Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Something good and something really bad..., 24 Nov 2006
It is similar to Madagascar but not the same this is the story of a zoo lion and his friends who race off to save the lion's son who has been shipped back to the wild. The movie is the race to find the son before he gets to the wild and what happens once they get there.
I have to start by saying the voice cast is top notch here. Everyone does an excellent job. However I must single out Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard as turning in classic animated performances. Belushi plays a street smart squirrel who is in love with a giraffe and he is a ball of fun. Its clear why he is the best friend of Keifer Sutherland's lion. He is a joy to behold.
Even better is Eddie Izzard as Nigel, a koala who is totally crazed. Izzard is in constant motion and is constantly chattering about everyone and everything and he effectively turns a movie about a lion and his cub into a movie about a deluded koala with a tenuous grasp on reality. Izzard's Nigel will probably go down in history as one of the great cartoon characters of all time.
BUT
The problem with this movie is that it was made by guys who until this film made their living making soulless special effects for soulless action films. The net effect is a soulless film. There is no pacing, there is little sense of danger. Worse the characters inhabit a world that isn't real. In this world, especially in the New York scenes, no one exists except the characters. They drive all through the city and encounter no one. There are no other cars on the street. To be frank there is no sign of life anywhere. Its terrible. It kills the film. Its sad but as alive the actors are their animated characters, while looking good, come across as dead constructs.
Still the movie is worth seeing. Eddie Izzard, with an assist by Jim Belushi make it worth seeing. Clearly abandoned by Disney in theaters, you should make a run by this on home video or cable, where its less than the sum of its parts construction will be less annoying.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A wholesome, funny family film, 11 Jul 2007
'The Wild' is basically a father-son story about the relationship between Samson the lion and his son, Ryan, residents of the New York Zoo. Samson is forever regaling his son with stories of his days in the wild, and Ryan feels inadequate growing up in his father's shadow. What he doesn't know is that his father's stories are just that - Samson too was born in captivity and has never been to the wild.
When Ryan decides to go to the wild himself, inside one of the green boxes that the animals have heard take you there, Samson mounts a rescue mission together with his friends Benny the squirrel, Larry the anaconda, Bridget the giraffe and Nigel the koala. On their eventual arrival in Africa, however, they must contend with a deranged herd of wildebeest who are determined to ascend to the top of the food chain by eating a lion, and Samson is forced to admit his stories of his exploits in the wild were fictional.
Father and son are finally reunited, and are able to reconnect and start to build a new and deeper relationship with each other.
Though 'The Wild' has obvious similarities to the Dreamworks film 'Madagascar', in that both feature New York Zoo animals who escape and travel to the wild, there are some important differences. For one thing, the animation of 'The Wild' is vastly superior to that of 'Madagascar' - both the appearance and movement of the characters is excellent. For another, where 'Madagascar' is a non-stop comedy romp with no real substance, 'The Wild' has a much more meaningful plot, with the emphasis on family, honesty and being true to yourself. This is not to say, however, that 'The Wild' is not humorous - it has many hilarious moments, with Nigel the koala (voiced by Eddie Izzard) stealing the show.
In all, a delightful film for children and animal-loving adults alike.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A new low, 18 Sep 2006
You'd think that with so many of this type of movie about that more thought and effort would have been put into this.
The plot is a preachy affair about a father lion's being dishonest with his son, it's hokey and done to death. There is nothing new here, if you've seen 'Madagascar' & 'The lion king', then this is a waste of time.
The animation is very poor. Worst of all is the almost total lack of humour, with the exception of Eddie Izzard's cockney koala,(I kid you not),.
This film is 2 years too late, then it would been ahead of the field, now it comes wheezing over the finishing line in last place.
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