Radio_Lady Reviews "The Wild," Disney's new animated movie...

[Radio_Lady]

If you're planning to see Disney's new animated movie, "The Wild," please reconsider.

First, you need to understand that I loved the handmade cell-drawn cartoons when I was a young sprout. I enjoyed "Snow White" -- "Fantasia" -- "Bambi" and all of the classics over and over.

Today's animated movies are getting better and better, starting with "A Bug's Life" -- "Ants" -- "Toy Story" -- "The Incredibles" -- "Shrek" -- "Finding Nemo" and so forth. CGI (computer graphic imaging) has come a long way, baby, in faithfully rendering humans and animals and background images.

My five-year-old grandson and I saw "The Wild" at a preview. He gave the film a "thumbs up" -- but he will watch pretty much anything that moves, except "Barney" and "Teletubbies" which are "for babies." So he's no help.

Best thing about "The Wild" are the graphics of New York (without people, imagine that!) and the complex faces of the various characters. The film's colors are by Crayola, but the story was pure CRAPOLA, I'm sorry to say. It isn't any kind of adventure -- and the film "lifts" liberally from a couple of other recent movies -- so "The Wild" is pretty much lacking a true backbone for a new story. Also, Disney released it on Easter weekend, AFTER spring break and BEFORE summer vacation. What's up with that?

I'm struggling to report more of ANYTHING good. The carnivores were strictly vegetarians. The skin, hair and eyes of the animals looked so real that I may have nightmares about talking lions, a koala with a British accent, an anaconda snake with NO LISP, a lovelorn squirrel. Oh, I forgot a female giraffe, voiced by Air America Radio's Janeane Garafalo. (Perhaps THAT'S why she has been absent so much from her evening radio show with Sam Seder.)

The Disney website for this movie boasts that "418 people (spent) 1.5 million work hours to complete 'The Wild'" and this may go down as one of the biggest wastes of time in moviemaking history.

I'll be kind and give it a "C-minus" on Ellen's Entertainment Report Card.

Official movie website link:

http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/thewild/index.html

See you at the DU!

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[bigwillq]

1. Did you see "A History of Violence"?

:shrug:

[Radio_Lady]

3. Yes, I did. Last year.

[bigwillq]

5. What were your thoughts on it?

:shrug:

[Radio_Lady]

12. I'll PM them to you, BigWillQ.

Give me just a bit o' time! Thanks.

[Radio_Lady]

2. Portland Tribune reviewer was much less charitable.

Your children will want to see “The Wild.” And if you love them, you won’t take them to see it.

Why? Because if you buy tickets to this dull, dumb, derivative piece of dreck, the people at Disney will think that it’s OK to steal ideas from other films (remember “Madagascar”?) and then trot out the exact same plot constructs as their other films (remember “Finding Nemo”?), slap the resulting garbage up onto the screen and make bushels of money. Then all the films your kids will get in the future will be as bad as this.

The animation obviously took a lot of effort. The script — about a lion (Kiefer Sutherland) that travels to Africa to save its runaway son — took no apparent effort at all, and is simply embarrassing.

Stay home. Rent “The Lion King.” Do your kids a favor and don’t support junk like this.
— Dawn Taylor

OTHER MOVIES REVIEWED AT: http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=34798

[Radio_Lady]

4. Do your own review -- if you see "The Wild" this weekend, let us know.

I'll mention your comments on my next radio show.

[DS1]

7. *ROAR* GRAMMAR NAZI, ROAR!

about a lion (Kiefer Sutherland) that travels to Africa

about a lion WHO travels to Africa

I swear, these people who piss on animation for a living are no better than the animators.

Foo, to you, ma'am. FOO!

[Radio_Lady]

10. You'll be pleased to know that I don't understand what you are

talking about. Who is pissing on animation?

Are you referring to what Dawn wrote, "about a lion that travels to Africa" and "that" should be "who"?

By the way, I am not profiting from reviewing, because I'm an unpaid radio volunteer! The writer for the Portland Tribune also collects quite a minimal sum.

And what does "foo" mean?

I just know it from "egg foo yung" or "kung foo (fu)" which are Chinese terms.

[DS1]

6. Do you really write like that?

I mean, the UPPER CASE when you want to yell? It seems a little odd to me. Besides, why are you picking on Disney when it's the entire industry which can't come up with a new plot?

[tjdee]

9. I'm not Radio Lady, but the rip off is pretty blatant.

But sometimes that happens, in Hollywood, two studios have the same idea and make basically the same film (this/Madagascar, Mr. and Mrs. Smith/Fun With Dick and Jane, etc.)

I think Disney deserves more criticism than other studios because no one even expects them to come up with their own ideas so much (most of their successful films were adaptations). They can't wrest a good story from the 50 million fairytales out there and get Elton John or friggin', the Scissor Sisters to write some songs for it (Chicken Little used all "real" songs to attract parents)?

Yuck.

[Radio_Lady]

11. Upper case is supposed to be shouting, but on the Internet, it can

also be used for "emphasis" if underline or italics are unavailable.

I disagree with your thesis that the "entire (movie) industry can't come up with a new plot."

There are many movies with new plots. Regrettably, many of them do not make it to your local theater.

Thanks for your input, DS1. I've filed it.

[tjdee]

8. Didn't Madagascar come out already?

This movie looks like a load of crapola, like you say, I can see it a mile away. It's just so sad for Disney, I mean, some of the greatest films of all time came from that studio, and now they can't catch a clue.

I mean, Chicken Little? That friggin cows movie? This load?

It makes me want to cry, honest. That could be because I'm a bit pre-menstrual LOL.

Just seeing the ads for this makes me want to see Madagascar again, which is the funniest movie I've seen in some time. Samson the lion? Puleez. I've already got Alex (and he's Ben Stiller!).

[Radio_Lady]

13. You're right. Madagascar (2005) has already been released.

Here's how it turned out financially for Dreamworks:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=madagascar.htm

TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES
Domestic: $193,595,521 36.6%
+ Foreign: $334,769,558 63.4%

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

= Worldwide: $528,365,079

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. I took my 7 year old to Ice Age 2 the other day...

He enjoyed it, but thought the first movie was better. I did too. Still, it wasn't bad. :)

[Radio_Lady]

15. Oh, dear. Another case of "sequel failure" -- how sad!

Since I have a choice, I'll probably let my grandkids see this one with their mother and father.

Or wait for the DVD!

Thanks for your post!

In peace,

Radio_Lady

[Radio_Lady]

16. Did anyone else go to this movie on Easter Sunday?

I view that as more of a family get-together day.

[Radio_Lady]

17. Weekend Actuals (Just show me the money, honey!)

WEEKEND ACTUALS from http://www.boxofficemojo.com

1. Scary Movie 4 $40,222,875
2. Ice Age 2 $20,026,625
3. The Benchwarmers $9,913,291
4. The Wild $9,684,809
5. Take the Lead $6,783,697

"The Wild" looks as if it's just mild...

[Radio_Lady]

18. Ice Age 2 -- The Meltdown -- ended up being our choice for a Monday

attraction. I had my five-year-old grandson and I came down with the sniffles -- just a good day for a movie.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Let's see- there were the two cartoons about the ants...

there were two cartoons about the fish...

there were two cartoons about the zoo animals...

I think I'm missing a pair.

[Radio_Lady]

20. Where did you put "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2"?