The “Ice Age” film franchise just got cooler.
The thrill-seeking, dinosaur-hunting weasel voiced by actor Simon Pegg for more than a decade gets his first movie as the central character with “The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild,” out Friday on Disney+.
“It is the product of a lot of hinting over the years,” Pegg told the Daily News. “I had so much fun in the voice sessions with Lori Forte, the producer, and the directors I’ve worked with in these movies. I always said at the end of the session, ‘We should do a whole movie of just Buck’ ... and who knew? She listened to me.”
The new animated film takes viewers back to the chaotic world beneath the ice, where dinosaurs still exist and Pegg’s fan-favorite Buck must use his savvy skills to keep the peace.
Pegg, 51, introduced Buck in the third “Ice Age” movie — 2009′s “Dawn of the Dinosaurs” — and was excited to expand his longtime character’s backstory in the latest film.
“Buck has always been very much a loner,” Pegg explained. “He was this sort of crazy, Colonel Kurtz-meets-Indiana Jones character when we first met him. But clearly, he has since teamed up with some other different animals down there.”
The film reveals Buck once worked side by side with a similarly strong-willed skunk named Zee, voiced by Justina Machado, but had a falling out with her.
Buck and Zee must work together again, however, when a duplicitous dinosaur reveals his plans to take control of the underground world.
“The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild” is the sixth movie in the franchise, which began in 2002 and centers on an unlikely herd of friends that includes a woolly mammoth, a saber-toothed tiger and a sloth.
“There’s loads of stuff in there for all ages,” Pegg said of the series’ popularity. “There’s some slight winks for the adults. There’s just great color and character for the kids. But it’s also a film about families. The herd is a family.
“Very much like real families, there are different characters, wildly different people, in this case different species. ... This really sort of exemplifies that quite beautifully, and that’s why I think people can relate to it.”
Pegg, who’s also known for playing Benji Dunn in the “Mission: Impossible” movies and for comedies like “Shaun of the Dead,” praised the new “Ice Age” film for its deeper messages, including that it’s OK to ask friends for help.
“This movie is all about growing up in lots of ways, and feeling able to leave environments that you are used to being in,” Pegg said. “Not worrying about wanting to leave, particularly as you get older and you perhaps go off to university or college, or just want to move on somewhere. You can leave your herd and still love them.”
The English actor says he never imagined getting to voice Buck for so many years, and is happy to keep the high-energy character going.
“I just love him,” Pegg said. “He’s just enormous fun. To get to go into work and just be crazy for four hours, it’s like some kind of therapy. I just get to go full-on, 100 miles per hour for the whole session. He’s delightfully lovable and dependable. He’s the kind of friend everybody needs.”
———
