Disney Movie Challenge Bonus: The Wild (2006)

 Disney Movie Challenge Bonus

The Wild

In 2005 Dreamworks released the animated film Madagascar about zoo animals in New York City that escape and go to Africa. In 2006 Disneay released The Wild about zoo animals in New York City that escape and go to Africa.  This isn’t the first time Disney has released a movie that was similar to another movie.  The Pixar movie A Bug's Life was released around the same time as the Dreamworks movie Antz.  But the biggest question about this movie (and the reason it’s a Bonus Post) is “is this movie a Disney movie or not?”  When I looked up my list of Disney Studios Animated Films on Wikipedia this one wasn’t listed, and I never gave it another thought.  There are lots of movies that don’t fit the strict definition to be considered official Disney canon.  What makes The Wild a bit different is that it is considered Canon in Europe but not in the U.S. I am a bit confused why there are different lists for different places.  My initial thought was the movie was so bad and felt like such a copy of Madagascar that they erased it from canon. And if a movie is that bad I need to see it. 

Like I said, The Wild is about zoo animals that escape from a zoo in New York City.  The main animal is a lion named Samson (Keifer Sutherland) with his friends Bridget the giraffe (Janeane Garofalo), Benny the squirrel (Jim Belushi), and Nigel the koala (Eddie Izzard), and a snake named Larry (Richard Kind).  After Samson and his son Ryan have a fight Ryan falls asleep in a cargo carrier that is being shipped to Africa.  Samson and his friends set out to rescue him.  

 Trying to find information on the making of this movie and why it’s not considered canon in the U.S. has been near impossible.  Few things I do know is that it was a partnership between Disney and a Canadian company, and it is the only directorial effort by Steve “Spaz” Williams.  One review I saw mentioned that there was corporate espionage going on. While I couldn’t find anything specific he was talking about I assume it has to do with Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney and going to Dreamworks.  If Katzenberg knew The Wild was in development he could have brought the same concept to Dreamworks and rushed it through development.  Anyway it feels like a move Disney doesn’t want people to know about (although it is on Disney+).

I haven’t watched Madagascar in a long time but obviously there are a lot of similarities. But that hasn’t stopped movies from being successful before. So what makes this one so different? The biggest issue for The Wild is that it’s really bad.  Not only does it feel like a rip off of Madagascar but it feels like a really bad rip off.  This would have been Disney’s second fully computer animated film (after Chicken Little) and it looks awful.  Something about the texture on the animal's fur just looks bad and I found it really distracting.  While the story in Madagascar is pretty absurd it’s at least fun.  The Wild is both absurd and tries to take itself too seriously. There is an overuse of slow pop songs (Yellow from Coldplay seems really out of place) to try to give the film more emotional impact.  And the less that is said about the weird love story between a squirrel and giraffe the better.  

The one thing that worked really well in this film was the voice acting.  Keifer Sutherland and Eddie Izzard did a great job with their characters.  Jim Belushi played the annoying squirrel perfectly as I was annoyed by him the whole way through.  I wish they had better dialogue and a better story to show off their talents. 

Overall: Usually when two movies dealing with similar storylines one gets the spotlight while the other fades in the memory.  But when it comes to The Wild it has nothing to do with comparing it to Madagascar and everything to do with how bad it is.  And I guess everyone learned a lesson.  Don’t let a guy nicknamed “Spaz” direct a movie.