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Father-son story at heart of 'The Wild'
BY L. KENT WOLGAMOTT / GZO
Friday, Apr 14, 2006 - 12:10:19 am CDT

With its storyline about a bunch of New York zoo animals going to Africa, Disney’s latest computer animation, “The Wild,” resembles “Madagascar,” which DreamWorks put in theaters last year.

But “The Wild” is far from a copy of “Madagascar,” or even a knockoff of that film. Animated films, whether computerized or done traditionally, take far too long to make to have such a short turnaround.

At its heart, “The Wild” is a father-son story about lion Samson (voice of Keifer Sutherland) and his boy Ryan (voice of Greg Cipes), who idolizes his dad, taking Samson’s stories of his courage and power in the wild to heart.

Wanting to prove himself on his own, Ryan is constantly in trouble at the zoo. Then one night, while out prowling around, Ryan gets trapped in a large container that’s being moved to a ship to go to Africa for a rescue mission.

Finding him missing, Samson hits the streets in search of the container, accompanied by his posse of Benny (voice of Jim Belushi), a street-smart New York squirrel; Bridget (voice of Janeane Garafalo), a giraffe who’s the object of Benny’s affections; Larry (voice of Richard Kind), a dull, but sweet, anaconda, and Nigel (voice of Eddie Izzard), a cuddly koala bear who is one of the zoo’s symbols, reproduced in stuffed form.

Arriving at the port, the animals see the container loaded onto a freighter bound for Africa. So, displaying the teamwork they’ll need on the adventure, they hijack a small boat and set sail to the east.

Once in Africa, the animals find themselves confronted with multiple problems. The rescue mission was needed because a volcano is about to erupt. Ryan is lost in the jungle and is the target of a cult of wildebeests led by the fanatic Kazar (voice of William Shatner), who is convinced that an ancient prophecy is about to come true and take the wildebeests from the bottom of the food chain to the top.

To make the transformation, they need to find the “god” that dropped from the sky — which happens to be a Nigel stuffed bear — and sacrifice a lion.

The final difficulty: All of Samson’s stories about his adventures in the wild were just that — stories. The courageous lion isn’t everything he said he was. In fact, he might be the opposite.

Given that this is a G-rated Disney movie, it’s not hard to guess where the story is going, but it gets there with such an entertaining mixture of humor and adventure that adults will enjoy the film and the kids should be captivated.

Steve “Spaz” Williams makes his directorial debut with “The Wild” and has created a solid film that is well animated, but never lets the technology drive the picture. The vocal performances by the actors convey the excitement and emotion of the story as well as giving the animals personality, and the film never loses sight of the father/son story that is at its heart. That, too, should make the picture resonate with adults while connecting directly with children.

“The Wild” isn’t a computer-animated movie event — that’s going to be left to “Cars,” the summer film from Pixar — but it’s a fun little picture with a good message, some good laughs and G-rated adventure that easily tops “Ice Age: The Meltdown” to be the best computer-animated film of 2006 so far.

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.

The Wild

(3 stars)

Director: Steve “Spaz” Williams

Stars: Voices of Keifer Sutherland, William Shatner, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garafalo

Rated: G

Running Time: 1 hour, 34 minutes

Now Showing: Grand, Edgewood, SouthPointe

The Reel Story: A group of New York zoo animals led by Samson the lion (Sutherland) go to Africa to rescue Samson’s son in this entertaining computer-animated adventure from Disney.