The Wild is the newest animated movie to be released by Disney. I thought it looked like it would be cute and I wanted to see it even though it did seem like it would be very similar to Madagascar, an animated movie released by Dreamworks in 2005. After seeing the movie, I think that The Wild was a much better movie than Madagascar was. In fact, I think The Wild is one of the better animated movies to be released in the last several years. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been doing that well at the theater. I think being released so soon after Ice Age: The Meltdown has hurt The Wild, which is a shame because it is such a good movie.

Samson the lion and his son Ryan lived in the New York City zoo. Samson told stories about hunting in the wild to try to help Ryan learn how to roar. It really wasn’t happening and Ryan was discouraged. He felt like he would find his roar if he were in the wild. Samson and Ryan had a disagreement and Ryan ended up in a trailer that was going to Africa. Samson talked to some other animals and found out where the trailer would be going and decided to break out of the zoo to find his son. His friends, Benny the squirrel, Bridgette the giraffe, Nigel the koala bear, and Larry the snake went with Samson. The animals were out of their element and not sure what to do in several situations, but they kept going to find Ryan.

I know that many people thought that The Wild was simply a rip off of Madagascar when the previews came out. I don’t think it was. From the things I’ve read online, Disney had actually started production on The Wild first and then Dreamworks developed Madagascar and rushed to get it in theaters first. The rushing showed with the quality of the animation and even the character development. There are some similarities, but there were also differences. The Wild was about a father trying to find his son while Madagascar was about a zebra that wanted to be in the wild. The main characters of each movie did have a group of friends go with them and they all ended up in Africa, though for very different reasons. The animals had different experiences out of the zoo and once they actually arrived in Africa.

I saw Madagascar last year when it was still in theaters. I did think it was a bit better than Shark Tail, but it was far from one of my favorite animated movies. It wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. The animation wasn’t anything special, I didn’t think it was that funny, and I was really annoyed by the two main characters. The only characters I really liked were the penguins and Melman. The Wild was a much more entertaining, funny, enjoyable movie. I was laughing throughout the entire movie, and so was everyone else in the theater. The animation was better and the movie had a more realistic look even though most of what happened in it wasn’t realistic. I liked all of the characters, even the snake. The Wild was the better movie in every way. People that haven’t wanted to see it because they thought it would be too much like Madagascar should give it a chance.

The Wild did share some plot points with previous Disney and Pixar movies. Samson and Ryan were lions, so there was a bit of a connection to The Lion King. There were even a few scenes that were very similar to that movie that had one of them hanging over a ledge of some sort. The other major similarity was to Finding Nemo since both movies deal with a farther searching for his missing son. The similarities didn’t bother me at all because the characters themselves are different and those situations were handled differently. I wasn’t sitting in the theater thinking how this scene was just like one from The Lion King and that one was like one from Finding Nemo. When I started thinking more about the movie to write my review, I started seeing those connections. The story could have been a little more original, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying it. There were some other things added in, like the group of dancing wildebeests and their crazed, choreograph obsessed, power hungry leader, that were very unique.

I thought that The Wild had a lot of humor in it. All of the characters had funny lines that I think worked well. Nigel said and did a lot of funny things throughout the movie. He cracked me up in every scene he was in. A cute, talking stuffed version of him was sold in the zoo and very popular with visitors. Nigel was very embarrassed by the bear and had to put up with a lot of teasing by other animals because of it. Some of the things Nigel did were a bit silly, but they worked in the movie and didn’t bother me at all. Benny and Larry also made me laugh many times. Normally snakes, even animated ones, make me freak out at least a little bit. Larry was just so silly I couldn’t help but laugh at his antics and like him. There was some slapstick type of humor included that involved most of the animals at least once. Some gross humor was included in a few scenes as well. It didn’t get out of hand and wasn’t used constantly throughout the movie. I don’t like a lot of that type of humor that has turned up in many animated movies in the last few years. It did seem to be done better in this movie. The movie was rated G, so there was less of that sort of thing than there has been in many recent animated movies.

