Reviews

The Wild

Tame

By TOM MEEK | April 19, 2006

2.0 Stars

The animation war between Disney and DreamWorks (A Bugs Life versus Antz; Monsters, Inc. versus Shrek) continues with Disney’s response to Madagascar (though it’s said Disney had this one in works for some time). Instead of a lion, a hippo, a zebra, and a giraffe, you’ve got the lion and the giraffe teamed up with a snake, a koala bear (a droll Eddie Izzard), and a squirrel who bust out of the New York zoo, get impounded on a freighter, and land in the African wild sans survival instincts. Madagascar is no ideal to aspire to, and though The Wild is not much of an improvement, the absence of Chris Rock’s motormouth zebra is a boon, and the premise for the misadventure — the Finding Nemo–esque quest of Samson the Lion (Kiefer Sutherland) to retrieve Ryan (Greg Cipes), his wayward cub — endears no matter how gimmicky it may be. Other than that, and a cheeky gaggle of clandestine chameleons, little in director Steve “Spaz” Williams’s wild world growls a notch above tame.

Related: Monkeying around, Where raccoons dare, Review: The Cove, More

Monkeying around
Dire fiscal conditions at most media outlets have led major local players like the Providence Journal and WJAR/Channel 10 to pursue a unique employment strategy. Both organizations are apparently looking into securing the services of trained gibbons to provide much of the support work and eventually the writing and reporting of the news.
Where raccoons dare
Dark eyes in the darkness; quick, narrow hands working at an entrance; then the coarse slither of a heavy body through the freshly made hole.
Review: The Cove
There's something at stake here, and it's not just the conscience of Ric O'Barry, who as the former dolphin trainer for the 1960s television show Flipper feels responsible for the planet's porpoise fetish.
Boston rat rampage
Residents say that if you jam a leaf blower in the earth virtually anywhere in Allston, furry bottom feeders will be blown out of every crack and hole in sight and rain down like unsavory screeching meatballs. North Enders joke that something similar would happen if you detonate a Parmesan wheel in an alleyway off Hanover Street.
Monkey Business
Craig Cook remembers when friends tried to draw him out of a deep depression — by offering to get him a monkey.
Celebrating the original DIY
Like you, dear readers, I was apparently too busy exploring south of the border to even realize it, but I just found out that May was National Masturbation Month.
Maneaters: A history
Sometimes the most ferocious maneater looks like an ordinary rabbit… and sometimes it looks just like you covered in a flesh-gobbling pus!
Open Season
For its foray into 3-D animation Sony has chosen a well-worn path: genetically fierce animals live in the lap of domesticated luxury until they’re dumped back in the wild sans survival instincts. Watch the trailer for Open Season (QuickTime)
Monkey see, monkey do
So thorough and deadpan is the joke that Catherine Chalmers pulls off in her ravishing color photographs of insects crawling across flowers they resemble that when I read the wall text I was sure there had been a mistake. Slideshow: Going Ape: Confronting Animals In Contemporary Art at DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park
Something old, something new
For his first major show in the US, Shintaro Miyake would create a pond filled with real water, a dam, beaver lodges, and drawings of beavers and kayakers.
Animal house
Each of Sara Gruen’s first three novels have had animal characters who were crucial to the book, but Water for Elephants has made the biggest splash.
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Topics: Reviews , Mammals, Nature and the Environment, Wildlife, More

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[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

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Watch the trailer for The Wild (QuickTime)

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