THE WILD
By Steve Biodrowski
The nation's critics gave this Walt Disney animated film a big thumbs down, thanks to the been-there-done-that feel of its storyline, but it turns out to be not half bad. Yes, the plot feels like a rehash of DreamWorks' MADAGASCAR, and many of the jokes are not terribly funny (they're more like terrible), but the computer-generated animation is startling in its beauty, creating some eye-catching backgrounds and convincing creatures that are far more interesting than those seen in rival productions.
It's all about a cowardly young lion cub who hates living in his courageous father's shadow, so he escapes from the zoo (more or less accidentally) and winds up in the titular wild. His father and a motley collection of friends head off on a rescue mission, which involves a confrontation with a herd of wildebeests that are awaiting the fulfillment of a prophecy that will transform them from prey to predator, allowing them to turn the tables on the lions that hunt them.
It's pretty standard stuff that works about on the level of a direct-to-video movie. The characters undergo through the expected "growth": the lion cub learns to roar, and his father (whose tales of his courageous past in the wild turn out to be incredibly tall) does pretty much the same. The father-son duo is likable enough but not particularly memorable, and the jokey tone (de rigueur for computer-animated films) prevents THE WILD from reaching LION KING levels of drama.
The supporting characters are a similar motley crew -- good for a few laughs, without registering in an indelible way. (Rightly or wrongly, Disney has a reputation for turning out animated films wherein the supporting cast steals the show; that is certainly not the case here.) The villain, likewise, fulfill their role adequately, but despite William Shatner's best efforts at supplying the voice, he's no Scar.
Still, the film moves along in a nice linear fashion that is easy enough for children to understand, and it all reaches a satisfying if predictable conclusion.
Visually, the film is quite impressive. The nighttime views of New York are a wonder to behold, and some of the animals have an almost photo-realistic look to them, with detailed fur and a marvelous expressiveness. This slight touch of realism has the added benefit of restraining the urge to indulge in too much cartoon silliness; the eye-popping gyrations seen in the ICE AGE movies and similar fare are kept to a bare minimum here.
In the end, THE WILD comes across almost like a DTV movie that got a platform release by mistake. It's not distinctive enough to sell tickets to an audience that has already enjoyed the likes of MADAGASCAR and FINDING NEMO, but the families that own those videos might want to rent this one when it comes out, just for a change of pace, if nothing else..
TRIVIA
To be fair on the subject of rehashing DreamQuest's MADAGASCAR, one should point out that, considering the length of time it takes to complete an animated film, it would have been virtually impossible for Disney to have decided to make THE WILD after viewing the box office returns of the DreamQuest film. In fact, there are some who have speculated that DreamQuest, upon hearing the Disney was planning THE WILD, rushed out a quick knock-off -- a theory that gains credibilty when you consider that the company managed to get ANTZ into theatres a few months before the Disney-Pixar film A BUG'S LIFE.
