The Wild Life

Usually the summer film season is reserved for the animated movies, but considering the popularity of them growing by the year, they are seen in just about any time of the year. So now with "The Wild Life" in the offing this time around, we see a new twist on a very old story replete with scads of animals and one lone Robinson Crusoe.

Daniel Defoe's classic tale of survival gets a twist in this family-friendly animated adventure. On a tiny exotic island, Mak (David Howard), an outgoing parrot lives with his quirky animal friends, including Kiki (Lindsay Torrance), Rosie (Laila Berzins), Epi (Sandy Fox), Carmello (Celine Metzger) and others, in paradise. However, Mak can't stop dreaming about discovering the world outside the island. After a violent storm, Mak and his friends wake up to find a strange creature on the beach: Robinson Crusoe (Matthias Schweighofer) and his dog Aynsley (Doug Stone). Mak immediately views Crusoe as his ticket off the island to explore new lands. Likewise, Crusoe soon realizes that the key to surviving on the island is through the help of Mak or Tuesday as Crusoe calls him, and the other animals. It isn't always easy at first, as the animals don't speak 'human'. Slowly but surely, they all start living together in harmony, until one day, when their comfortable life is overturned by two savage cats, Mal (Jeff Douchette) and May (Debi Tinsley) who wish to take control of the island. A battle ensues between the cats and the group of friends, but Crusoe and the animals soon discover the true power of friendship up against all odds (even savage cats).

Others to round out the cast are Michael Sorich as Cecil, Jay Jones as Friday, B. J. Oakie as Rufus, Joey Camen as Scrubby and Kirk Thornton as Bosun.

This was wittily directed by Vincent Kesteloot ("A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise" '12) and Ben Strassen ("Fly Me to the Moon 3D" '08, "A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventure" '10, "Thunder and the House of Magic" '13) plus others. The pacing and staging of the characters were executed with great detail. These guys will go even farther that they already are at now. It was written by Lee Christopher, Domonic Paris and Graham Welldon based on Daniel Defoe's classic story. With the exception of Paris, the other two writers certainly have limited experience, so with that said, I'm willing to be a bit more forgiving when it comes to the writing. Not that the writing was unremarkable, but it did have some slow places in script and some of the lines were contrite and ordinary. the forgiveness not only comes from the lack of writing experience, but also this was clearly written as a children's bedtime story, so its audience is going to be a bit limited instead of marketing to a wider audience. It was simply conveyed, so instead of having a screenplay that's savvy with adult humor like a lot of the animated films, we are presented a story that is simple with humor that a child could certainly appreciate. The original title of this film was "Robinson Crusoe" which certainly is not as interestingly exciting as "The Wild Life".

As stated above, if you're into a simple script with very easy to understand humor, this will appease well, but if you're demand is that of a more sophisticated storyline, this will probably not be a film that will hold your attention for too long.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                    Rated: PG                                       91mins.