and Vincent Tong) feel stifled by their motley
crew of a herd and sneak off. “It’s time for us to
make our own destiny,” one says. “And maybe
even make our own lunch,” says the other.
The two accidentally discover (again) the
Lost World and are protected by Buck, a
confirmed bachelor with a pirate’s heart
voiced by Simon Pegg. The possums will
need his help because Orson hopes to
destroy the underground peace with an
army of raptors. “Dinos rule, mammals drool!”
he says.
Buck and Zee are yin and yang here. He’s
the rush-in-without-a-plan guy and she’s
more practical. “We’ll never defeat Orson
if you keep going all ‘buck wild’ without
thinking first,” she tells him. He’s got nice
advice for the twin possums: “It’s not powers
that make you a superhero. It’s courage and
resourcefulness.”
Making Eddie and Crash the heroes this time
is a bit of a gamble since they’ve always
been just humorous sidekicks. But it mostly
pays off since little viewers will see a pair of
kids standing up for themselves and learning
to be courageous. Or as one creature notes:
“What they lack in intelligence, they make
up for with bumbling ineptitude.”
Director John C. Donkin, a longtime part of the
franchise, doesn’t mess with the visual language.
There is always a tiny pause when creatures hang
in midair before falling and there are lots of martial
arts flips. In all the bathroom humor — yes, “Buck
crack” is a joke — there are attempts to make the
adults laugh: “I love the smell of skunky gas in the
morning” and “Use your feeling words.”