Movie Review: The Wild
By Loren Larsen
The Wild
Rated: G
Voices by: Kiefer Sutherland, Janeane Garofalo, Richard Kind, Eddie Izzard, Greg Cipes, James Belushi.
Directed by: Steve "Spaz" Williams
"The Wild" is the newest Disney animated film to hit theaters. All I can say is - smart move on buying Pixar. It's not that the film is bad, it's got all your basic formula things down just fine - it just lacks any real magic. The basic premise is that Ryan the Lion lives in the zoo and wants to go discover The Wild as it has been described to him by his Father, Samson the super-lion. Samson has made himself into a super-hero in the eyes of his son with his outlandish stories of bravery and courage.
Ryan pouts about being stuck in the zoo and living in the shadow of his father and runs away and climbs into a shipping container that some pigeons said would take him to the wild. He falls asleep in the container and wakes up just as it is locked and put on a truck to go back to Africa (I guess). Of course he changes his mind at this exact moment, but it's too late. (No you did not fall down a rabbit-hole and end up in a review of Madascar - I'm describing The Wild here). Meanwhile Samson discovers that Ryan is trapped in this crate and runs after him to rescue him, along with his buddies that include a snake, a giraffe, a squirrel, and a 90% irritating koala bear from London named Nigel. I think you can more or less imagine the rest, although the part where a herd of wildebeasts worshipping Nigel as a God did surprise me. Surprise - not amuse, let's be clear about that.
One thing standing between this film and magic is that the major character Samson is basically a cowardly Lion who has been living a lie, and Ryan is a whiny little brat. While these character flaws are ultimately resolved through normal heroics, there was never a sense for me of relating to them or wanting anything for them. Nigel, the funny Koala has some genuinely funny moments, but his gags and lines miss more often than they hit.
I found the animation a bit irritating, but I can't quite put my finger on what was wrong. There were portions that I thought were very well done and others that weren't. It seemed to me that certain motions weren't fully executed and seemed to have segments of the motion missing. In many ways the detail was excellent, but overall it seemed a bit unsteady to me.
All that said, if you are under the age of 10 I can definitely recommend the film as it does have some charm, some good music, and you will probably find Nigel 0% irritating and 100% funny. My 8 year-old loved it. If on the other hand you are a self-respecting adult you will want to like this film, you really will, but you just won't be able to - or you will love it and will prove that I'm simply cold-hearted and jaded. Please comment and let me know.
Recommended for Adults: Not for adults.
Recommended for Kids: They'll have a great time.
Overall: If you have kids, wait for DVD or pay-per-view, turn it on and leave the room.
Rated: G
Voices by: Kiefer Sutherland, Janeane Garofalo, Richard Kind, Eddie Izzard, Greg Cipes, James Belushi.
Directed by: Steve "Spaz" Williams
"The Wild" is the newest Disney animated film to hit theaters. All I can say is - smart move on buying Pixar. It's not that the film is bad, it's got all your basic formula things down just fine - it just lacks any real magic. The basic premise is that Ryan the Lion lives in the zoo and wants to go discover The Wild as it has been described to him by his Father, Samson the super-lion. Samson has made himself into a super-hero in the eyes of his son with his outlandish stories of bravery and courage.
Ryan pouts about being stuck in the zoo and living in the shadow of his father and runs away and climbs into a shipping container that some pigeons said would take him to the wild. He falls asleep in the container and wakes up just as it is locked and put on a truck to go back to Africa (I guess). Of course he changes his mind at this exact moment, but it's too late. (No you did not fall down a rabbit-hole and end up in a review of Madascar - I'm describing The Wild here). Meanwhile Samson discovers that Ryan is trapped in this crate and runs after him to rescue him, along with his buddies that include a snake, a giraffe, a squirrel, and a 90% irritating koala bear from London named Nigel. I think you can more or less imagine the rest, although the part where a herd of wildebeasts worshipping Nigel as a God did surprise me. Surprise - not amuse, let's be clear about that.
One thing standing between this film and magic is that the major character Samson is basically a cowardly Lion who has been living a lie, and Ryan is a whiny little brat. While these character flaws are ultimately resolved through normal heroics, there was never a sense for me of relating to them or wanting anything for them. Nigel, the funny Koala has some genuinely funny moments, but his gags and lines miss more often than they hit.
I found the animation a bit irritating, but I can't quite put my finger on what was wrong. There were portions that I thought were very well done and others that weren't. It seemed to me that certain motions weren't fully executed and seemed to have segments of the motion missing. In many ways the detail was excellent, but overall it seemed a bit unsteady to me.
All that said, if you are under the age of 10 I can definitely recommend the film as it does have some charm, some good music, and you will probably find Nigel 0% irritating and 100% funny. My 8 year-old loved it. If on the other hand you are a self-respecting adult you will want to like this film, you really will, but you just won't be able to - or you will love it and will prove that I'm simply cold-hearted and jaded. Please comment and let me know.
Recommended for Adults: Not for adults.
Recommended for Kids: They'll have a great time.
Overall: If you have kids, wait for DVD or pay-per-view, turn it on and leave the room.
Seed Newsvine
4 Comments:
Hey, very interesting take on this. I haven't seen this yet, but this meshes with much that I've heard about this movie. It IS so nice that Pixar will be overhauling Disney's animation efforts. I think it's because Disney has come to be thought of as this storytelling giant (deserved or not) that we expect everything that comes from the to sweep us off our feet. Perhaps it comes from the recent "golden age" of animation that peaked with them in The Lion King. Or maybe is a sub conscious thing that makes us think that all of the recent Disney/Pixar movies were actually made by Disney, and not just distributed by them.
Roger Ebert commented on something that might be a clue to the problems you had with the animation. He said that the characters were "too real" with their details and their lip synching—that they fall into the "uncanny valley" of animation. If a character looks too lifelike, then we begin to impose what we know of life on them, and it ends up making the animation look stiff, or unnatural. Take for example, the characters in The Polar Express—how stiff and numb they seemed, and compare them to The Incredibles. At no time did I think that the movements of Mr. Incredible seemed unnatural, but that was because he was so stylized, that we don't impose reality on our perceptions of their movements.
Anyhow, great review. An interesting read and informative take on the movie.
Great review and thanks for the heads up. I will try to avoid this in the theater if my kids will let me.
This just goes to further prove what we have been saying on other posts. Disney has lost it. They have gotten so caught up in megalomania (infantile feelings of omnipotence especially when retained in later life--thanks Mr. Webster) and the mechanics of animation, that they have forgotten how to tell a story. It makes you wonder if they have been hiring computer animation wiz kids who don't know the first thing about story structure. John Lasseter certainly has his work cut out for him.
I will say though that Disney is still the king of theme parks! We went to Disneyland in the first part of December and stayed in the Disneyland Grand Hotel. There is a reason they call it the Magic Kingdom. If you have never been to Disneyland during the Christmas season, you are in for a real treat! I felt like a kid again.
The good news in all this is that the studios seems to be actually spending their animation efforts for kids. I am guessing here, but I think this movie is really targeted at kids, so unlike some other movies like Shrek, Robots, The Incredibles, etc. where there is a legitimate chance that adults could watch and enjoy the movie, this movie leaves out the sub-plots and entendre that only adults would catch. Assuming this is intentional on the part of the studios I think that's good news in a sense, but it's unlikely to be successful because you still need an adult to get up and drive the kids to the theaters and pay $8.50 for an adult ticket.
Ok, so in spite of this review, I went and saw this on Friday.
I have to say, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Maybe it was because I read this review so I wasn't expecting much, but I wasn't dissapointed. Sure, it lacks some of the originality that would have made it great, but I was entertained by the gags and as you said, Loren, it surely didn't offend.
I heard Roger Ebert say that the characters looked like muppets some of the time because they were always so close to the screen. I thought this was true, but I really like the Muppets, so this kind of endeared it to me.
One problem with the animation was that I don't think they did a very good job with the gravity/running/ motions. They seemed to float a little too much. So when they showed them from the shoulders up, rocking as if they were running, then it worked, but when they had to show their whole bodies running in a realistic animal motion, then they didn't get the impacts of the feet right and their motions seemed to float a little too much.
It was an awful lot like Madagascar though, and of the two, I thought Madagascar was much more entertaining.
Just my 3¢
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