The Wild
Year: 2006
Director: Steve Williams
Starring: Jim Belushi, Greg Cipes, Jeanane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind & Kiefer Sutherland
Runtime: 82 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 11/11/21
Director: Steve Williams
Starring: Jim Belushi, Greg Cipes, Jeanane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind & Kiefer Sutherland
Runtime: 82 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 11/11/21
Between 2005 and 2008 it seemed like Disney didn’t really know what to do as they floundered around with 3D computer animation whilst their competitors were showing them up with extremely polished computer animation and even creating some of the most beloved animated films of all time. In 2005 Chicken Little proved to be a commercial success for Disney but often looked at critically as one of the studio’s weakest films. So my expectations for The Wild were low going in; I hadn’t even realised the film was a Disney Classic until I started writing this review series and instead always thinking it was a Blue Sky film or something. But does The Wild learn from Chicken Little’s many mistakes?
Samson (Kiefer Sutherland) is Central Park Zoo’s lion alpha who the entire zoo looks up on with his many tales of how he used to live in the wild. His son, Ryan (Greg Cipes), wants nothing more than to be like his dad, but being a cub and not having found his roar yet Ryan feels as though he doesn’t belong in the zoo and needs to escape to the wild.
Upon discovering that Ryan has successfully escaped the Zoo and is on a one way course to Africa, Samson and his best friends Benny (Jim Belushi) the squirrel, Nigel (Eddie Izzard) the koala, Bridget (Janeane Garofalo) the giraffe, and Larry (Richard Kind) the snake go in search of Ryan and must confront the harsh realities of life in the wild.
Samson (Kiefer Sutherland) is Central Park Zoo’s lion alpha who the entire zoo looks up on with his many tales of how he used to live in the wild. His son, Ryan (Greg Cipes), wants nothing more than to be like his dad, but being a cub and not having found his roar yet Ryan feels as though he doesn’t belong in the zoo and needs to escape to the wild.
Upon discovering that Ryan has successfully escaped the Zoo and is on a one way course to Africa, Samson and his best friends Benny (Jim Belushi) the squirrel, Nigel (Eddie Izzard) the koala, Bridget (Janeane Garofalo) the giraffe, and Larry (Richard Kind) the snake go in search of Ryan and must confront the harsh realities of life in the wild.
The Wild is the result of sticking Madagascar and Finding Nemo in a blender but only once all the fun has been stripped out of them. It’s kind of crazy how similar this film is to Madagascar which released one year prior. Animals escape zoo and get shipped off to the wild where they struggle to survive and discover a crazy cult. Samson is almost exactly the same character as Alex; Ryan is Marty; Bridget is a less germaphoby version of Melman; and Nigel is strikingly similar to King Julian.
What truly makes it a let down is how dull these characters are and how unfunny the whole experience is. It stoops so low that Disney are resorting to fart jokes within the first ten minutes and it never manages to recover from there. The one aspect of the film I did find funny is a running gag with Nigel and some cuddly koala toys the Zoo sells, but that’s a joke that earns it’s stripes over time (and even plays a major role in the story); there weren’t any well written enough to just make me laugh straight off.
The vocal performances are infuriating too because everyone does such a half assed job. Most annoying of which though is Richard Kind’s Larry. How many times do studios need to be told that intentionally loud and annoying characters aren’t good and ruin the entire experience! I almost gave up at a couple of points during this film because Larry is so annoying! You can also hear how much Eddie Izzard was just there for the paycheck in her voice, it’s like she was delivering her lines whilst doing her taxes.
The quality of the animation is considerably better than what was showcased in Chicken Little, but I feel as though part of that is because the job was actually outsourced to a different company. But even then, in comparison to what other animation studios were outputting around the same time it’s still a bit behind with some weird facial animations. The character designs themselves are good though with a lot of detail in them, including some good hair effects for Samson’s mane.
The Wild also leans a little heavily on licensed songs. They don’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the scene, and whilst they aren’t bad songs, I question the point of them being there.
I don’t think The Wild is going to be on anybody’s watch list, and whilst you can certainly do worse it’s not an experience I’ll be wanting to return to anytime soon. Just the thought of having to listen to Richard Kind’s horrendous voice acting one more time is enough to make me want to swear off the film for life.
It feels like Disney really didn’t know what to do with The Wild, and whilst the idea would have certainly been in development before Madagascar released, the fact that they didn’t make any attempt to differentiate the film from Dreamworks’ title proves that Disney either didn’t care about the film or thought that the Disney brand would carry more weight than it did.
What truly makes it a let down is how dull these characters are and how unfunny the whole experience is. It stoops so low that Disney are resorting to fart jokes within the first ten minutes and it never manages to recover from there. The one aspect of the film I did find funny is a running gag with Nigel and some cuddly koala toys the Zoo sells, but that’s a joke that earns it’s stripes over time (and even plays a major role in the story); there weren’t any well written enough to just make me laugh straight off.
The vocal performances are infuriating too because everyone does such a half assed job. Most annoying of which though is Richard Kind’s Larry. How many times do studios need to be told that intentionally loud and annoying characters aren’t good and ruin the entire experience! I almost gave up at a couple of points during this film because Larry is so annoying! You can also hear how much Eddie Izzard was just there for the paycheck in her voice, it’s like she was delivering her lines whilst doing her taxes.
The quality of the animation is considerably better than what was showcased in Chicken Little, but I feel as though part of that is because the job was actually outsourced to a different company. But even then, in comparison to what other animation studios were outputting around the same time it’s still a bit behind with some weird facial animations. The character designs themselves are good though with a lot of detail in them, including some good hair effects for Samson’s mane.
The Wild also leans a little heavily on licensed songs. They don’t have anything to do with what’s going on in the scene, and whilst they aren’t bad songs, I question the point of them being there.
I don’t think The Wild is going to be on anybody’s watch list, and whilst you can certainly do worse it’s not an experience I’ll be wanting to return to anytime soon. Just the thought of having to listen to Richard Kind’s horrendous voice acting one more time is enough to make me want to swear off the film for life.
It feels like Disney really didn’t know what to do with The Wild, and whilst the idea would have certainly been in development before Madagascar released, the fact that they didn’t make any attempt to differentiate the film from Dreamworks’ title proves that Disney either didn’t care about the film or thought that the Disney brand would carry more weight than it did.