The Wild – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

Directed by
Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams

Cast
Kiefer Sutherland …. Samson (voice)
James Belushi …. Benny (voice)
Eddie Izzard …. Nigel (voice)
Janeane Garofalo …. Bridget (voice)
William Shatner …. Kazar (voice)
Richard Kind …. Larry (voice)
Greg Cipes …. Ryan (voice)

Rated G
Currently Available
Running Time: 81 minutes (about 7 of which is end credits)

Well, it’s time to review that CGI lion movie.

Narnia?”

No, the CGI lion movie where the lion is raised in captivity, escapes the zoo, wanders through New York City, reluctantly travels back to Africa with a giraffe and other assorted friends.

“Oh! Madagascar!”

No, the other one.

“Did that come out?”

Directed by a cog from Industrial Light and Magic, The Wild tells the story of Samson, a big shot lion in a New York Zoo. His son, Ryan, has trouble roaring, and feels inadequate because of his father’s tall tales about his glory days back in the jungle. So, Ryan the Lion hops a crate bound for the wild, and it is up to Samson and his curling team to come to the rescue. No, seriously. Once the crew reach the wild, they must deal with wildebeests trying to ascend the food chain by means of eating a lion.

Apart from the Madagascar angle (Madagascar wasn’t very good anyway) does The Wild work as a film? The answer is a resounding NO. Part of the problem is casting. For animated fare it usually pays to have a comedic actor at the center. For comedies, it pays to have a comedic actor at the center. The Wild is ostensibly a comedic animated film, so who is cast as the lead? Mr. Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland. Kiefer is not a gifted comedian. He’s funny in his personal life, you know, when he’s drunk and attacking Christmas trees. That sort of funny doesn’t translate to an animated lion.

The rest of the cast doesn’t fare much better. Jim Belushi is a similarly weak choice for Benny the Squirrel. Who picks a Chicago guy to play a New Yorker, squirrel or no? Janeane Garofalo’s giraffe character is mostly annoying and has very little purpose in the film aside from being Benny’s improbable love interest. Mad About You‘s Richard Kind is disappointingly uneven in his portrayal of Larry the dim-witted snake. As a British Koala(?!), Eddie Izzard has a couple of funny lines that don’t really come off that well in the context of the film. Greg Cipes, best known as the voice of Beast Boy, is mostly forgettable as Ryan. Patrick Warburton plays a less interesting version of the same dang character he always plays. Even the Shat can’t make his character work.

A big portion of the problem is that the writing doesn’t allow for the actors to commit to their characters. The script favors jokes over story and/or character development. There exists no internal logic to the things which the characters are saying. And what’s worse is that the jokes aren’t very good.

Apart from not being funny, the film fails on an emotional level. I’m a father with a young child, so I am usually an easy mark for these father-kid relationship movies. The Wild never really connects with the audience in the way that a Finding Nemo or a Monsters, Inc. does. Like Chicken Little, it relies on an emo song from the soundtrack to establish our father-son relationship, as opposed to say competent writing.

The Wild is a lousy movie. The only good thing that I can say about it is this: the lions look nice and fuzzy; I want to pet them.

THE DVD

All in all there are about 14 minutes worth of extras, not counting the standard 8 commercials for other Disney products like Cinderella III Who knew there was a Cinderella II?

In MUSIC AND MORE, we get an American Idol-ish music video of something called “Everlife” covering the song “Real Wild Child”. Everlife is basically the same thing as the Cheetah Girls, just 60 percent more Caucasian.

There is about 5 minutes worth of BACKSTAGE DISNEY stuff, where you get such exciting things as watching Eddie Izzard read his lines and meeting the production staffer that voiced the Hyrax.

Finally, there are a couple of deleted scenes that sum up to about four and a half minutes. You can watch them with or without commentary.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for The Wild
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIE

4.5
THE VIDEO

8
THE AUDIO

8
THE EXTRAS

4
REPLAY VALUE

3
OVERALL
4.5
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

The Inside Pulse
The Wild isn’t offensively bad in that Doogal way. It’s just kind of there and fails to connect on any meaningful level. But if you want to see a movie which features a turtle farting…