The Wild

2006

94 mins

This fluffily, digitally, animated feature from Disney (without the midas touch of Pixar) starring a raft of voice talents (notably... More

This fluffily, digitally, animated feature from Disney (without the midas touch of Pixar) starring a raft of voice talents (notably the brilliant UK comic Eddie Izzard), is - to be frank - a shameless rip-off of DreamWorks' 'Madagascar'. Differing though in syle: "Where Madagascar was all sharp edges and blocky slabs of uniform color, The Wild is filled with softness and texture" (NYT).

Follows the misadventures of a band of animals who've escaped their home at the New York City Zoo, in search of a fellow inmate who's been shipped to the wild (see! exactly the same!). A lion (Sutherland), a giraffe (Garofalo), a koala (Izzard), a squirrel (Belushi) and an anaconda (Kind), join together to save their bud - tackling the the urban wilderness of New York City and the real wilderness of Africa.

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Where to watch The Wild

The Wild is available to stream in New Zealand now... More on YouTube and Google TV and Apple TV Store and Disney+ and Prime Video Store.

There is no screening information for this title.

The Wild | Ratings & Reviews

18_%111 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes® rating
36_%215,281 reviews
Audience score rating

"With its narrative resemblance to last year's "Madagascar", the latest zoo-animals-gone-native adventure, The Wild, makes you suspect that both projects benefited from the same uncredited script doctor. The animation, however, is a different matter: where Madagascar" was all sharp edges and blocky slabs of uniform color, "The Wild" is filled with softness and texture. When a breeze stirs the coat of Samson the lion, the hairs lift and separate just like the real thing..."

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The New York Times

"This is the third animated feature in a row (after "Curious George" and "Ice Age: The Meltdown") which aims at children and has no serious ambition to be all things to all people..."

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Roger Ebert

"The film is a relentlessly loud and ultimately exhausting exercise only partially leavened by the usual heavy doses of wisecracking humor and visual gags..."

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Hollywood Reporter

"Lifting a concept isn't exactly foreign to the world of animation (what's The Lion King if not Bambi with manes?), but it isn't often a rip-off gets as blatant as The Wild, a flat-out regurgitation of Madagascar..."

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