The Wild

The Wild was advertised as a movie for kids, and it lived up to it's billing. I saw it this past weekend with my 5 year-old. It had a good story line and enough action and music to keep him entertained. He has already asked can we buy it when it comes out on DVD. Since it is a clean movie I will happily get it for him. I didn't have to cringe or be on edge because of suggestive dialog or foul language like Ice Age 2 has. I don't enjoy exposing my son to entertainment that contains language he cannot repeat. If you want to treat your kids to a real kid's flick, take them to see this. It's not a contender for an Oscar, but you'll enjoy it, too.

I definitely didn't hear much about this animated Disney flick upon its release in 2006. In fact, I just rented it the other day, and I believe I had heard of it by then, but didn't know much about it, so I didn't know how well it had been received in general. I was hoping for a decent animated family flick, but when I looked this particular movie up on IMDb, I saw its low rating, and after that, I didn't have very high expectations. The best I could hope for was slightly above average, and unfortunately, I didn't even get that, even though it looked like I might around the beginning.

Samson is a lion who lives in a zoo in New York and is the father of a cub named Ryan. Samson claims he is from the wild, and often tells stories about his days out there. One night, Ryan finds himself taken away in a green box on a truck! Samson, as well as other animals at the zoo, see the lion cub taken away, so Samson sets out with some friends (a giraffe named Bridgette, a squirrel named Benny, a koala named Nigel, and a snake named Larry) to try and find Ryan. They manage to make it to the New York shoreline, where the lion cub is taken away on a boat. Samson and the gang manage to get on another boat and set out on a journey across the ocean, where Ryan has been taken. After they arrive on the other side, they find themselves in the jungles of Africa, searching for Ryan. Unfortunately, they are in danger, as Samson comes clean and confesses that he never did live in the wild, so he has no experience in this environment! To make matters worse, they will have to face an evil wildebeest named Kazar and his clan, who are determined to turn from prey to predator!

This Disney film's biggest merit is the animation, which is probably the only thing I can't say anything critical about. Without a doubt, the animation is absolutely stunning, with some very nice jungle scenery! Unfortunately, not much else about the film can match the animation, if anything. None of the characters really stand out too much, that's one thing, and the humour is another problem. I did laugh quite a few times at some of the slapstick, but found that the humour was often kind of lame, such as Nigel saying, "I've got popcorn up my bum," and a mother hippopotamus' reaction to seeing Ryan talk to her offspring. So, while I've definitely laughed less at comedies, overall, I am not impressed with the humour here. I don't know what else to say about "The Wild", except that the story is also a bit bland, and not quite as touching as it probably should be. In conclusion, there really wasn't much about this film that impressed me, and I can see why it's not the most widely recognized computer animated feature to come out in recent years.

1st of all, I tend to agree with other users who said that The Wild isn't an original. Yeah, in a way it is not an original. Disney seem to reuse their characters, and follow a somewhat same storyline, like their previous movies.

The storyline goes that the cub, Ryan was fed-up being compared to his Dad, and wished to be in the wild. But unlike the previous Disney movies, the poor Ryan was taken to the wild by accident. So his dad & their friends went on a trip to find and rescue Ryan.

So the adventure started! They found their ways through the urban New York, down the sewer and other places you'd usually do not find that animals there.

The animation is top notch, with details on the color texture, with smooth movement by the characters. The voice-over is also superb, especially Kiefer Sutherland's lion & the cuddly koala bear, Izzerd.

All in all, the movie is good for the whole family, be it a toddler or a teenager as it has very good moral values. The story do not have foul language, unlike Ice Age. The only drawback that this movie has it that the characters are very much alike the previous Disney movies such as Open Season and Madagascar. But apart from that, this movie simply rocks!

At first, this appears to be a rip-off of "Madagascar," with New York City zoo animals leaving the comforts of "home" for the wilds of Africa. However, it is a totally different story and feel to it, more serious and sentimental than "Madagascar." Personally, I like "serious and sentimental" but not in animated movie, at least not to the degree it was in here. I preferred the other "NYC zoo" film to this one because "The Wild" lost almost all of its great humor in the last 20-30 minutes.

The first 50 minutes of this film was spectacular. I was thinking, "Wow, another great animated film. How many is that in the past year or so?" The jokes were excellent, the characters mostly funny and the animation superb. The dark, rich colors in here are magnificent. This is a beautiful movie! The minor characters are the best in here: the snake, koala bear and squirrel. Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind and Jim Belushi, in particular, are great in their voices of these characters. The two crocodiles that the wandering zoo animals meet in the sewers are hilarious. They produced the biggest laughs, at least with me. The major characters: the lion (Keifer Sutherland), his cub (Greg Cipes) and the giraffe (Janeane Garafolo) were all a little too much on the serious side.

Speaking of serious: the last third of this film totally switched gears. I wonder how this went over with very young kids and their parents? It got too serious, frightening in spots (for little ones) and then the usual corny Disney ending. It's too bad: this could have been super if they had just continued doing what was working the first 50 minutes.

Well I hired this film out yesterday along with two others and must admit i was expecting to be the same old stuff in Disney films, but i was pleasantly surprised.

I thought it had good characters in and that the actors and actresses that did voice overs really took on the persona of the animal they were betraying and it made me laugh my favourite actor within film was Eddie izzard as he is so cool but saying that as i mentioned every one of them did good job.

Where watching this film is concerned defiantely give it a go as i think many people will be surprised i have not seen Madagascar but think this was under rated due to them coming out around about the same time, i am definitely added this to my collection when i get time.