The Wild was a computer animated movie, one of the first ones that Disney has done. Disney has been connected with the wonderful Pixar movies for years without actually being involved in the process of making those movies. Several other studios, like Dreamworks and Fox, have also made some very successful computer animated movies. I think that Pixar does the best computer animation even though I have enjoyed the computer animated movies from the other studios as well. Pixar’s animation has been amazing, especially in their last several movies. I thought that the animation in The Wild was very good, almost as good as a Pixar movie. I think it is better than what Dreamworks has done in their last few movies. The settings had a very realistic look to them, including New York City and the ocean. Really the only thing that I don’t think was as good as Pixar was with the movement of hair on a character. Samson was really the only character that had longer hair, though Benny did have a rather poofy tail. The hair in Samson’s mane did move with his movements or in the wind. Benny’s tail did the same thing. That was well done, but it just wasn’t up to the excellent work that Pixar did with animating hair in Monsters, Inc.. The animation of Sully’s fur was absolutely amazing in that movie, and I haven’t seen anything from another studio that has been as good.

Samson told stories about his life in the wild before he ended up in the zoo in an attempt to try to teach his son Ryan how to roar. It wasn’t working and both of them were getting somewhat frustrated. Samson loved his son very much, which is why he decided to break out of the zoo to try to find him. Kiefer Sutherland provided the voice for the character. I enjoyed his performance in The Right Temptation. Ryan had a lot of insecurities tied to his lack of a roar and the fact that Samson was his father. Ryan didn’t always think before he acted, which got him into trouble. Greg Cipes provided the voice for the character. Ryan’s mother wasn’t in the movie and wasn’t even mentioned. This isn’t the first time a mother has been missing from a Disney animated movie. Benny the squirrel was Samson’s best friend. Benny was the one that Samson confided in. The two had a strong friendship. Benny was trying to win Bridgette over and had a tendency to pick things out of the trash. I liked the voice that James Belushi did for the character.

Nigel was probably my favorite character. I’ve always thought that koalas were cute, so that may be part of it. He wasn’t exactly grumpy, but he didn’t act like he would be cuddly either. He hated that a talking stuffed animal was made to look like him. He wanted to help Samson find Ryan. Nigel did express some doubts a few times about the group’s ability to successfully find Ryan. The voice that Eddie Izzard did for Nigel was perfect for the character. He had a part in Ocean's Twelve as well. Bridgette was a giraffe that was very kind. She thought a lot of Ryan and wanted to find him. She had a unique relationship with Benny. Janeane Garofalo did a voice that did fit the character.

Larry was some sort of snake. I’m not sure what type he was supposed to be, but from a few things he did, like how he hugged Ryan, I think he was some kind of constrictor snake. Larry was a bit silly and wasn’t the smartest member of the group. For a snake, he was likeable. Richard Kind did a voice for him that I didn’t recognize at all. I’ve seen Kind in several of the tv shows he’s been in as well as movies, like Bewitched. Kazar was the leader of the wildebeests and was planning to move the wildebeests up the food chain because of something he called a sign from above. Kazar was a bit crazed and on a power trip. He was also obsessed with choreography. William Shatner did a very good voice for the character. I liked his character in Miss Congeniality and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Patrick Warburton did a voice for one of the wildebeests, Blag. I recognized his voice immedately. He’s done voices in several animated movies. He does have a good voice for doing voice over work. He also had parts in Men in Black 2 and Sky High.

Voice Talent

James Belushi - Benny
Greg Cipes - Ryan
Janeane Garofalo - Bridgette
Eddie Izzard - Nigel
Richard Kind - Larry
William Shatner - Kazar
Kiefer Sutherland - Samson
Patrick Warburton - Blag

Steve “Spaz” Williams - Director

The Wild was a very funny, entertaining animated movie. I really enjoyed it and will be picking up the DVD once it is out. It really is one of the best animated movies I’ve seen in a long time. I think it is much better overall than recent releases from Dreamworks, including Madagascar.

Animated Movie Reviews

The Emperor's New Groove ~ Sleeping Beauty ~ Lilo & Stitch ~ Treasure Planet ~ Brother Bear ~ Home on the Range ~ Valiant ~ Chicken Little ~ Beauty and the Beast ~ Monsters, Inc. ~ Finding Nemo ~ The Incredibles ~ Ice Age ~ Ice Age: The Meltdown ~ Robots ~ Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas ~ Shrek ~ Shrek 2 ~ Shark Tale ~ Madagascar ~ Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit ~ Hoodwinked ~ The Polar Express ~ Tim Burton's Corpse Bride ~



Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4