The Wild (2006)

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.

Director:

Steve 'Spaz' Williams

Writers:

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

Stars:

Kiefer Sutherland, James Belushi, Eddie Izzard

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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)

Storyline

Ryan is a lion who wants to go to the wild, where his dad (Samson) once lived. When he gets himself shipped to Africa, his zoo friends (and Samson) work together to bring him back. When they get to Africa, however, the animals find themselves in a pile of danger. They have to fight an evil wildebeest called Kazar. But Kazar's safe compared to the other danger on the island- a volcano that's on the edge of eruption. Can the animals find Ryan and get out of Africa before the volcano erupts in so little time?

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Plot Keywords:

africa | zoo | volcano | lion | animal | 

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Taglines:

A whole new breed of tourist.

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [United States]

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 April 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Big Break

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$460,162 (Australia) (22 September 2006)

Gross:

$2,521,598 (Australia) (13 October 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

C.O.R.E. Feature Animation, Contrafilm, Hoytyboy Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby SR

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Kazar" is the name (with a hyphen added, rendering it "Ka-Zar") of a Marvel Comics character, a Tarzan-style hero from the Savage Land. "Kazar" also means "beware" in the language of the people of Caspak in a series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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Goofs

Larry the anaconda is shown blinking numerous times in the film. Snakes have no eyelids and cannot blink. He's also rather thin for an anaconda - they are heavy-bodied snakes - and has no trouble hearing the other characters when they talk to him, even though snakes have no external ears and are deaf to airborne sound.

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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.

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Crazy Credits

All main (and lots of the minor) characters interact with the end credits

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Connections

Featured in The Nostalgia Chick: Dreamworks Vs. Disney: Dualing (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Really Nice Day (Finale)"
Written and Performed by Eric Idle and John Du Prez
Produced by John Du Prez and Eric Idle
Recorded and Mixed by Larry Mah and Tony Phillips
Remixed by Tony Phillips

User Reviews

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.