The Wild

In 2006, Disney distributed an animated CGI film produced by C.O.R.E. Feature Animation. Directed by Steve Williams, The Wild starred Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Greg Cipes, Eddie Izzard, Richard Kind, William Shatner, and Patrick Warburton. It grossed $139 million.

Samson the Lion (Sutherland) is a lion at the New York zoo. He has an argument with his son, Ryan (Cipes) who runs away to the African Wild to be like his father. Samson takes his friends, an anaconda named Larry (Kind), a koala named Nigel (Izzard), a giraffe named Bridged (Garofalo) and a squirrel named Benny (Belushi) to go find him. During the search, they come across a cult of wildebeests led by Kazar (Shatner) trying to become carnivores.

On the surface, this film might seem like a clone of Madagascar, since it came out before The Wild. And while there are similarities, the latter is actually quite superior to the former. For one, most of the jokes are actually funny. Yes, there are a few terrible ones, but in an inverse of Kronk’s New Groove for every bad joke, there’s a lot that are really good.

The plot is also much better and less contrived. Instead of a lion wanting to go to the jungle, a Ryan accidentally gets transported there and his dad has to find him. The resulting trip has much better direction than causing a scene in Times Square and getting shipped off. Here, they’re the instigators and they track down the ship and they go after it.

Shatner’s also a hilarious villain, especially with Warburton at his side. He believes a koala doll that fell from the sky is an omen that a god will come to them and teach the wildebeests to be carnivores. Leading the cult and insulting Warburton’s character for messing up his dance routine is just plain funny.

#41

Osmosis Jones

Tom Sito, Piet Kroon and the Farrelly brothers directed a hybrid comedy in 2001 known as Osmosis Jones. Starring Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood, William Shatner, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott, and Bill Murray, the film was a massive box office bomb. Of the $70 million it cost, the film only grossed $13.5. It did, however, get a television show called Ozzy & Drix from 2002 until 2004.

Osmosis Jones (Rock) is a white blood cell inside the body of Frank (Murray). He’s paired up with Drix (Pierce), a cold pill to fight what they believe to be a common cold. Instead, they find Thrax (Fishburne), a virus intent on killing Frank.

This movie is all over the place. It’s got a fun story, but it’s just so full of mostly bad puns and lame jokes centering on the weirdness of the human body that it really takes you out of the story. Some jokes are actually pretty funny (like finding a good lawyer in the hemorrhoids), a couple are clever (like a cell dividing by himself) but the rest are just bad and painful.

The music also dates this movie pretty hard, since its mainly early late 90s, early 2000s rap and hip hop. It makes sense for the movie, but they really could have chosen other songs or maybe earlier selections that would have withstood being forgotten by the sands of time.

As for the live action parts, Bill Murray is hilarious as always and he actually does well in  regards to the secondary plot. Chris Elliot as his brother is also pretty good. But despite it being acted so well, the secondary plot feels to much like a sledgehammer to the face about the merits of living well and eating right.

It’s not a terrible movie, but it’s not great either.  

Doesn't pass the Edge of Satisfaction and becomes #4 for Comedy.