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Cartoon animals never stay caged for long

Stars including Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi and Eddie Izzard provide the voices for this zoo-animals-gone-native tale. PHOTO COURTESY OF BVI

With its narrative resemblance to last year's Madagascar, the latest zoo-animals-gone-native adventure, The Wild, makes you suspect that both projects benefited from the same uncredited script doctor. The animation, however, is a different matter: where Madagascar was all sharp edges and blocky slabs of uniform color, The Wild is filled with softness and texture. When a breeze stirs the coat of Samson the lion, the hairs lift and separate just like the real thing.

The plot is at once familiar and unexpectedly original as Samson (voiced by Kiefer Sutherland), along with a gaggle of noisy friends, escapes from the fictitious New York Zoo in pursuit of his cub, who has stowed away on a ship bound for Africa.

The rescue mission allows a domesticated Samson to finally get his beast on; it also allows for inspired voice work from Eddie Izzard as a snooty koala bear and William Shatner as a menacing wildebeest with plans to reverse the predator-prey dynamic.

Some of the film's images, in fact -- like a pair of sewer-dwelling alligators with hideously pockmarked hides -- are shivery enough to inspire night terrors in all but the most precocious toddlers.

But while the kids are giggling at gambling pigeons and psychedelic chameleons, parents can enjoy a screenplay sensitive to the travails of single fatherhood and the evils of oppression. In The Wild, the most valuable weapons are honesty, tolerance and the ability to be oneself.

The Wild

Directed by: Steve Williams

With the voices of: Kiefer Sutherland (Samson), Jim Belushi (Benny), Greg Cipes (Ryan), Eddie Izzard (Nigel), Richard Kind (Larry), Janeane Garofalo (Bridget), William Shatner (Kazar) and Patrick Warburton (Blag)

Running time: 94 minutes

Taiwan Release: Today
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