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Review:
 The
origins of Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Mark Gibson & Philip
Halprin's screenplay is shrouded in mystery. Where was the
original story stolen from? According to the production notes,
producer Beau Flynn brought this to Disney back in 1997, this was
well before the time Dreamworks' “Madagascar” was pitched.
However, Disney wasn't accepting animated projects from outside
studios yet, and it appears that Flynn pitched the idea to some
other studios. Warner Brothers, in fact had a project in
development called “The Zoo” for a while, and there are rumors
that Flynn or an associate may have pitched the idea to Dreamworks
as well.
In other words, this may not actually be as much of a rip-off as
it originally appears. But one can't help thinking….
The setting at the start is the same place as “Madagascar.” The
zoo in Central park. Here, we begin to notice some real
differences: First off, there's a really good “Lion King” parody,
where Samson(Kiefer Sutherland) the lion telling his son Ryan(Greg
Cipes) stories of his derring-do out in the wilds of Africa. Ryan
can't roar yet, and this makes him feel inferior. Meanwhile, we've
get to meet the other lead characters: Benny(Jim Belushi), a
horney squirrel who's got the hots for Bridget(Janeane Garofalo)
the feminist giraffe, and there's Nigel(Eddie Izzard) the skuzzy
koala, who's being razzed for the stuffed toys in his likeness at
the souvenir stands throughout the zoo. When the zoo closes, all
the animals leave their cages for an evening's curling match. Sure
it's derivative, but it's actually pretty funny. After the
inevitable confrontation between father and son, the latter runs
off to sulk in a truck trailer, and is accidentally shipped off to
Africa, with our heroes following, close behind.
While “Madagascar” was best during the first half of the film,
when they were in New York, and fell totally flat when they got to
the wild, this film reaches comic heights when they get to Africa.
The reason is, of all people William Shatner, who plays the
villain, Kazar, the hilariously evil prophet of the wildebeests,
who wants to become a carnivore and achieve the peak of the food
chain.
This is one of the best voice performances I've ever heard and
it's brilliant. The animation is good too, except for the fact
that the characters look a bit on the stuffed side.
On it's own terms, “The Wild” is in fact pretty good. Hell, there
were about five films exactly like “The Matrix” when that came out
too.
Eric Lurio
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