The Wild Release
Date:
April 14, 2006 Studio: Walt Disney Pictures Director: Steve "Spaz" Williams
Screenwriter: Ed Decter, Mark Gibson, Philip Halprin, John J. Strauss Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Greg Cipes, Jim Belushi, Janeane
Garofalo, Richard Kind, William Shatner, Eddie Izzard Genre: Animation, Family MPAA Rating: G Official Website:
Disney.com/TheWild DVD:
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Plot Summary: In this wild and outrageous
computer-animated comedy-adventure, an odd assortment of animals from the New
York Zoo including a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a koala, and a squirrel
discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly
shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him. The
film boasts an impressive vocal ensemble Kiefer Sutherland (as the respected
lion leader, Samson), Greg Cipes (as Samson's son, Ryan), Jim Belushi (as Benny,
the street savvy squirrel and Samson's best friend), Janeane Garofalo (as a
quick-witted giraffe), Richard Kind (as a dim-witted anaconda), William Shatner
(as a wicked wildebeest), and Eddie Izzard (as Nigel, an acerbic koala) along
with cutting edge animation, and a story filled with hilarious situations.
Director Steve "Spaz" Williams and producer Clint Goldman helped to
revolutionize CG character animation during their long association with ILM
("The Mask," "The Abyss," "Jurassic Park," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"), and
were responsible for the acclaimed Blockbuster Entertainment commercials
featuring Carl the rabbit and Ray the guinea pig.
Computer animated family
feature The Wild is about being free, like several other Hollywood
movies with environmentally aware themes. Its configured with Lord of
the Flies sensibilities meets Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in
regards to defeating the oppressor meets Star Wars saga, more grown-up
for the intended audience but parents should relate.
The central plot is borrowed from the Star Wars series, its quite
familiar and predictable, but since it is about a father, a zoo lion
with a family secret, searching for his son, stowed aboard a boat to
Africa escaping from the zoo and paternity, it smacks of a father
seeking out what was lost, a Biblical type story, which could be argued
as a Christian extrapolation, but what is more obvious is how this idea
sits in relation to one another rather than the vertical.
The problem with the father-son central plot is that it is layered on too
thickly although to its credit the father-son plot is multi-dimensional,
dealing with inner conflict and conflict between generations of sons and
fathers.
There is some cartoonish violence and scary moments possibly not suited
for young children and the movie loses its way mid-way through with a
jarring anti-climatic diversion.
The feature starts off entertainingly, however, with good humour, and a
complex rendering of the main theme in one scene is appealing, and as
usual, the sidekick characters add sprightly humour and great voice
work.
The humour keeps the children enthralled, although by now this type of
movie with on-its-sleeve loudness is wearing thin.
This review
was originally published at
Challenge Weekly, New Zealand's weekly
Christian newspaper.
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- Almost phony baloney
