The Wild

Lifting a concept isn’t exactly foreign to the world of animation (what’s The Lion King if not Bambi with manes?), but it isn’t often a rip-off gets as blatant as The Wild, a flat-out regurgitation of Madagascar. Seriously: same overly civilized New York zoo animals, same midnight escape to the canyons of Manhattan, same stowaway to Africa, same tribe of deranged musical beasties. The difference is that where Madagascar was witty enough to see the folly of a domesticated lion finding his untamed self, The Wild, beneath some ”wacky” chatter, is earnest to the point of dullness.