The Wild Critic Reviews

This is the third animated feature in a row (after "Curious George" and "Ice Age: The Meltdown") which aims at children and has no serious ambition to be all things to all people, i.e., their parents. But for kids, it's OK.Read the full review

While the kids are giggling at gambling pigeons and psychedelic chameleons, parents can enjoy a screenplay sensitive to the travails of single fatherhood and the evils of oppression. In The Wild, the most valuable weapons are honesty, tolerance and the ability to be oneself.Read the full review

Just be the most wildly derivative animated movie in ages.Read the full review

Adult humor in kiddie films -- of which there is plenty in The Wild -- is not only welcome but, for many adult viewers, essential.Read the full review

A decent-looking and harmless computer animated film that is notable mostly because it doesn't appear to contain a single original idea.Read the full review

Lifting a concept isn't exactly foreign to the world of animation (what's "The Lion King" if not "Bambi" with manes?), but it isn't often a rip-off gets as blatant as The Wild, a flat-out regurgitation of "Madagascar."Read the full review

The film is a relentlessly loud and ultimately exhausting exercise only partially leavened by the usual heavy doses of wisecracking humor and visual gags.Read the full review

Uninspired character animation and obnoxious banter aside, The Wild is ultimately done in by the persistent stench of been-there-seen-that.Read the full review

How's the movie? Technologically incredible, aesthetically pretty hideous, and narratively lumpy: Kids who aren't cynics (i.e., 9 and under) will roll with it.Read the full review