The Wild (2006)
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Theatrical Release: Apr 14, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $37,310,059
Synopsis: Ryan, a lion cub, worships his father, Sampson (Kiefer Sutherland), the brawny, brave, uncontested king of a New York City zoo. The film opens as Ryan listens adoringly as Sampson recounts yet another tale of roaring wildebeests into submission on the African savannah. While the zoo animals... Ryan, a lion cub, worships his father, Sampson (Kiefer Sutherland), the brawny, brave, uncontested king of a New York City zoo. The film opens as Ryan listens adoringly as Sampson recounts yet another tale of roaring wildebeests into submission on the African savannah. While the zoo animals cavort, Ryan slips into a metal crate bound overseas for a chance to see "the wild" for himself. Now Sampson, with the help of his loyal friends Benny the squirrel (James Belushi), Nigel the koala bear (Eddie Izzard), Bridget the giraffe (Janeane Garafalo), and Larry the snake (Richard Kind), must brave the New York City jungle and then the actual jungle to save his son from the clutches of a crazed wildebeest with aspirations to carnivorousness (William Shatner). To make things worse, Sampson confesses that his heroic stories were fabrications; he's completely lost in his wild surroundings, unable to fight off a rabid poodle or eat a sassy hyrax. Since ANTZ hit the cineplexes in 1993, computer-animated films about chatty animals have proliferated, but THE WILD is perhaps the first that is heavily influenced by its immediate predecessors, taking a little plot from MADAGASCAR, adding healthy doses of the ICE AGE films, and borrowing heavily from the father-son sentiments of THE LION KING (the animals actually pass a Times Square theater playing THE LION KING). However, originality isn't the draw here: it's the world-class voice-acting by Hollywood heavies, and the non-stop slapstick antics that will have children screaming with delight. Amid all the ridiculousness, parents will appreciate the wry asides by Eddie Izzard's koala bear. [More]
Genre: Childrens
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Eddie Izzard, Janeane Garofalo, William Shatner
DVD Info
Release:
Nov 21, 2006
Blu-ray Disc Features:
- Keep Case
- Widescreen - 1.85
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, French, Spanish
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Uncompressed - English
- Subtitles - English, French, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary By Director Steve "Spaz" Williams and Producer Clint Goldman
- Bloopers - Eddie Izzard Unleashed Bloopers And Blunders
- Featurette - Meet Colin: The Rock Hyrax
- Music Vidoe - Everlife Music Video "Real Wild Child"
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
For all the rest of the film's unoriginality, The Wild moves along with solidly crafted wit.
The Wild is pretty tame, and in the increasingly crowded, competitive, survival-of-the-fittest world of computer animation, it meows but does not roar
The kids might be better off with a trip to a real zoo, if they haven't had their fill of Madagascar yet.
The diverse animals are beautifully rendered, but this cliche-riddled Disney failure represents one too many trips to the CGI non-inkwell.
The animation here impresses more than in the equally defunct Madagascar, but everything else smacks of an easy money-making exercise of such dimwitted inanity even the youngest kids will see through it.
A decade ago, this sort of thing would have felt cuter, fresher and funnier than today, when the bar for CGI animation has been raised considerably.
The film is ultimately noise and its story is so overdone at this point that far from being swept up in it, we're only hoping that the next plot point isn't as predictable as the last. But things never do work out that way.
The Wild roars back from a rocky opening act to a storming last reel, just managing to claw its way above comparisons with Madagascar.
Watchable animated adventure with one eye on the cuddly toy market, though you've got to love a film that casts William Shatner as a wildebeest.
What's so aggravating here is the grievous lack of wit, imagination and plain old story.
Much of it is so rote and so predictably crushed into the prefabricated Disney mold that it's impossible to kick off the unpleasant aroma of 'been there, done that.'
There's little to recommend of The Wild, which, despite its title, is about as pedestrian as you can get.
The Wild, for example, looks pretty good, but the script is just plain bad and the jokes are just plain awful.
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