... just a mediocre one.
First, to the people who claim The Wild (2006) is "incomparable" with Madagascar (2005): have you seen the two films? Their premise is identical, their characters frighteningly similar and their setting indistinguishable. Animals escape from New York City zoo, are shipped off to Africa, have trouble readjusting to the wild of the jungle. Yeah, mindblowing difference.
I did not care for Madagascar and I feel it is important to debunk the myth that 'The Wild' is a cardboard rip-off of the former. In fact the two were penned simultaneously or The Wild slightly earlier but Disney got the short end of the stick and DreamWorks finished their product sooner and in order for the releases to not coincide, the premiere of The Wild had to be postponed to 2006. This is bad news for Disney since the novelty of the film's premise has already worn off following Madagascar.
Of course, the story is infinitely more complex than 'zoo animals shipped off to Africa' if you want it to and indeed behind the surface of The Wild lies deeply-rooted father-son problems between Samson the lion and his cub Ryan. This is the catalyst of the journey; Ryan escapes and Samson and his band of zoo animals set off to find him. They race through New York City at the back of a garbage truck as Coldplay booms poignantly to the epic skyscraper environment. They find their way to the harbour with the help of two streetsmart alligators in the sewer and soon board a ship that takes the quartet to the wild of Africa. Here in the jungle, in a twist of the food chain, the mighty gnus are the antagonists and not the lions.
Africa is more beautifully crafted in The Wild than in Madagascar and so are its characters. The animation is fluent and crisp down to the last golden hair on the mane of Samson the lion. There is also a wealth of kooky sidekicks embroidered with their assigned quirks and treated with meticulous animation: turtles, penguins, bugs, lizards, and geese all are exquisitely animated. The latter does not make a movie on its own (my favourite animated comedy is Ice Age, which avoids fancy animation) but it is a goldmine on which to fall back on when the plot suffers.
Onto the humour side of things in one sentence, it works fine. The Wild opens with a Lion King spoof that becomes a running joke in the film and indeed The Wild can in many ways be seen as The Lion King of the new millennium. The curling gag is a stroke of genius; Nigel the koala is a pleasant diversion and finally the cruel way in which the other characters treat their friend the snake is gloriously entertaining. Regrettably this is as funny as it allows itself to get and with the exception of Eddie Izzard not a single cast member is able to project any charisma on-screen.
'The Wild' is highly unremarkable but watch Madagascar and then watch this and you will notice a slight but significant elevation in overall quality. Although it is ultimately quite charmless in cast and content, style and substance, a film that stretches a mere 85 minutes remains very well-condensed (I am bitter from having watched the far too long 2-hour Disney 'Cars').
6 out of 10
First, to the people who claim The Wild (2006) is "incomparable" with Madagascar (2005): have you seen the two films? Their premise is identical, their characters frighteningly similar and their setting indistinguishable. Animals escape from New York City zoo, are shipped off to Africa, have trouble readjusting to the wild of the jungle. Yeah, mindblowing difference.
I did not care for Madagascar and I feel it is important to debunk the myth that 'The Wild' is a cardboard rip-off of the former. In fact the two were penned simultaneously or The Wild slightly earlier but Disney got the short end of the stick and DreamWorks finished their product sooner and in order for the releases to not coincide, the premiere of The Wild had to be postponed to 2006. This is bad news for Disney since the novelty of the film's premise has already worn off following Madagascar.
Of course, the story is infinitely more complex than 'zoo animals shipped off to Africa' if you want it to and indeed behind the surface of The Wild lies deeply-rooted father-son problems between Samson the lion and his cub Ryan. This is the catalyst of the journey; Ryan escapes and Samson and his band of zoo animals set off to find him. They race through New York City at the back of a garbage truck as Coldplay booms poignantly to the epic skyscraper environment. They find their way to the harbour with the help of two streetsmart alligators in the sewer and soon board a ship that takes the quartet to the wild of Africa. Here in the jungle, in a twist of the food chain, the mighty gnus are the antagonists and not the lions.
Africa is more beautifully crafted in The Wild than in Madagascar and so are its characters. The animation is fluent and crisp down to the last golden hair on the mane of Samson the lion. There is also a wealth of kooky sidekicks embroidered with their assigned quirks and treated with meticulous animation: turtles, penguins, bugs, lizards, and geese all are exquisitely animated. The latter does not make a movie on its own (my favourite animated comedy is Ice Age, which avoids fancy animation) but it is a goldmine on which to fall back on when the plot suffers.
Onto the humour side of things in one sentence, it works fine. The Wild opens with a Lion King spoof that becomes a running joke in the film and indeed The Wild can in many ways be seen as The Lion King of the new millennium. The curling gag is a stroke of genius; Nigel the koala is a pleasant diversion and finally the cruel way in which the other characters treat their friend the snake is gloriously entertaining. Regrettably this is as funny as it allows itself to get and with the exception of Eddie Izzard not a single cast member is able to project any charisma on-screen.
'The Wild' is highly unremarkable but watch Madagascar and then watch this and you will notice a slight but significant elevation in overall quality. Although it is ultimately quite charmless in cast and content, style and substance, a film that stretches a mere 85 minutes remains very well-condensed (I am bitter from having watched the far too long 2-hour Disney 'Cars').
6 out of 10