The Wild (2006)

Director:

Steve 'Spaz' Williams

Writers:

Ed Decter (screenplay) &
John J. Strauss (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 April 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

Tagline:

A whole new breed of tourist.

Plot:

An adolescent lion is accidentally shipped from the New York Zoo to Africa. Now running free, his zoo pals must put aside their differences to help bring him back.

Plot Keywords:

Africa | Zoo | Lion | Animal | Volcano

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Kiefer Sutherland	...	Samson (voice)
James Belushi	...	Benny (voice) (as Jim Belushi)
Eddie Izzard	...	Nigel (voice)
Janeane Garofalo	...	Bridget (voice)
William Shatner	...	Kazar (voice)
Richard Kind	...	Larry (voice)
Greg Cipes	...	Ryan (voice)
Colin Hay	...	Fergus Flamingo (voice)
Miles Marsico	...	Duke (voice)
Jack De Sena	...	Eze (voice)
Don Cherry	...	Penguin MC (voice)
Christian Argueta	...	Hamir (voice)
David Cowgill	...	Hamir (voice)
Lenny Venito	...	Stan (voice)
Joseph Siravo	...	Carmine (voice)

Also Known As:

La vie sauvage (Canada: French title)
The Big Break (USA) (working title)
Wildlife (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

Philippines:82 min | USA:94 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:G | Hong Kong:I | Netherlands:MG6 | UK:U | Ireland:G | Singapore:G | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Malaysia:U | Brazil:Livre | Philippines:G (MTRCB) | Germany:o.Al. | Finland:K-7 | Iceland:L | Denmark:7 | Norway:7 | Sweden:7 | South Korea:All | Canada:G (all jurisdictions) | France:U

Company:

C.O.R.E. Feature Animation

Trivia:

Screenplay ideas were being written dating all the way back to 1991.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: If you watch very closely the edge of Larry's mouth during the first scene in the garbage truck drifting through New York, Larry opens his mouth, and there is a very visible bright line where the interior of his mouth should line up with his lips, but doesn't. It's a tear in the CG model, and should have been fixed before the character was animated. What you're viewing through the tear is the New York city scape.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Samson: So there I was, face to face with the biggest, meanest leopard on the savannah and...
Ryan: You roared so loud, his spots flew off. Dad I've heard that story a billion times.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Stern TV: (2008-07-02)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Good Enough

Its really all about Nigel

Similar to Madagascar but not the same this is the story of a zoo lion and his friends who race off to save the lion's son who has been shipped back to the wild. The movie is the race to find the son before he gets to the wild and what happens once they get there.

I have to start by saying the voice cast is top notch here. Everyone does an excellent job. However I must single out Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard as turning in classic animated performances. Belushi plays a street smart squirrel who is in love with a giraffe and he is a ball of fun. Its clear why he is the best friend of Keifer Sutherland's lion. He is a joy to behold.

Even better is Eddie Izzard as Nigel, a koala who is totally crazed. Izzard is in constant motion and is constantly chattering about everyone and everything and he effectively turns a movie about a lion and his cub into a movie about a deluded koala with a tenuous grasp on reality. Izzard's Nigel will probably go down in history as one of the great cartoon characters of all time.

This is a movie with fantastic animation. It all looks great. The director and some of his crew are from the effects team that made Terminator 2 and other big budget special effects movie look so great.

The problem with this movie is that it was made by guys who until this film made their living making soulless special effects for soulless action films. The net effect is a soulless film. There is no pacing, there is little sense of danger. Worse the characters inhabit a world that isn't real. In this world, especially in the New York scenes, no one exists except the characters. They drive all through the city and encounter no one. There are no other cars on the street. To be frank there is no sign of life anywhere. Its terrible. It kills the film. Its sad but as alive the actors are their animated characters, while looking good, come across as dead constructs.

Still the movie is worth seeing. Eddie Izzard, with an assist by Jim Belushi make it worth seeing. Clearly abandoned by Disney in theaters, you should make a run by this on home video or cable, where its less than the sum of its parts construction will be less annoying.