April 14, 2006
The Wild is a 2006 computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by animator Steve "Spaz" Williams and written by Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin. It features the voices of Eddie Izzard, Kiefer Sutherland, Janeane Garofalo, Jim Belushi, Richard Kind, Greg Cipes, and William Shatner. The film's plot centers around Samson, a male lion who loses his preteen son Ryan when he wanders off and accidentally gets shipped from the Central Park Zoo to Africa, he teams up with a group of animals as they embark on a journey to rescue his missing son and take risks to evade dangers along the way.
Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Hoytyboy Pictures, Sir Zip Studios and Contrafilm, it was animated by C.O.R.E. Feature Animation. It was released to theaters in North America on April 14, 2006, by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution and earned $102 million on an $80 million budget. The film was a critical and commercial failure, with severe criticism given towards its animation and similarities to DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar, Pixar's Finding Nemo, and Disney's very own The Lion King.
Storyline[]
At the Central Park Zoo, Samson the lion tells his preteen son Ryan stories of his adventures in the Wilds of Africa. Ryan wants to go to the wild too to learn how to roar like his father, but Samson disapproves of the idea. When the zoo closes, all the animals are free to roam. Samson and his friends, Benny the squirrel, Bridget the giraffe whom Benny has a crush on, Larry the dim-witted anaconda, and Nigel the unlucky but popular koala compete in a turtle curlingchampionship. Ryan and his own friends accidentally cause a stampede which heads to the game and endangers the animals. Samson and Ryan have a falling-out and Ryan runs off before Samson can apologize. He later sneaks into a green Intermodal container which is rumored to be heading to the wild. Just as he regrets his decision, Ryan suddenly gets locked inside the container, which is then loaded onto a freight truck, shipping him away.
With the help of a pigeon, Hamir, Samson, and his friends go after Ryan, hiding in a garbage disposal truck, but Benny falls overboard. After passing through Times Square and nearly being crushed in the truck, the group encounters a pack of rabid stray dogs, and Instead of standing his ground, Samson escapes through the sewer rather than fighting as his friends expect for him to do. There, they take directions to the docks from two friendly streetwise alligator brothers, Stan and Carmine. The next morning, they steal a tugboatduring a hectic escape from the harbor. After reuniting with Benny, who has followed them with a flock of Canada geese, Samson manages to drive the boat with Larry's help and the geese lead them to the right direction toward Ryan's ship.
A few days later the boat runs aground in Africa, where all the animals in the area are being evacuated by the carriers, as a nearby volcano is about to erupt. They witness Ryan run into the jungle, but Samson is unable to find him. After failing to eat a crude hyrax, his friend questions if he has ever been in the wild before, to which he forlornly confirms. The rest of the group heads back to the ship, but Samson continues to search for his son. While walking, he sees plants and rocks changing colors, which he attributes as his instincts working. Nigel is abducted by a herd of wildebeests who reside in the volcano and their leader Kazar, pronounces him "The Great Him," based on an "omen" he received when he was young: about to be devoured by lions, a toy koala fell from a plane and scared the lions away, saving his life. This experience made Kazar believe that "The Great Him" will help him and his kind create a change in the food chain that will allow prey to become predators and vice versa. In order to do that, he thinks the wildebeests have to eat a lion. Bridget and Larry are also get captured and planned to be eaten as well.
Ryan hides up an old tree, but a gang of vultures attacks him under Kazar's orders. The branch breaks and traps his paw. Samson hears Ryan's cries and runs to save him, scaring off the vultures. The two reunite but are interrupted by the wildebeests. Ryan is shocked when Samson tells him to run. They retreat to a tree where Samson reveals the truth about his past: he wasn’t born in anything but a circus and was unable to roar just like Ryan. Samson's overly-strict, authoritarian father could never accept him as a son and allowed him to be sent to the zoo, where he lied about his origins to avoid humiliation. The wildebeests discover them and push the tree over the cliff, with Samson still hanging on. Ryan is captured and taken to the volcano.
After a run-in with a group of female German dung beetles, Benny finds Samson and gives him the confidence to be himself, even if he is not from the wild. They soon find out that Samson's "instincts" were actually two chameleons named Cloak and Camo, who has been leading Samson to the volcano, so he would help them defeat Kazar's army. Samson uses the chameleons' camouflage abilities to sneak into the volcano, but when his disguise blows off due to the intense heat of the mountain, Kazar orders his army to attack. Seeing Samson in danger, Ryan climbs onto a catapulting device and launches himself at Kazar, finally letting out a roar. With Kazar distracted, Samson easily overpowers him. Ryan tells Samson that he is happy to have him as a father. The other wildebeests are touched by this and refuse to serve Kazar any further, having grown fed up with his delusions. Samson then gains the courage and roars powerfully enough to push back a charging Kazar. The group and the wildebeests flee, leaving Kazar to die in the erupting volcano. They manage to escape on the boat and travel back to the Central Park Zoo in their New York home.