Tuesday, April 18, 2006

The Wild Disney at its Worst; Sewer-dwelling Alligators as Negative Italian Stereotypes

The ANNOTICO Report

Disney's "The Wild" is one of the worst animated films I can recall, says this Baltimore Critic.

Additionally, this movie features some of the most appalling ethnic caricatures in a children's film since "Star Wars: Episode I." and besides the sewer-dwelling alligators that have all the earmarks of negative ITALIAN stereotypes, there is a family of beetles in the movie are clearly meant to be SWEDISH, and worst of all, a group of pigeons are portrayed as extremely offensive caricatures of INDIAN people, including some brief Bollywood dancing.

Hopefully, as bad as this film sounds, it will not require any response to give it any attention, and allow it to pass on and off the scene without much notice.

This animated film, in a series of flops, may be the reason Disney in January 2006, agreed to pay $ 7.4 billion to acquire Pixar Animation Studios, where Steve Jobs, Apple and Pixar's visionary is chairman, and CEO. Pixar has knocked out six blockbusters, from "Toy Story" in 1995 to "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" in recent years. His top creative executive at Pixar, John A. Lasseter, will oversee the movies at both Pixar's and Disney's animation studios. Pixar's president, Edwin Catmull, will run the business side for the two studios. The future for Disney employees responsible for "The Wild" and other duds is in doubt. Poetic Justice or Merely Getting Just Rewards?

SEEING 'THE WILD' WILL MAKE YOU AND YOUR KIDS DUMBER

by Rob Scheer

April 13, 2006

How apropos it is that Disney's "The Wild" one of the worst animated films I can recall, is directed by a guy whose credit proudly displays his nickname "Spaz".

The movie is kick-started when king-of-the-zoo lion Samson's (Kiefer Sutherland) son Ryan is captured after escaping from the zoo. Samson must venture into New York City to find him. He is accompanied on his journey by his friends: koala bear Nigel (Eddie Izzard), giraffe Bridget (Janeane Garafalo), squirrel Benny (Jim Belushi), and snake Larry (a wildly annoying Richard Kind). The movie aims so low for the stupidest and most infantile laughs possible, including fart jokes, that it's likely even 5 year olds will feel above it. The height of its wit is when Nigel, cloaked in garbage, asks "do I look trashy in this??" It didn't elicit a laugh from me, but if it does from you, it will undoubtedly be your only one in the movie...

The film also is consistently frenetic and busy, which works with good material, but as "The Wild" keeps moving from unfunny moment to annoying moment, you barely have time to not laugh. And whenever it isn't going for a childish joke, it resorts to "Chicken Little"-esque "want to impress my dad" mawkishness.

"The Wild", bland and uninspired in every way, has all the earmarks of a movie that should have went direct-to-video, including a B-list cast and a soundtrack consisting of songs that are several years past their expiration date (including Coldplay's "Clocks").

A strain of groan-inducing familiarity runs all through "The Wild", and not solely from its virtually identical-to-"Madagascar" storyline. A scene of wildebeests worshipping Nigel is straight out of the mediocre-but-still-better-than-this "Ice Age: The Meltdown", and the movie also features some of the most appalling ethnic caricatures in a children's film since "Star Wars: Episode I." A family of beetles in the movie are clearly meant to be Swedish, sewer-dwelling alligators have all the earmarks of negative Italian stereotypes and worst of all, a group of pigeons are portrayed as extremely offensive caricatures of Indian people, including some brief Bollywood dancing.

It takes a movie like this to make you realize that we shouldn't be disappointed when animated features don't reach the great heights of, for instance, "The Incredibles". Even entertaining but unexceptional animated films like "Madagascar" seem like small miracles when viewed next to "The Wild".

Genre: Animation; Rating: G; Running Time: 85 min.

Who's in it: Kiefer Sutherland, Eddie Izzard, Janeane Garafalo, Jim Belushi, Richard Kind

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