There's something regurgitated about 'The Wild'

Robert Denerstein, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 14, 2006 at midnight

Text size

More Movies

Lions have issues, too, although they're often neglected in even advanced psychology courses.

Before they learn to roar, male lions can suffer the kind of insecurity that accompanies an underdeveloped ego. And if they've had problems with their fathers, they're likely to overcompensate later in life.

You'll learn all this if you bother to see The Wild, Disney's latest foray into animation. It's unlikely that The Wild will topple Ice Age: The Meltdown from its lofty box-office perch, in part because it's a ho-hum affair and in part because its story evokes too many memories of last year's Madagascar. In both pictures, animals escape from a New York zoo and head for their various rumbles in the jungle.

Cluttered with humor and cartoon antics, The Wild isn't exactly bursting with memorable characters. It boasts the crystalline acuity of computer- generated animation, but the story feels a bit like it, too, was spun from computerized innards. We get gags, slapstick and a message.

The story seems like an excuse for the movie's animated fireworks, a frame on which the animators hang jokes, pop-cultural references and even a jab at winter Olympic sports: The animals stage a massive curling tournament in the zoo at night. I'd have thought they'd prefer ice dancing.

The Wild centers on two lions, Samson (voice by Kiefer Sutherland) and his son Ryan (Greg Cipes). Young Ryan wants to learn to roar, but he's intimidated by a father who's constantly regaling him with stories of courage in the wild. Evidently, there was no obstacle too dangerous for Dad, who single-handedly faced down herds of menacing wildebeests, their mouths curling into snarls and their fearsome horns suggesting devilish intent.

For slightly different reasons from those in Madagascar, the movie's animal gang leaves the zoo and journeys into the wild. Benny the Squirrel (Jim Belushi) has a crush on Bridget the giraffe (Janeane Garofalo). Larry the Snake (Richard Kind), a creature with an elastic body that sometimes serves as a slingshot, slithers along.

The movie's most memorable character is relegated to the fringe. Nigel (Eddie Izzard), a koala with a British accent, should have been elevated from a supporting role. When the animals reach the wild, a group of wildebeests mistakes Nigel for a god; the little koala revels in his newfound status. He buys into the Mel Brooks motto - "It's good to be the king" - and begins to enjoy watching others grovel before him.

For heart, the movie looks to its father-son dynamics. Dad harbors a secret that ultimately will bring him closer to his son. The comedy stems from a variety of supporting characters. The fear factor arrives courtesy of the wildebeests, led by Kazar (William Shatner).

Here's where the movie gets especially tipsy. It seems the wildebeests want to alter their nature. Tired of being prey, they insist on becoming predators. They believe the task can be accomplished by capturing, cooking and eating a lion, perhaps giving new meaning to the adage "You are what you eat."

Small moments of amusement - and there are some - can't compensate for either a feeling of familiarity or the sense that we're watching a minor helping of animation rather than a galvanizing movie event.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News