Studio Cut

The Ice Age universe introduces a new adventure-loving character named Buck (voiced by Simon Pegg, “Star Trek”) – a swashbuckling, slightly crazed one-eyed weasel who accidentally fell into the gargantuan dino world in “Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”

The Ice Age gang headed by Manny along with Diego, Ellie, Crash and Eddie meet and greet Buck when Sid was teethed by a momma T-Rex in trying to keep the dinosaur babies as his own.   The lone mammal in a world of giant lizards, Buck has been isolated for a long time – maybe too long; he’s prone to talking to the trees and shrubs surrounding him.   There, he had a fateful encounter with Rudy, a terrifying albino dinosaur who took out Buck’s eye – and Buck, the dino’s tooth – during their initial, fateful encounter.  Buck’s adventurous spirit and daredevil antics are embraced by sibling possums Crash and Eddie both of whom we met in “Ice Age: The Meltdown,” eagerly joins Buck below the ice to kick some dino butt.

Co-screenwriter Yoni Brenner notes that finding the origins of Buck’s bigger than life antics was a priority.  “Carlos [Saldanha] wanted to make sure we defined a reason for Buck’s craziness.  “We wanted to ground his behavior, at least a little bit.  He had to be not only really funny, but make sense from a character point of view.”

Buck has an anatomical advantage in dealing with the dangerous environment and his even more foreboding arch nemesis Rudy; character designer Peter de Sève, the animators, under supervising lead animator Galen Tan Chu, plus the film’s rigging department, made the character super-bendy in every direction.  “Buck is a little crazy, as well as really athletic, so we really amped up his ability to twist, stretch and spiral,” says de Sève.   Buck having only one good eye made him even more visually arresting, but presented some performance challenges for the animators.

In casting the role, the filmmakers wanted a voice that stood out from their previously established characters.  “Every character in the ‘Ice Age’ films has a distinct voice, but they all somehow fit together,” says producer Lori Forte. Ultimately, it was British actor Simon Pegg who got the nod to voice Buck.  “Simon has great comedic timing, and his work brought a completely different flavor to Buck,” Forte continues. “We wanted a quality that conveyed a worldliness and range of experience that hadn’t yet been heard in an ‘Ice Age’ movie.”  Pegg, who is currently on view as the starship engineer Scotty in director J.J. Abrams’ reboot of “Star Trek,” and who was acclaimed for his work in the edgy comedies “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz,” says he enjoyed the character, whom the actor gave a Cockney accent. “Buck really sparked my imagination.  He’s full of energy and larger than life.  I saw him as a cross between Indiana Jones and [“Apocalypse Now’s” powerful but demented] Col. Kurtz.”

“Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” will open July 3 nationwide in (Phils.) theaters (also available in DIGITAL 3D in selected theaters) from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.