DVDizzy Forum

For those who are interested, Disney has the official site, and the trailer up, for The Wild

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/thewild/

Not much on the site, but the trailer, at the moment.

Enjoy!

Also, for those who do not go through the main page, the poster is here:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/intheaters.html#wild

Looks good. I'm sure gonna watch it with the kids and then buy it.

thanks looks like a cute movie

Looks good, I may think about buying it as well, but I have to check more about it first to see about it better.

That sure doesn't seem anything like Madagascar even though similar animals are used as main characters. If the reviews are good, I might give it a go.

I feel sorry for Disney. Theyre gonna be under a lot of pressure for releasing a film that once again carbon copies an already existing Dreamworks CGI film and they didnt even produce it!

Am I the only one who finds the decision to cast Eddie Izzard as the koala a bit bizarre? Surely this character called for an Australian to provide the voice.

Also I hate to admit that I'm less than enthusastic about this film. The trailer doesn't really sell it to me.

What the hell has happened to Disney?

It looks promising. Although it does look like some hybrid of Madagascar and Finding Nemo.


I'm surprised that it's being released in April!

cornelius wrote: Also I hate to admit that I'm less than enthusastic about this film. The trailer doesn't really sell it to me.

I agree, what is this? A Madagascar version Disney??? Well at the end the movie history and the jokes would tell how good this can turn, still no much expectations, I guess...

The Wild is going to be released a week from today!

http://www.comingsoon.net had the following interview with Steve Williams regarding The Wild. Evidently (and this may have been posted about before) 'The Wild' was in the works before Madagascar came out.

Exclusive: Answering the Call of The Wild
Source: Alice Chapman Newgen April 7, 2006

Walt Disney Pictures will be releasing its new animated movie called The Wild next Friday, April 14th. The characters in this family-oriented film include a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a squirrel, a koala and a wildebeest. It was important to Disney to have the film portray a good message to all the viewers, young and old alike.
The story revolves around an adolescent lion in the New York Zoo that is accidentally shipped to the wild in Africa. His pals from the zoo brave the "jungle" and set off on a dangerous mission to rescue their missing friend.
Steve "Spaz" Williams was approached by Disney in 2001 to bring him on board to direct The Wild. Williams, an Oscar-nominated visual effects veteran (The Mask), was an ideal choice because of his visual animation expertise and impressive background. He helped pioneer CG (computer graphics) character animation through his work at ILM (Industrial Light & Magic) in the films: The Abyss, Jurassic Park and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Williams also directed a series of Blockbuster commercials that featured computer-animated characters called Carl the rabbit and Ray the guinea pig.
The Toronto native credits his dad (Norm Williams) for getting him interested in the field of animation.
"My dad was with IBM. He introduced the first computer in Canadian high schools in 1964. It was a big huge IBM machine. They (computers) were always around and I like drawing and computers. The two things merged, and I took animation at Sheridan College, which is just outside of Toronto. That was one of the big Disney schools at the time in 1981," he said.
The cartoon character Bugs Bunny was an inspiration to Williams in the world of animation.
"Bugs Bunny was the first American wise guy on the screen back in the '30s and 40s. He was like a cross between Harpo Marx and Jack Benny." Williams said, "I was always inspired watching him. I laughed my ass off watching that. To do this entertainment medium, if you're going to make people laugh, this is the way to do it."
Williams doesn't believe in sacrificing a film to make a political statement—that's a personal preference. He feels the best thing you can give to someone is the gift of laughter. It doesn't have to be at someone else's expense.
"I just want the audience to be entertained. People are finally going to see a film that isn't going to make them feel guilty for being human and guilty for laughing. They can actually have a good family fun time. That's what the whole idea is. We designed this film for all ages. A lot of the different studios like to use a pop culture comedy. We don't; we invented our comedy from zero. As a matter of fact, some of the characters, such as Eddie Izzard, who plays a koala, have maybe three scripted lines in the entire film. We ad-libbed everything. Some of the most fun during the process was reading with the actors, because you are inventing the movie and you are kind of loosely working on scripted lines. Disney allowed us to do it. We had fun that way. That produces some of the best stuff."
It's not uncommon for several movies hitting theaters to have a range of similarities, according to Williams. The movie Madagascar comes to mind in a situation like this. He said The Wild was already in the works before Madagascar was in the pipe. It happens. When he was chief animator on The Abyss, there were two other deep sea creature films (Leviathan and DeepStar Six) that were released. He likes to say that the best is the last.
The Wild is the biggest animated movie ever made in Canada. A facility with four-hundred and fifty people in a sixty-five thousand square ft. building was instrumental in creating the overall special effects of the film.
Walt Disney Pictures newest release, The Wild, is rated G. The vocal talents behind the characters in this hilarious computer-animated film are: Kiefer Sutherland (Samson, the lion leader), Greg Cipes (Ryan, Sampson's son), Jim Belushi (Benny, a street savvy squirrel and Ryan's best friend), Janeane Garofalo (the quick-witted giraffe), Richard Kind (the dim-witted anaconda), William Shatner (the wicked wildebeest), and Eddie Izzard (Nigel, the koala).

