The Wild (2006)

Wonderful character development!

Great Film overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Samson the Wild (Kiefer Sutherland) claims to be the king of the jungle. He rules the New York Zoo. His son Ryan can't get the roar right and has a fight with him. The animals play when the zoo closes at night. Ryan goes off in a huff and accidentally gets locked in a trailer container. The containers are being sent to Africa to rescue animals being evacuated from a volcano. Samson sets off to retrieve Ryan with the help of squirrel Benny (Jim Belushi), koala Nigel (Eddie Izzard), giraffe Bridget (Janeane Garofalo), and anaconda Larry (Richard Kind). In Africa, they face off against wildebeest Kazar (William Shatner).This came one year after Madagascar and sometimes being first is being the winner. That's the case in this one. I don't necessarily blame this movie. I certainly don't claim that this movie copied anything from Madagascar. In fact, I'm sure Disney had a minor meltdown when they saw the similarities. This is less wacky than Madagascar. This story may be a slight improvement. The voice work is less wacky comedy although there is plenty of jokes. The animation is 3D semi-realism which makes Samson look like a stuffed toy. No matter any possible improvements or deficits from Madagascar, the comparison is never far behind and the movie suffers from the perceived lack of originality.

Maybe I just wasn't in the mood when I was watching this. Maybe I have seen too many cartoon gags. Whatever it was, I found most of the gags not really funny. I didn't really connect with the characters either.The animation is very beautifully done, but as another reviewer described it, "soulless". Many scenes feel as fillers, detached from the main plot. The last half hour the mood changes from funny to serious and scary. while that part still has some very funny aspects to it, it reminded me a lot of the "be prepared" song in the Lion King, the only part of that movie that I hated.All in all an OK movie. Not boring, not memorable.

Okay, let's put it this way: Combine Madagascar, Finding Nemo, and The Lion King in a bad way....and you get this movie. "The Wild" is such a rip-off. It's sad that Disney not only rip-offed Madagascar (a Dreamworks film), but two of THEIR OWN MOVIES: Finding Nemo and The Lion King. The plot is predictable, the characters are bland and forgettable, and the jokes are awful. The only redeeming quality in this film is the animation. I just LOVED the animation! It was more realistic than Madagascar's animation. But Madagascar is superior to The Wild in every other way. That wildebeest guy is so annoying! Why would a wildebeest suddenly want to eat meat? It's not right!!! The wildebeest guy was BY FAR the worst character in the entire film. Disney just can't make a good non-Pixar film, can they. Leave the computer-animation to Pixar. They've produced wonderful, emotional, heart-breaking, and award-winning movies, which apparently no other Disney group can do. To conclude, The Wild is certainly not wild. Skip it.

First off it's Lion King in New York City. Second it's characters seem very toned down versions from Madagascar(Not a Disney movie). Which came out just before The Wild was released. I missed this one in the theaters and I am glad I did.The Computer Gernerated (CG) characters seemed hurried and needed work. They certainly did not look very good on my HD LCD SONY Flat panel.The story was so poorly formed it just seemed to go on and on and on and would never end.I know this is a cartoon but I have a problem with when they leave the NY Harbor they are on a small tug boat, which magically has enough fuel to make it to the coast of Africa then enough to make the trip back.I've enjoyed many of the newer CG cartoons that have been released this was not one of them I am glad I saw it on broadcast TV.Not worth the time, even kids would be bored with it.