diff --git a/build/pre-compile.js b/build/pre-compile.js
index f6fade55c..912a8818c 100644
--- a/build/pre-compile.js
+++ b/build/pre-compile.js
@@ -200,6 +200,9 @@
     // http://code.google.com/closure/compiler/docs/api-tutorial3.html#export
     source = source.replace(RegExp('\\.(' + propWhitelist.join('|') + ')\\b', 'g'), "['$1']");
 
+    // remove brackets from `_.escape(__t)` in `tokenizeEscape`
+    source = source.replace("_['escape'](__t)", '_.escape(__t)');
+
     // remove whitespace from string literals
     source = source.replace(/'(?:(?=(\\?))\1.)*?'/g, function(string) {
       // avoids removing the '\n' of the `escapes` object