after-hour_dvd_collector Review of The Wild

The Wild (2006)

Bearable as "technology demonstration", but doesn't hold a candle to real storytelling

[2/10 · 19 October 2007]

Since it was on sale at (a certain well-known online store), i've added it to my collection of 3D animated movies. As a technology demo, it sure was nice. Oooh, just look at this: water, hair, smoke, secondary motion, timing, all there. As a movie trying to tell some kind of involving story, it was NOT. Even the animation style, what i considered something of a hallmark of Disney, was uneven - switching back and forth between "naturalistic" and "cartoony" in what felt to be all the wrong places. The story was disjointed, weird (ugly-weird, not funny-weird) and seemed like "designed by committee", which usually is a sure-fire way to kill good storytelling. (Not saying i'd recognize good storytelling if it hit me in the face, but this movie had me going "uh-what now?!" far too often.) Well, now that Pixar's taken over Disney Animation, there's hope such an embarrassing thing won't happen again...