"It's time to get ... Buck-Wild!"

"Buck. The name's Buck. Short for Buckminster. Long for Buh."

How can anyone not love this character?

       ... Ok, let me rephrase that:

How could I not love this character?

He's Crazy. He's Curious. He's Suave. He's Over-Dramatic. He's Adventurous. He's a Storyteller. He's Worldly-Wise. He's Intelligent. He's Kind. And his accent is English. (I love accents!)

Time for the game face ...

For those of you that don't know this guy, all I can say is; watch Ice Age 3 (and read this blog). I know that the story and emotions of the third movie are not as epic as the first movie, but this guy and the creative story does make it worth at least one watch. The Sub-Zero Heroes' guide has quite a following. Not only with the fans of the movies but also the animators themselves: he has such a range of movements and controllers that they could have a lot of fun with the 'digital puppet'.

"Buck. He is a really fun character— a blending of Indiana Jones and Colonel Kurtz!— with a particularly unique shape. He’s very cylindrical because he is a weasel. I did many drawings taking advantage of that shape so he would be able to twist and turn and jump and leap in unique and fun ways. All of the animators were very interested in seeing and talking about that, even so much as how his face moves, his jaw moves."

(Source: http://animatedviews.com/2009/peter-de-seve-breaks-the-ice-with-ice-age-dawn-of-the-dinosaurs/ )

Ever seen Diego do that?

And they really took advantage of that "unique shape". Just watching him move throughout the movie shows far more agility and range that the other characters in the movie; He wrings himself dry like a towel, he can bend his spine to a caterpillar-like stance, his lower jaw goes from overbite to under-bite and back, his feet can perform puppetry with skulls just as well as his hands and other interesting oddities that add to the eccentric character that he boasts.

His entrance alone underlines those quirks of his character; he blows a horn to announce his arrival and starts swinging on a vine towards the Sub-Zero Heroes. Then his vine snaps, catapulting him over their heads and into a tree further away. And you still haven't seen the guy clearly. Then he suddenly jumps into full view, with an almost-piratey 'ha-HA', grinning innately with a vine with berries wrapped around him like the bullet-belts you see in Rambo. He throws the berries around like little bombs and pulls the 'pin' of a last one grenade-like that manages to create a dust-cloud big enough to obscure two mammoths, a saber-tooth cat, a weasel and two possums from the dinos (yet Buck could hold the berry easily in his hand ... oh, well; it's cartoon physics). They all disappear into the shrubberies. His next entrance, just a few seconds later, is just as 'action hero in the jungle'; his head rising slowly from the water with his knife in his teeth. 

And then he introduces himself to everyone (see quote above). 

The rest is history; every word he says underlines either his worldly-wise attitude or his insanity, or both. Every shot of him details his sense of drama and theater. I especially love the sudden close ups; they underline his words with such over the top drama that I laugh every single time I see them. That camera-work has never been done for a character before in the Ice Age franchise (Note: even the Scrat doesn't have those sudden close-ups) especially not while their speaking

(Yes, tense moments do have the camera close in on the important expressions of certain characters, but that lightening speed of Buck's close ups (and the fact that they almost always zoom-out as fast as they came after he has finished speaking) set the camera work  off the chart in terms of intensity and humor. Additionally, he doesn't have those particular close-ups during the 'final climax' of the story.)

There are only a few moments when Buck seems actually sane during the entire film, most of those moments are in the last half of the movie and especially after Rudy supposed death. But even then he's still retains the quirks of his facial expressions being over the top and dramatic. I can honestly say that the only 'sane' footage I've see of him comes from the promotional photos you can find (see below). 

And to me; he doesn't look like Buck when he's sane ....

I wonder what they drugged him with ....

Yes, insanity is great in the good guy camp as it makes for interesting characters and the possibility that anything could occur while that character is about. Yet what sets Buck apart from the other crazy characters (within and outside the Ice Age movies) is that he has a (viable) reason for being so outgoing and insane. Crash and Eddie, for example, egg each other on into Jackass-like stunts and behaviors, but they do their stuff because they have ... unique personalities and have been acting like so for all their lives (probably). 

Buck, on the other hand, has been alone in that underground world, chasing an albino dinosaur, for who knows how long. In order to survive people (Note; I believe that the characters in the Ice Age movies are 'human' enough that human psychology works with them) need interaction and (human) contact. Look at the movie "Cast Away"; Wilson is created to stave off complete loneliness. So Buck talks to rocks, skulls and unresponsive dinosaurs, 'pretending' that they talk back to him so he retains relationships and interactions necessary for survival. His need for further intimacy served by a (ugly) pineapple. 

(Note: But even he acknowledges that that isn't enough for him, as during the last shot of the scene at the 'Chasm of Death' he states: "I'm so lonely!" while compulsively laughing in the gassy environment.)

And you thought Crash and Eddie were nut-jobs ...

And, to keep himself occupied, there is his self appointed 'job' in the underground realm; fighting Rudy, the albino dinosaur. (Note; that's where the similarities between Buck and Captain Ahab really show the most). It was really cleaver of the creators to give the big 'monster' (which is, in typical monster-movie fashion, is only truly revealed near the end of the flick) a non terrifying name to refer to him. It can work in two ways (in the minds of children); either is helps make the monster less scary as 'fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself' (Hermione, 'The Chamber of Secrets'); or is can work opposite, contrasting the scary creature with a name that obviously doesn't match its appearance/personality making it even scarier (another Harry Potter reference: for example; Fluffy in 'The Philosophers' Stone'). 

Hello Rudy ....

Buck sees Rudy as a rival, a foe he will fight till the end of (one of) them, reflected in his decision to leave the underground world when he believes Rudy dead, and his elation when Rudy turns out to be alive. Rudy's thoughts on the matter, I think, are reflected nicely in the words of the voice actor; Simon Pegg, when he was asked on the matter (BTW; Simon Pegg = awesome actor!): "I don't know if Rudy is involved in the relationship, he just wants to eat Buck. But Buck kinda sees him as his Moriarty as it were." (Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FugrYc_90A ) Rudy is just a dinosaur that just wants to eat some weasel. Unfortunately he chose to hunt a wily and crafty weasel that can fend for himself in this hostile world. But as Buck creates relationships from the interactions he has in this world, Rudy's persistence is seen as a similar obsession that Buck has for him, and therefore he will fight Rudy in 'biblical-sized' fights. Completely fitting character that he stays in that world (and is seen riding Rudy in a cameo in the beginning of Ice Age 4) and continues to kick-ass under the ice. 

So, to wrap up .... *ahem* 

Buckminster is AWESOME!

Yeah.