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=14010

How many UD forum visitors plan to see this movie next weekend....or at least sometime in it's theatrical run?

I, for one, plan to take 3 of my kids to see this on Friday....they have off school anyway. Even though it seems a lot like Madagascar, I am willing to give it a chance.

I, for one, am a real looney for movies such as this one. I liked "Madagascar", and I am sure that this one will please the child in all of us. Since I am not a critic, I will let the movie entertain me, and then share what I think about it with all my friends.

I think that there are quite a few CGI movies coming out this year including this one, and also later in the year there is "Happy Feet", and this summer "Over The Hedge" makes its debut. It's is going to be a fun summer for those of us who enjoy animated films of all types.

More today from http://www.comingsoon.net

THE WILD (Walt Disney Pictures)
Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Greg Cipes, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Richard Kind, William Shatner, Eddie Izzard
Directed by Steve "Spaz" Williams; Written by Ed Decter and John J. Strauss (The Santa Clause 2, The Lizzie McGuire), Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin (Snow Dogs)
Genre: Family, Animated, Comedy
Rated G
Tagline: "A whole new breed of tourist."
Story: A bunch of zoo animals escape from the Central Park Zoo in search of a friend who was accidentally shipped to the wild, but they soon learn that New York City may be even wilder.

There used to be a time when we'd only get one or two computer animated movies a year, but with 2006 less than a third over, we get the fourth movie in the genre with at least four or five more to go. On the positive note, this one is being released by Disney, on the negative, it wasn't done in-house or with Pixar Studios, so it's likely to a minimal push from the company, much like was the case with last year's Britcentric animated film Valiant or Home on the Range the year before that.

Anyone who saw last year's Madagascar from DreamWorks Animation, which did decent business over Memorial Day weekend, might find the premise of animals escaping from Central Park Zoo to be rather familiar. Then again, this movie, produced by Canada's C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and directed by Steve "Spaz" Williams, best known for the visual effects in movies like The Mask, was in development for almost ten years, so maybe the idea leaked out to DreamWorks. That essentially creates a similar situation as when Antz and A Bug's Life both came out within months of each other, but in this case, DreamWorks might win out. Either way, it's an important movie for C.O.R.E, being their first full CG film.

While the film does have a few known voice actors like William Shatner, who also provides his voice for the upcoming Over the Hedge, Kiefer Sutherland of "24" and Jim Belushi, none of them are enough to really sell the picture, as has been the case with other CG animated films.

Really, the best thing going for the movie is its G-rating, which should help influence parents to bring in their smaller children, at least on Friday and Saturday. Even so, the non-threatening rating didn't do much to help the Weinstein Company's Doogal just a few short weeks ago, and The Wild only has slightly more awareness, and it will mainly be relying on walk-in theatre business than people actually making an effort to go see it.

Why I Should See It: Gotta loves them animated zoo animals!!
Why Not: Because most people already saw this premise used in Madagascar, which also had a stronger comedy cast.
Projection: $9 to 11 million opening weekend on its way to $35 million.

I bolded the comments I thought were significant. I don't know why I'm so concerned about this movie, seeing how it wasn't made by WDFA....I'd just like people to give it a chance, seeing that Dreamworks somehow might have stole the idea and gotten their movie out first.

I plan to go see this one. It probably won't be opening weekend, but I will see it in April.

kbehm29, I think The Wild has more appeal than you give it credit for. At a recent movie screening, the audience enjoyed the preview quite a bit.

At the moment, The Wild is set for an Australian release date of September 28! If it does well in the US, I'm sure that date will get bumped forward, so make sure you all go see it this weekend!!!

Of course, September is our 'Spring' and our equivalent school holidays/spring break would be around then, so it kind of makes sense. We do get The Shaggy Dog this Easter long-weekend, so there is some Disneyfication left in Sydney.

McDonald's confirmed today through a press release that they are having The Wild toys in their happy meals starting this Friday!

http://www.mcdonalds.com/usa/news/curre ... 22006.html

It's great news that Disney has faith in this movie after all...

I saw this movie at a press screening, and it actually surprised me...it has alot of random comedy (since that is the "it" thing right now), lots of slapstick humor...The supporting cast and voice work in the film is excellent...

the father/son angle between lions reminded me greatly of mufasa/simba...

In general i was pleasantly surprised by this film.
Def. recommend it...and i hope it does good business.

It´s just me or this looks like a mix of Madagascar and Finding Nemo?

I don´t think I´ll watch this movie...I know that more than one will hate moe for what I´m going to say,but I´m more atracted for the Dreamworks movies of this year than the Disney ones

Isidour wrote:It´s just me or this looks like a mix of Madagascar and Finding Nemo?

I don´t think I´ll watch this movie...I know that more than one will hate moe for what I´m going to say,but I´m more atracted for the Dreamworks movies of this year than the Disney ones

::realizes it wasnt a joke::

oh well to each their own.