Let me tell you this, What if the executives at Disney saw DreamWorks' 11-month prior "Madagascar" and said "Let's remake DreamWorks' Madagascar but make it less funny, add in forgettable characters and stereotypes, slam-dunk some pop-culture references (Star Wars. Titanic, Passion of the Christ, Looney Tunes, etc.), overuse cartoon sound effects, copy-paste the plot from Finding Nemo, and pretend ours is better than DreamWorks, Don't forget the generic fart joke!"? If they did, I wouldn't be surprised, So yeah, As you can expect, It's just Finding Nemo mixed in a blender with Madagascar and The Lion King, plus some filler and racist stereotypes, It's about Discount Alex, Discount Blinky Bill, Discount Speaking Scrat, and Discount Female Melman finding Discount Simba/Lion Nemo while going to the jungle, and I forgot what happens (I'm so glad I forgot), Did I ever mention that they pulled a "Star Wars" after the Coldplay scene? And the animation, My oh my, It's over-detailed and creepy, Looks like something out of Robert Zemeckis' motion-capture movies (Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol), The writing is below average (and so as the music, not hating on your work, Alan!), and the script is actually just a list of stereotypes and Looney Tunes sound effects. Go watch Madagasacar, or Finding Nemo, or any good Disney movie you can think of (The Lion King, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, Cars, The Incredibles). Perfect for confused grandmas everywhere.OVERALL MOVIE: 4/10, At least it doesn't deserve the DTV sequel treatment.

I was only interested in seeing this movie because it was the last film reviewed by Doug Walker one year for Disneycember. I think this is actually the lowest rated theatrically released animated Disney movie ever made. He recommended it, so I really did want to check it out and judge for myself. I saw it and I really do disagree with him. I admit there's one or two good jokes but most of this film is just pointless. I remember when the trailers for the film first came out and I knew it would be bad or at least quickly forgotten. It is more or less a ripoff of "Madagascar".I was just thinking about how DreamWorks has been accused of ripping off Disney movies, but this one was actually released later. Then again, I did hear that production on this film actually started before the production of "Madagascar". I guess it doesn't matter because this movie is obviously worse. What really freaked me out was the animation. I mean, they were trying to make the animals look realistic instead of cartoony. Is there an uncanny valley for animals? The funniest bit is when the giraffe says that she deserves to be in kid's books starting with the letter G. Easily the best joke.There just seemed to be nothing original about this movie at all. It was about this son trying to prove himself to his father and a bunch of side characters who were dumb or had interspecies romance. It was mostly just bland. I guess there's a few creative ideas like the cargo cult, but for me, it was just pointless. I think it probably is the worst theatrically released Disney animated film ever made. I can't even believe Disney made this! It looks a lot more like some cheap knockoff film made by some obscure studio. *1/2

As Disney's supposed counterpart to DreamWorks' "Madagascar" released about a year before, The Wild is anything but wild. The story is bland with action, heart, and humor that at best can barely trigger and at worst can induce cringes, predictable with so many clichés found in better films like Ice Age, and despite offering a few twists, the execution of them was just awful. Of the characters, Benny was the sole one I liked, due to how he acts as a wonderful mentor and provided what few laughs I eked when watching this movie, with the rest being quite insipid or unsuccessful at providing what they were meant to, mainly because of the story. The animation was the near saving grace of this movie, as it looked pretty nice for 2006 (if not to the level of Cars, Flushed Away, or Over The Hedge) with wonderful detail on the animals and the settings looking lush. The mixture of cartoony facial expressions with the realistic bodies, however, makes the character designs run-of-the-mill. That's also without mentioning the depiction of advertising (I know that it's New York, but at least Madagascar didn't really shove it in the audience's face), including two scenes with a poster for The Lion King on Broadway. My recommendation would be to pass this movie in favor of some better stuff that Disney would release in the years to follow.

As I have said many times I love animated films and I love Disney, and this did look interesting. However, it turned out to be one of my least favourite Disney films, not the worst mind but still. Starting with the good things, the animation is absolutely wonderful. The colours are gorgeous, and the character designs are much better than the ones in Chicken Little in my opinion. The soundtrack was very nice as well, and the voice acting on the whole is excellent especially from Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard, who coincidentally voice the most interesting characters in the movie. I also liked the lively bickering between the animals. However, despite these strong points The Wild has some failures. The story is very predictable and has a lot of derivative elements, and while this is not a bad thing I did see a fair amount of Madagascar, Finding Nemo and Ice Age here. Speaking of the story, the final twenty minutes for me were lame, and the moralising got rather heavy-handed. And while I appreciated that it went briskly, the pacing did get a little too fast in places, no surprises really seeing as the film is too short. So, in conclusion, not bad but not good either. 5/10 Bethany Cox