So, I'm a huge fan of Dreamwork's Madagascar. In fact, the second one is even better than the first! (A rare joy).I'm also a big fan of IMDB. So when IMDB lovingly suggested Disney's "The Wild" under recommendations, I naively trusted them.
If you have not seen either of these movies, let me fill you in a little.
First, let's look at their plot lines, shall we? (Shamelessly taken from IMDB)
Madagascar (Released 2005): At New York's Central Park Zoo, a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a hippo are best friends and stars of the show. But when one of the animals goes missing from their cage, the other three break free to look for him, only to find themselves reunited ... on a ship en route to Africa. When their vessel is hijacked, however, the friends, who have all been raised in captivity, learn first-hand what life can be like in the wild.
The Wild (Released 2006): An adolescent lion is accidentally shipped from the New York Zoo to Africa. Now running free, his zoo pals must put aside their differences to help bring him back.
*cough*
So let's look at some of the similarities between the two films here:
- The main character is a Lion
- Said lion and his friends live in a Zoo
- The Zoo is in New York
- One of the characters wants to escape to the WILD
- The gang winds up in the wild where they encounter obstacles.
- Inter species love
Practically the same movie, right? SO WRONG
So.. it's bad enough that Disney decides to rip off Madagascar. What's worse though, is they do a bad job at it. No wait, that's an understatement; It was practically unwatchable. I started reading forums etc while the movie was running in the background cause I found it so unstimulating. It really had nothing going for it.
What made it so god-awful? Well for one, all the characters lacked any real personality. Ryan, one of the main characters was basically the stereotype emo adolescent, going through lion puberty or something. Distraught over his inability to roar like his father. "Father lion" had the typical "I can't show my son that I'm weak so I'll tell him all these made up stories about how great I am, without realizing that I'm giving him an impossible standard to live up to" personality. Then the kid, in an act of tween emoness, decided to take a nap in the forewarned "GREEN BOX" that shipped zoo animals into the WILD! (He didn't even REALLY want to go, he was just acting out). Needless to say, father lion and his faithful pals set off to rescue him.
The side characters were so dull and uninteresting. I can't recall their names or purpose in the story. Compare this to Madagascar, where all the side characters are interesting, if not more so than the main characters (hello mafia penguin squad!!).
Aside from the actual story being totally lame and corny. Even the 3d was irritating to look at. Like they were trying too hard to make it look realistic, but it ended up just looking like they're trying to hard... Kinda like EQ2 vs WoW. Madagascar, on the other hand, is colorful and has a "style". They did an awesome job with expressions as well.
Then there's the SOUNDTRACK. Madagascar, hands-down coolest soundtrack ever.. Like I even need to say it. There is just no competition. In fact, It's probably a bit cruel to compare any film of this genre to Madagascar - but hey, I'm gonna do it anyway.
Let's see a comparison shall we?
The Wild:
/facepalm
Madagascar:
(I could not just pick just one, so here's a couple clips, for your enjoyment!)
So, in conclusion.
Madagascar = WIN
The Wild = FAIL
7 comments:
Well, DreamWorks' "Antz" is a shittier version of Disney (+Pixar)'s "A Bug's Life". So it goes both way, I guess:D
You raise an interesting point!
Been ages since I've seen either of those so gonna have to re-watch them. They don't have the huge release gap like Madagascar and The Wild though..
For the record though.. If pixar was involved it's kind of a different story. Pixar is pretty imba!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild#Criticism_caused_by_Madagascar_similarities
Ahaha.
And apparantly, "The Wild" started production BEFORE "Madagascar". It was still utter shit, though. Disney should be ashamed.
Oof Madagascar sucked though. The Wild was only better because that movie came out way worse. Zero plot, stupid characters, and it just wasn't funny.
Yeah. Madagascar is better than The Wild. Unlike The Wild, Madagascar was successful enough to be a trilogy. Madagascar came out a year before The Wild. Maybe Disney studios out of ideas by making The Wild, and that was why The Wild is pointless and forgotten. Is it me or was The Wild doing the illegal thing to do a rip-off of Madagascar, The Lion King, and Finding Nemo?
One of the main Disney people left to work for Dreamworks, and he brought his pitched storyboards for The Wild to Dreamworks. And since Dreamworks didn’t have anywhere near as many movies in production compared to Disney, they got Madagascar in the theatres first, because Disney used the spot for one of the Pirates movies. So when they released The Wild, it was done very quietly. Like, even in the mid-‘00s, the hype machine was working in the merch synergy. There is NO merch for The Wild. Because Disney already knew it was going to be looked at as a rip off. Even though The Wild was an original and organic idea by Disney, they screwed themselves by dragging their feet.
Seems to be a little bit of a biased
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