash and Eddie at
best. Never did I realize that we could all need a little space from each other even when we don’t
share walls and a roof. But Manny’s hot temper and quick reactions blabbed a little too much
for the entire mess to transpire. Provoking the twins to go off and live on their own like he
did is exactly what set the entire adventure into motion. If he just kept his mouth shut,
they all might have found a better solution than baiting Crash and Eddie to hit the road.
Because chances of them finding their own way in a world less than merciful to small
critters were slim to none. And coming from someone that’s seen how ruthless it can get,
Manny probably knew it was a matter of time before they became lunch.
Moving further down the list we have Diego. Again – being honest – he only began interacting
with Manny and Sid because he was hunting the hunter’s child. And it was only after throwing
down his own pack to save Manny and Sid that allowed him to survive. Although his sense
of family displayed by protecting Sid from a pack of surrounding raptors was a sign of improvement,
I can’t put too big of a bet that a carnivore won’t eat a sloth when the
food runs out. When it comes down to bare bones however, he’s still a good member of
characters. Just, you know… not the best one with a pure heart of gold is all. One thing
that caught some of our audience by surprise was his teary-eyed moment
when Crash and Eddie said goodbye and chose to stay with Buck and Zee in the lost world.
At last we finally have our evil characters. These members for better or worse will throw
anyone else into the jaws of a predator if it means a little more time for them to escape:
Although they may not be entirely evil, the Raptor Pack is definitely a group of vicious, hunting
predators. And even though Diego may be that same level of category on the food chain, the raptors
appear to lack a sense of awareness. I guess expecting more from a reptile with a bird-sized
brain was asking a little too much. By the end of the movie they actually show a much kinder
side to our mammal friends after the conflict. The rodents could even train the lot like dogs
after changing leash from a bad owner like Orson. But regardless of who was holding their
lead, if anyone can make you believe absurdities, they can make you commit atrocities. They were too
easily influenced by whoever could make them get all wide-eyed over a flame. In fact, they even
turn on their original master when Crash and Eddie mimic their favorite fire trick – so much for a
loyal army. Their oafish demeanor is what brought these oblivious lizards all the way down the list.
But the worst of the worst was Orson without any doubt. He was egotistical,
self-centered, manipulative, and hungry to gain power more than his own natural instincts.
The harmony Buck and the gang started was only necessary to maintain because of the
strings Orson was pulling to climb his way to the top. That big brain could have helped so
much with building the world that the league envisioned and was on the verge of creating,
but that would never be enough for him. Orson wanted control and to dominate the hidden world.
A place where the strong survived because of the weak was no different than what nature already did
naturally. When so much more could be done with so many brilliant ideas, why would anyone ever
settle for what happens that way? Well – greedy, power-hungry, manipulative characters like Orson.
Let’s also not forget to mention his absolute helplessness without the
combined strength of his raptors. Only in fits of rage did Orson ever charge at Buck
or anyone himself. Usually it was his army of grunts that would do all the dirty work,
while he concocted some evil speech about it. As much of a villain he might be,
his realistic views of power are generally what kept him climbing up the food chain.
Even Buck’s idealistic ways of a perfect world living in harmony sounds like something out of
a heartwarming fairytale. And Orson being no dummy was not going to risk his life building
some fantasy. He displays a lot of qualities for coaxing and commanding a hoard of raptors.
Eventually we see this hoard develops numbers to become an army to overrun the lost world and take
down Buck Wild. Learning to control the bug-eyed reptiles with fire was either a stroke of genius
or a flick of luck. Fortunately for Orson, his sharp awareness of realizing what to do next
is what brought him so far from his island exile surrounded by lava.
Quick wit and realization or awareness are some of the key ingredients that evolution tends to favor.
Well that’s our ranking for the character lineup. But hang on – we also have a few sinner medals.
The Darwin Medal belongs to the twins Crash and Eddie. They aren’t the most cunning members in
their herd of misfits. And pretending to play dead can only work out for them so many more times.
The Wrath Medal is given to Manny and his hotheaded temper.
Maybe it was a long time coming, but going off the way he did
at the twins was a bit excessive. There was probably a better way for them to understand
each other better, but then we would never have the Adventures of Buck Wild now, would we?
The Sloth Medal is going to Sid. I think we all saw this coming; that mammal cannot seem to use
his head, let alone get away fast. If it weren’t for the fact that the fans loved him so much,
he probably would never have made it through the first movie, let alone four of them.
The Pride Medal goes to Orson and his obsession with his own brilliant mind.
Pride was definitely the root to his downfall when trying to seize
power. Especially after the valley’s band of heroes offers you an opportunity to help them.
But don’t take this as etched in stone – we’re just looking at pictures on the
cave walls. Let us know in the comments who you think the best character was.
And what we should cover next. Don’t forget to hit that notification bell
and binge our Good to Evil playlist. But most importantly, stay wicked!