Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Janeane Garofalo, William Shatner, Eddie Izzard, Jim Belushi, Richard Kind, Greg Cipes, Colin Hay
Written By:
Directed By: Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams
Studio: Disney/ Buena Vista
Buy on Amazon.com link

More and more CGI animated movies are coming out, and sadly, Disney seemed to abandon the 2-D animated films. Well the only time they really do 2-dimensional animation are for those straight to DVD sequels. But the latest non-Pixar/Disney computer animated film is the Wild. It Stars Jack Bauer as a lion, a transvestite Englishmen as a koala bear, a non-funny comedian as a giraffe, Captain Kirk as a wildebeest and the other Belushi as a squirrel. I was expecting the movie to be stupid, but I actually enjoyed it.

The Wild is sort of like Madagascar, but the plot is a little bit different. The story starts out in the NY Zoo and revolves around two lions, the father lion Samson (Kiefer Sutherland) and the son (Greg Cipes). The son is upset because he can’t roar yet and the clich moment happens, the father and son get into a fight and the son lion runs around. As he is running away, he gets caught by some rescue team or something. Samson gets angry and musters up the troops from the zoo to help him get his son back. You have Samson’s best friend , Benny the squirrel (Jim Belushi), there’s the Larry the snake (Richard Kind), Nigel the koala bear (Eddie Izzard), and Bridget the female giraffe (Janeane Garofalo). The group manages to escape the zoo, sneak onto a bus driving to the port, and then commandeer a boat to the wild in Africa. While in Africa, they find Ryan but have other things to worry about like a clan of wild wildebeests and an explosive volcano. The group bands together to get through it and yadda yadda yadda, they live happily ever after.

I didn’t know what to expect from watching this animated movie. Lately, I haven’t been a fan of Disney animated films that aren’t their old ones. Call me old fashion I guess. But I actually thought the Wild was a decent flick. Yeah, it was very kiddie and cheesy but what Disney movie isn’t? It was kind of weird seeing Kiefer as the main lion because everyone knows him now as Jack Bauer. I was just waiting for him to start screaming, “CHLOE, IT’S JACK, I LOST INSERT TERRORIST NAME …DAMNIT!!” or “WHERE’S THE BOMB!!” You know, typical Jack Bauer catch phrases. But I guess he’s got the cool voice to do animated movies and break out of his Bauer shell. I thought the other actors did a great job as well. I loved Eddie Izzard’s character the best, because Eddie just rocks…even if he’s a koala bear. I could have done without Janeane Garofalo because she’s one of the most un-funny comedians in the world. I swear Richard Kind’s character was based off Jim Henson’s snake in Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas. You know, the snake that played bass in River Bottom Nightmare Band.

As far as the story is concerned, it’s not really original but I still enjoyed the movie. The father/Son thing has be done to death and wish they did something different in that area. Also, you obviously have to suspend belief A LOT because there are talking animals, they can ride boats and do the “running man.” I mean come on, a wildebeest doing the running man. Breakdancin’ maybe, but the running man!? That’s just crazy! I thought the animation was probably the best thing in the movie. The wildebeest scenes were tremendous in quality and looked great on my big TV. Just everything looked really clear but not realistic enough like Pixar has done with their movies. There was still some cartoony feel to the animation and I like that. The very end of the movie is when I had enough and had to turn it off. That’s when all the animals were on the boat sailing back to New York and they all thought it would be fun to dance. It’s just a very lame ending and even if I was a kid I would think that would be a stupid way to end the movie.

If you liked the Wild, there are some funny bloopers for you to check out in the extras section; as well as deleted scenes, and other kiddie stuff. There wasn’t a whole lot of bonus material though. But if you liked The Wild, buy the DVD for the movie alone and not the extras. The Wild looks fantastic on DVD!

Features:
Bloopers And Blunders: Eddie Izzard Unleashed
Deleted Scenes: Commentary By The Film’s Creator
Real Wild Child Music Video: Performed By Everlife

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: The one scene that stood out from me was Patrick Warburton character Blag making a funny face to William Shatner’s character Kazar when they decide not to follow him anymore. Just the facial expression on the wildebeest was priceless.
Rating: G
Running Time: 82 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: