You know, I think that 2006’s The Wild may be in the running for the most forgettable Disney movie of all time! I am not saying that this is a bad movie, but it is not a great one either and the fact it came out not that long after the first Madagascar movie certainly did not do it any favors. Many people saw it as nothing more than a Madagascar copy or rip-off!
How to Download The Wild
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
I will start with what I think is good about the movie. The voice cast here is awesome, Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Eddie Izzard, Janeane Garofalo, and Richard Kind making up our team of heroes. However, we also have some great casting with the villains in William Shatner and Patrick Warburton.
The plot of the movie starts in the zoo. The main attraction is a powerful lion called Samson who lives with his son, Ryan. Samson tells all of his adventures in the wild before he came to the zoo and this makes Ryan feel like he is in his father’s shadow. The father/son dynamic is done quite well here and it is easy to see where Ryan is coming from.
In an attempt to prove himself, Ryan ends up in a crate on his way to Africa! Samson teams up with his buddies, Benny, a grey squirrel, Nigel a koala, Bridget a giraffe and Larry an anaconda to break out of the zoo and save Ryan. They make a fun team and I have to say that Eddie Izzard as Nigel is by far the highlight of this movie for me.
The whole escape and the journey to go and try and save Ryan is fun. However, once they get to Africa, I think the movie kicks into another gear. Here we see our villains, a pack of wildebeests led by the crazy Kazar who wants to put “prey” at the top of the food chain, oh he also idolizes this plush koala which is hilarious.
While the voice acting in The Wild is great and a major highlight of the whole movie. The way the movie looks is rather strange, I am not sure what they did, but it certainly has its own look to it. The best way that I can describe the way this movie looks is that it looks more like a PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era video game cut scene than a computer-generated Disney movie. It does not look bad, but it looks weird compared to other Disney movies.
The comparisons with Madagascar are unavoidable. The two movies have similar premises, but I have to be honest and say that I feel Madagascar pulled it off far better. That is a memorable movie that I think holds up really well, The Wild on the other hand is one of the most forgettable movies Disney has released in the last couple of decades.
This like the rest of the Disney back catalog is available on Disney Plus so it may be worth a watch. While it does have some fun moments, I have to say that I do not see any reason to watch this over any of the Madagascar movies. It may be worth a watch if you are looking for a Disney movie that you have probably not seen. Click on the Download button and start your wild journey!
