Category: Cartoons & Animation - Children - Children's Video - Family - Feature Film-comedy
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DVD The Wild
A cuddly koala who wants to be fierce, a squirrel in love with a sarcastic giraffe, an addle-pated anaconda, and a lion with a secret set off from their cozy zoo to rescue the lion's adolescent cub from an accidental kidnapping. After braving the dangers of the big city and stealing a boat, they find themselves in the African jungle, where a renegade herd of wildebeest have decided they want to change their position on the food chain (understandable, really). The Wild is hodgepodge--it's never clear why these mismatched creatures are friends and plot elements seem haphazardly plucked from Finding Nemo, Madagascar, and Ice Age: The Meltdown (though the latter two were made at the same time as The Wild, so it's just unfortunate for this movie that they came out first). Despite a general air of manic desperation, The Wild does have its strengths: The animation is richly realistic, leading to some gorgeous depictions of light (not exactly a selling point for kids, but adults can appreciate it). Several characters pop out--a pair of sewer crocodiles sound like NPR's Car Talk guys; William Shatner (Star Trek, Boston Legal) is effectively scary as the cult-leader/choreographer of the wildebeest; and comedian Eddie Izzard lends some of his trademark smart and silly humor to Nigel, the disgruntled koala bear. Successful bits and pieces don't make for a great movie, but they keep The Wild from the brink of disaster. --Bret Fetzer
Ok, I admit it, the only reason I bought this movie was for Eddie Izzard. The guy is funny; and he made a lame, bad redo of a animal story, fun.
It's the typical "animals on an adventure" movie, and a thrown in moral for the kids. The animation has nothing on Pixar and Dreamworks, Disney needs to do some catching up if they want to stay in the game with animated films!
But like I said; the best parts were with "Nigel" voiced by Eddie Izzard, supported by Janeane Garofalo as Bridget the Giraffe and Benny the Squirrel by Jim Belushi. They had some cute lines that made me laugh and Kazar, voiced by William Shatner(with out any irony) was too good to not find funny.
So in the end, the moive is OK. Personally I watch only the bits with Nigel, Benny and Bridget...and the extra of "Eddie Izzard Unleashed". Other than that, humor is a bit lacking.
'The Wild' Offers Fun, but Familiar Territory
It is hard to criticize Disney's animated feature 'The Wild'. With so few G rated movies about, I would hate to even touch such a film. Nevertheless, 'The Wild' is a worthy adventure with a few entertaining moments that accentuate many elements of familiar film territory.
Ryan is a cub lion who suffers from an inferiority complex. He has yet to reach adolescence and his roar is just one notch above a kitten. His father, Samson, shares stories of his glory days with yarns that recall an earlier life outside the confines of the zoo. They have their share of friends, including the independent female giraffe, and, uniquely, a squirrel who has one of the oddest crushes in movie memory. There's a goofy python and a koala bear, who seems more like an English twit than a rugged Aussie. There's a lot of random slapstick that doesn't add up to much, until the moody lion cub goes off on his own and needs a place besides a tree to have some quiet time. He ends up in the back of a truck where he sleeps until morning. Then, his father and others discover to their horror that he's being shipped back to "the wild". They make it their mission to help the father and end up on the jungle island where they are outnumbered by some frightening wildebeasts trying to bridge their stature in the food chain. There's also a volcano that works like a ticking time-bomb.
Clocking in at just less than an hour and a half, 'The Wild' has enough character--or at least characterization--and a fun enough story to be a worthy viewing adventure. I take exception to two key elements from the 'Star Wars' franchise, however: One is a very familiar scene in a garbage truck where the giraffe is a key player, and the other is where the koala is made king of the wildebeasts, a little more than remiscent of C3-PO in 'Return of the Jedi'. Otherwise, despite some random hijinx that doesn't integrate as well as 'Over the Hedge' and slapstick that is inserted haphazardly, 'The Wild' is a fine, family film that won't bore adults.
Disney swings and misses
Chorus:
A little Madagascar
A little Lion King
A little Finding Nemo
Not enough of anything
Lion, Giraffe, Koala, Snake
A squirrel they call Benny
I asked my son which one he liked
He said to me "Not any!"
Escaping from the NY Zoo
Inside a garbage truck
I begged my son to watch this one
But sad to say - no luck
Repeat chorus
Down in the sewers lurk the beasts
Survivors of the flush
If alligators creep you out
Locate "Fast Forward" - PUSH!
Away, away to Africa
They chug off in a boat
But it'll take more than a miracle
To keep this plot afloat
Repeat chorus again
They're following a lion cub
Who got himself displaced
And meet some wildebeests who are
Acquiring new tastes
They settle the unsettled claims
Regarding the food chain
And now that I have watched this once
I won't need to again
Repeat chorus once again
The moral of this dizzy film's
"To thine own self be true"
Don't try to be someone you're not
Or end up in the stew
This movie's one that you can skip
It's patchy and disjointed
If you're hoping for a Disney gem
You will be disappointed
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The love life of a woolly mammoth--handled with G-rated delicacy--drives this sequel to the first computer-animated romp in the age of prehistoric mammals. While the first Ice Age took a delightful premise and suffocated it with a formulaic plot--in which a mammoth named Manfred (voiced by Ray Romano, Everyone Loves Raymond), a sloth named Sid (John Leguizamo, Moulin Rouge!), and a sabre-tooth tiger named Diego (Denis Leary, Rescue Me) helped an abandoned human infant return to its tribe (basically, Three Mammals and a Baby)--the sequel takes the now-familiar setting, gives it a shapeless, episodic storyline, and yet somehow becomes pretty...