Hey, all. Capone in Chicago here. The biggest thing the new Disney computer animated feature has going against it is that it feels too much like other recent animated works. That doesn't take away from the fact that The Wild is a spirited, amusing tale of Central Park Zoo animals who must travel to Africa to rescue the son of the zoo's main lion attraction. This plot summary alone clearly borrows from Madagascar and Finding Nemo, but the story varies enough to recommend this better-than-Madagascar-not-as-good-as-Nemo adventure.
First-time feature director Steve "Spaz" Williams has been a visual effects supervisor and CG-animation supervisor on such films as Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, The Mask, and Spawn, and he seems to have a grip on what makes a more kids-oriented type of film tick. My favorite character in The Wild is a wanna-be bad-ass British koala bear named Nigel, voiced by Eddie Izzard. It sounds as if Izzard was allowed to do what he does best, which is free-style riff on whatever his character is talking about. Expect to find wise-cracking plush versions of Nigel in toy stores around the universe very soon and probably on my shelf as well.
While Nigel will clearly be the crowd favorite (especially among adults), there are plenty of other moderately amusing animals hanging around. Keifer Sutherland plays the lead lion Samson whose cute, roar-impaired cub accidentally gets shipped to Africa. When Samson utters the line ³This has officially become a rescue mission,² you can't help but conjure up images of Jack Bauer spouting that line. It's a great moment. Also on hand are Richard Kind as Larry the dopey snake, Janeane Garofalo as a giraffe named Bridget, and James Belushi as Benny the squirrel, who is madly in love with Bridget. William Shatner chimes in during the scenes in Africa as some type of water buffalo creature, who decides his species has been at the wrong end of the food chain for too long.
While hardly a philosophical venture, The Wild certainly has more substance than Madagascar. There's an energy and sense of adventure that makes it one of the best non-Pixar animated features Disney has put out in quite a while. This is a step in the right direction if, indeed, the studio is truly finished with traditional animated works. I can't lie: I found myself laughing at most of the jokes in this film, and I'm not going to apologize for it. The animation itself is pretty spectacular, opting for more realistic renditions of these animals than the modern-art take of Madagascar. At times the action in The Wild seems almost out of control, but how often do you feel that during animated films, which usually seem so stiff and calculated (with the action and the jokes). Make no mistake, the target audience for The Wild is still kids, but every parent going to this film should personally thank Izzard for giving us grown kids something to cherish as well.
Capone
