Disneys The Wild: Fun Facts

An odd assortment of animals from the New York Zoo – including a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a koala, and a squirrel – discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him in "The Wild," presented by Walt Disney Pictures.  This wild and outrageous computer-animated comedy-adventure boasts an impressive vocal ensemble – Kiefer Sutherland (as the respected lion leader, Samson), Greg Cipes (as Samson’s son, Ryan), Jim Belushi (as Benny, the street savvy squirrel and Samson’s best friend), Janeane Garofalo (as a quick-witted giraffe), Richard Kind (as a dim-witted anaconda), William Shatner (as a wicked wildebeest), and Eddie Izzard (as Nigel, an acerbic koala) – along with cutting edge animation, and a story filled with hilarious situations. 
"The Wild" is directed by Steve "Spaz" Williams, an Oscar®-nominated visual effects veteran ("The Mask"), who helped to pioneer CG character animation through his work at ILM on such films as "The Abyss," "Jurassic Park," and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." 

 

He also directed the popular series of Blockbuster commercials featuring the computer-animated characters Carl the rabbit and Ray the guinea pig.  Serving as the film’s producer was Clint Goldman, a seven-year ILM veteran and Williams’ executive producer partner in the duo’s San Francisco-based-production company, Hoytyboy Pictures.  Goldman was the animation and visual effects producer on "The Mask," and his credits also include a producing role on the 1997 feature, "Spawn" as well as on the Blockbuster commercials.   Beau Flynn, a principal partner in the New Line Cinema-based production company, Contrafilm, also served as producer.  Flynn was responsible for bringing "The Wild" to Disney as a pitch over nine years ago with writers Mark Gibson and Philip Halperin.  To complete the creative team, he brought both Goldman and Williams on to collaborate as he had been impressed with their sense of humor and visual style on the Blockbuster commercials.

 

 

Adding to the film’s fun and entertainment is a spectacular score by multi- Oscar®-nominated composer Alan Silvestri ("Back to the Future," "Polar Express"), and a soundtrack filled with new and familiar tunes by such popular recording artists as Coldplay, Everlife, Lifehouse, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  Former "Monty Python" member Eric Idle and fellow songwriter John Du Prez, the team responsible for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, "Spamalot," wrote and performed the song, "Really Nice Day" for the film.

 

"The Wild" was animated in Canada at Toronto-based C.O.R.E. Feature Animation, a new studio facility created under the guidance of C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures to make the film.  An international team of 350 artists and technicians, including more than 50 animators, gathered from Canada and countries all over the world to lend their talents to this project.  The film’s opening sequence, featuring 3D computer-animated characters combined with planes of 2D-stylized environments, was produced in Dallas, Texas by Reel FX Creative Studios.

 

According to Goldman, "We wanted our film to have a different look from the other CG films that are out there.  We wanted it to have a pseudo-realistic quality, but still be able to have the poetic license to break the boundaries and add lots of fantasy.  In our film, characters’ eyes bug out and there’s a lot of squash and stretch.  They get compressed and they can expand.  Our animals can drive boats and do other things that animals wouldn’t normally be able to do.  And we do all this in a world that seems real.  It allows us as filmmakers to come up with funny situations to immerse our characters in and to make a film that’s fun to watch."

 

 

The filmmakers assembled a talented team of actors and comedic talents to give voice to their colorful menagerie of animals.  With its central relationship between a father and son, those roles were key to the emotional core of the film. Kiefer Sutherland, the voice of Samson, observes, "One of the really beautiful things about this character is that he’s a dad.  Everything to do with the character had to do with his love for his son, so that’s a very straight forward and easy place to come from, and it’s been a real pleasure to do the voice for him.  I have wonderful children of my own, and you just imagine the situation you’re in and how you would react with your own child.

 

"On so many levels, I think ‘The Wild’ is incredibly funny and touching," concludes Sutherland.  "It’s one of those few opportunities that I have as an actor to be able to take a young person to a movie and show them what I do.  It’s also a fantastic opportunity for a parent and child to have a really wonderful time together.  It’s meaningful in a way that will have you talking after the film." "The Samson character has so many different through lines," he adds.  "There are aspects of him that are heroic, and there are aspects of him that are like a straight man reacting to the comedy of the others.  There’s also this fantastic conflict in that he hasn’t been honest about his past.  There’s a very nice arc that the character has to go through.  It’s very interesting too that the characters all want to be something that they’re not.  And then at the end you get this sense that they’ve all made peace with who they are because they’ve been accepted.  The film is absolutely about having faith in yourself and being able to accept others for who they are."

 

Greg Cipes, who voices Samson’s son, notes, "Playing Ryan was a lot of fun because it really allowed me to draw on my own experiences when I was that age.  With an animated voice, I felt like I could close my eyes and go to another world.  It’s such a blessing to be able to go and play in that world.  Kids are going to connect with this story in a big way, and they’ll be running around singing the songs and talking about it with their friends.  It’s got a great message about forgiving yourself and forgiving other people.  You’ve got to forgive to grow."

 

 

William Shatner, who is heard as the villainous wildebeest leader, Kazar, says, "There’s a number of ways of approaching a character, and in this case, I tried to use the lower register of my voice and get it down as low as I could.  With an animated performance, you need an energy that’s not quite the same as if you were doing it live.  You also need to match the vigor of the other performances." "Kazar is not all bad; he has ambitions and as a result is forced to do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do," adds the actor.  "He wants to be a carnivore and he’s an herbivore so he’s trying to be something he’s not.   The story is about trying to do something beyond themselves, and the question is should you or shouldn’t you?  It’s an interesting story and I had a good time doing it.  The script is really fun, and the project has wonderful characters, great actors, and some fine animation that is new and different." For the character of Nigel, the cuddly koala with the slightly acerbic center, Williams turned to the inventive British comic actor Eddie Izzard.

 

"Originally, the character of Nigel was more of a sad sack," recalls Williams.  "Eddie told us he was the wrong guy to play this role because he’s more of a proactive character.  We thought that was a good suggestion and that we could work with that.  We spent two hours talking with him before we started recording and what we ended up with was brilliance.  Some of those original lines from the audition ended up in the movie.  Working with Eddie was fantastic.  His performance is 85% improvised and invented on the fly."

 

 

Fun The Wild Facts: