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All his life, poor young Ryan (Greg Cipes) has lived in the shadow of his dad, the famous Samson the Wild, king of the New York Zoo. Samson (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland) has always told Ryan stories of his life in the wild—of how he could scare whole packs of animals with nothing more than his mighty roar. But poor Ryan has yet to find his roar, and he feels like a total failure. Even his dad, who tries really hard to encourage Ryan, is a little embarrassed.
One night, after Ryan and his friends accidentally scare a pack of gazelles, causing a stampede that ruins Samson’s big Turtle Curling competition, Ryan decides to run away—and go to The Wild. When Samson finds out where Ryan has gone, he sets out with his friends—Benny the squirrel (Jim Belushi), Nigel the koala (Eddie Izzard), Larry the snake (Richard Kind), and Bridget the giraffe (Janeane Garofalo)—to find Ryan and bring him back. There, they meet a singing, dancing pack of wildebeests who worship a stuffed, talking version of Nigel and who are bound and determined—despite the fact that they’re herbivores—to move to the top of the food chain. And, to take their place at the top of the food chain, they’re going to have to start by cooking up a little lion for dinner.
While in The Wild, a deep, dark secret from Samson’s past comes out to haunt him—but he’s got to get beyond the problems in his past if he’s going to get to Ryan before the wildebeests do.
If you think this all sounds hauntingly familiar, you’re right. You may have seen this movie last year, when it was called Madagascar. Or maybe you remember the story from more than a decade ago, when it was called The Lion King. Had Disney’s The Wild been as breathtaking as the old classic—or had it improved upon the mediocre Dreamworks picture—maybe I would have been able to overlook the similarities. Unfortunately, it just feels like the Same Old Thing. Granted, The Wild does have its bright spots and a few likeable characters (especially Nigel, who steals the show), but there’s nothing there to make it stand out. As a whole, it’s not especially hilarious, and while the story comes together a little better than Madagascar’s did, it gets too bogged down with all the touchy-feely stuff. When it comes down to it, it’s just too much like everything else to make it memorable.
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