The Wild
The Wild is a computer-animated film directed by Steve 'Spaz' Williams, produced by Clint Goldman, assistant produced by John Burton and C.O.R.E. Feature Animation, and was released by Walt Disney Pictures on April 14, 2006 (May 26, 2006 in UK). The story was written by Ed Dector.
The Story
Samson the lion, known as "Samson the Wild", is the star of the New York City zoo. (Though the zoo's best-selling merchandise is a talking doll which looks like Nigel the koala, another resident.) Samson continually recounts to his adolescent son Ryan tales of his adventures in the wild. Ryan's sense of inadequacy is heightened by the fact that his 'roar' is little more than a squeaky wail. His father's stories fill him with a desire to escape, but Samson is perfectly content to remain in the zoo. Later, however, Ryan sneaks into a shipping container bound for Africa. .
After the zoo closes, some animals play a game of turtle-curling, including five of the main characters: Samson, Benny, Bridget the giraffe (whom Benny has a crush on), Larry the snake, and Nigel who is the co-captain. As they are about to begin, Nigel is harassed by a group of heckling monkeys armed with one of the dolls in his likeness (which says "I'm so cuddly, I like you!"), humiliating both him and the team. During the game, Ryan accidentally causes a herd of gazelles to stampede, which wreaks havoc on the stadium. After lecturing Ryan, Samson tells Benny his feelings and tries to find Ryan to apologize. Instead, witnesses Ryan being shipped off to Africa. The lion decides to leave with Benny, leaving the rest of his team behind. Just as Benny is giving directions through New York, Bridget accidentally pushes him from their vehicle with her tail. The four -- without Benny -- must use their instincts to survive in the city. The story continues with the hapless group travelling to Africa to find Ryan.
The movie has many similarities to Madagascar including its setting in New York, similar animals as characters, and the primary plot of introducing zoo animals to the wild. The name of the film and the tag line, "Start spreading the newspaper", a play on the opening line from the "Theme from New York, New York", were both used as integral plot points in Madagascar. The koala's line "Sprechen sie koala?" mirrors Madagascar's: "You. quadraped. Sprechen sie English?" Because of this, some people believe that the movie is a possible plagiarism of Madagascar, a Jack Bauer-meets-Madagascar film. Rotten Tomatoes describes the critics' consensus on The Wild as "With a rehashed plot and unimpressive animation, there's nothing wild about The Wild". As of July 13, 2006, only 19% of reviews from critics there were positive; the negative reviews frequently compared The Wild with Madagascar.However, there is strong evidence that The Wild was in production first. Director Steve Williams said that he received the script in 2001. His contract with Disney stated that C.O.R.E would animate, and this contract proceeded in 2003. The Wild has reportedly been in some form of production for a decade, first being called The Big Break, then Wildlife, and finally The Wild. Animators from the film have stated openly that they had been working on The Wild already when they first saw the trailer for Madagascar. Several even believe that Marty's line "I wish I could go to The Wild!" from Madagascar is a direct mocking of their own efforts. When Madagascar came out in 2005, it was panned by critics for its underwhelming story and relatively poor animation, further suspecting many to believe that the film had been rushed into production and released. Despite that, Madagascar was better received by the public than The Wild. Also there has also been evidence that Madagascar has been in production for 20 years, and was originally going to be a traditional animated film, but frequent procrastination by the animators tend to increase its time length for production, including transferring the script to different studios, such as from Disney to Fox Animation Studios, and then to DreamWorks where Madagascar got a head start into full production.
This would not be the first time for Disney and Dreamworks that two films with a similar theme were released in close proximity. In the fall of 1998, Dreamworks released its talking bug film "Antz" mere weeks before Disney/Pixar released "A Bug's Life". Later on in 2004, Dreamworks released Shark Tale, which had an underwater theme resembling that of Pixar's Finding Nemo (2003).
