DISNEY: THE WILD(2006)
With William Shatner in this how can it go wrong?!
Well, with this picture, it's not the greatest
"animals out for fun from the zoo" movie ever made!
For that, see Madagascar! While this isn't a terrible
movie, it's just ok to me! B-
A review from IMDb.com:
At first, this appears to be a rip-off of "Madagascar,"
with New York City zoo animals leaving the comforts
of "home" for the wilds of Africa. However, it is a
totally different story and feel to it, more serious
and sentimental than "Madagascar." Personally, I
like "serious and sentimental" but not in animated
movie, at least not to the degree it was in here. I
preferred the other "NYC zoo" film to this one
because "The Wild" lost almost all of its great humor
in the last 20-30 minutes.
The first 50 minutes of this film was spectacular.
I was thinking, "Wow, another great animated film.
How many is that in the past year or so?" The jokes
were excellent, the characters mostly funny and the
animation superb. The dark, rich colors in here are
magnificent. This is a beautiful movie! The minor
characters are the best in here: the snake, koala bear
and squirrel. Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind and Jim
Belushi, in particular, are great in their voices of these
characters. The two crocodiles that the wandering
zoo animals meet in the sewers are hilarious. They
produced the biggest laughs, at least with me. The
major characters: the lion (Keifer Sutherland), his
cub (Greg Cipes) and the giraffe (Janeane Garafolo)
were all a little too much on the serious side.
Speaking of serious: the last third of this film totally
switched gears. I wonder how this went over with
very young kids and their parents? It got too serious,
frightening in spots (for little ones) and then the usual
corny Disney ending. It's too bad: this could have been
super if they had just continued doing what was working
the first 50 minutes. - ccthemovieman-1