Film Review-The Wild

Film Review

The Wild

A bunch of city-bred animals take off for Africa to rescue a lion cub and have a showdown with the wildebeest there. Now, where have we seen this before?

Director: Steve 'Spaz' Williams
Cast: Kiefer Sutherland, Janeane Garofalo, and William Shatner
Running time: 94 mins
Rating: **

• Justin Chang
Uninspired character animation and obnoxious banter aside, The Wild is ultimately done in by the persistent stench of been-there-seen-that. Trite tale about over-domesticated zoo animals taking on Mother Nature is doomed to provoke unflattering comparisons with Madagascar. This kidpic is notable chiefly for its inconsistent character design and reliance on scatological gags. Though its overall look leans more toward 3-D realism than did the more angular and stylised Madagascar, the members of this "Wild" bunch seem to have been molded and animated with disparate aesthetic principles in mind.
- Variety

• Roger Ebert
The Wild and Madagascar share the same premise, which is that animals escape from a zoo and find themselves back in the jungle again – Madagascar in the first film, continental Africa in this one. The movie has a lot more action than Ice Age: The Meltdown, which was essentially one long trek. There are savage beasts (wilde and other), exploding volcanoes, rivers of lava, and so on – some of it maybe too intense for the youngest kids. Williams has a way of cutting on dialogue to unexpected close-ups. That gives us a subtle feeling that the movie knows in advance what will happen next, when in theory it should seem to find out just when we do.
- Chicago Sun-Times

• Frank Scheck
Directed in ultra-frenetic style by the aptly nicknamed Steve "Spaz" Williams, the film is a relentlessly loud and ultimately exhausting exercise only partially leavened by the usual heavy doses of wisecracking humor and visual gags. The impressive animation is rendered in a more realistic style than usual, with the animals depicted in a down-to-earth fashion that only slightly conflicts with the fact that they're engaged in such activities as steering boats. But while their visual details are impressive, the characters lack the personality of those in such efforts as The Lion King, the stage version of which gets a prominent plug in this film.
- The Hollywood Reporter

• Owen Gleiberman
Lifting a concept isn't exactly foreign to the world of animation (what's The Lion King if not Bambi with manes?), but it isn't often a rip-off gets as blatant as The Wild, a flat-out regurgitation of Madagascar. Seriously: same overly civilized New York zoo animals, same midnight escape to the canyons of Manhattan, same stowaway to Africa, same tribe of deranged musical beasties. The difference is that where Madagascar was witty enough to see the folly of a domesticated lion finding his untamed self, The Wild, beneath some "wacky"' chatter, is earnest to the point of dullness.
- Entertainment Weekly



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