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Steve Williams
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Connections, in both directions
Williams and company are certainly gutsy, though: "The Wild" opens with a sequence designed to remind viewers of "The Lion King," and a sight-seeing trip in New York mid-way through the movie actually includes a recreation of Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre, with its "Lion King" marquee.
…ith Shrek and Shark Tale having successfully set the model for crass kids' film product placement, it comes as little surprise that Disney's The Wild—about a few Central Park Zoo inhabitants who escape their confines and travel to the jungle to save a lion cub—features the synergistic sight of a Times Square marquee for The Lion King musical.
The word "generic" is too specific for Disney's latest slab of stillborn computer animation, which proves that intellectual property is as dead as the Dodo but theatrical distribution is alive and well; otherwise, such a charmless, insincere pastiche of Madagascar, The Lion King and Finding Nemo would have gone straight to video.
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.
Still, once you get past the “Madagascar” similarities, it’s impossible to shake other ones, namely other Disney releases like “The Lion King” and “Finding Nemo.”
As a story, it's not a lot more than a cross between Finding Nemo and Madagascar, with a plot device borrowed from The Gods Must Be Crazy (of all things) -- though here imbued with a soupcon of Call Me Bwana with its notion of natives worshipping a space capsule.
As a story, it's not a lot more than a cross between Finding Nemo and Madagascar, with a plot device borrowed from The Gods Must Be Crazy (of all things) -- though here imbued with a soupcon of Call Me Bwana with its notion of natives worshipping a space capsule.
The father/son bonding story in “The Wild” is more akin to “Finding Nemo,” another Disney picture, but made by Pixar.
Yet another retread of what has become the standard Disney story of late, this is Finding Nemo with lions.
If the comparisons to Madagascar aren't derivative enough, the plot is driven by elements that resemble Finding Nemo, as a single father sets out on a desperate quest to find and bring back his wandering son.
The word "generic" is too specific for Disney's latest slab of stillborn computer animation, which proves that intellectual property is as dead as the Dodo but theatrical distribution is alive and well; otherwise, such a charmless, insincere pastiche of Madagascar, The Lion King and Finding Nemo would have gone straight to video.
Still, once you get past the “Madagascar” similarities, it’s impossible to shake other ones, namely other Disney releases like “The Lion King” and “Finding Nemo.”
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)
Directed by Eric Darnell
influenced by The Wild (2006)
Plot
The former film played like a poor-man's version of 2006's " The Wild ," which shared the very same premise, and was topped off by a despairing cheap joke at the end that left its characters stranded with no hope for rescue.
A father’s search for his missing son is the same premise for both animation features but the earlier film benefited from much better, more imaginative writing (by animation veteran Andrew Stanton who penned such other great anime as Toy Story,” Toy Story 2” and “Monsters, Inc.” and also directed “Nemo”).
Computer graphics have come a long way since “Toy Story,” and even the weakest of the CGI features offers a decent amount of computer graphics.
Director Steve Williams, an Oscar-nominated visual-effects veteran who worked on "The Mask" and "The Abyss," lavishes impressive attention to detail on the characters and their surroundings.
Back in the 90s, DreamWorks stole Pixar’s idea of a life from a bug’s perspective and sneaked “Antz” into theaters before “A Bug’s Life” came out.