Film Reviews

The Wild

• Rating:
• Director: Steve 'Spaz' Williams
• Starring: Eddie Izzard
• Details: US, 82 mins, G.

Following almost identical plot lines as Madagascar (and lifting the odd sequence from The Lion King and Finding Nemo to boot), The Wild sees Ryan (Greg Cipes), an adolescent lion embarrassed at his lack of 'roar', who is accidentally shipped from a New York Zoo to the jungles of Africa. In an attempt to win him back, his father Samson (Sutherland) and other the zoo animals - Benny the squirrel (Belushi), Nigel the koala (Izzard), a giraffe called Bridget (Janeane Garofalo) and Larry (Richard Kind) the snake - team up to make the hazardous journey across the sea to the Dark Continent. On arrival, they find that the country is being evacuated due to a spitting volcano and that a group of Wilder Beasts are attempting to move up the food chain and become predators. Aimed squarely at the little tykes and hoping that their short-term memory has being ruined due to game consoles, The Wild is still a beautiful looking and entertaining piece of animation (if you're under eight, that is).Many of the jokes fail to garner a sympathetic chuckle but if you're in the mood for ridiculous nonsense from start to finish, you may just enjoy this one. Probably not, though.

Review by Gavin Burke