Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Stop me if you've heard this one. Wild animal breaks out of a New York zoo to return to the wild. Other animal friends follow to bring him back. They travel by boat to a strange, jungle environment.

OK, The Wild follows the plot of Madagascar so closely that it can't have been a simple coincidence. Still, once you get past the basics of these two CGI-animated features, they do diverge significantly. Neither film is a barnburner. They're plagued by inconsistency, but both are ultimately saved—to a degree—by the performance of one of their voice artists. In Madagascar it was Sacha Baron Cohen as Julien, king of the lemurs. In The Wild it's Nigel, a quirky koala bear (voiced by Eddie Izzard), who gets all the great lines and makes the most of them.

While both films offer superb animation, they're very different in style. While it's hard to pick out a winner on that score, I have to go with The Wild.

Another advantage of The Wild is the fact that it's available in high definition. In fact, this Blu-ray disc is one of the very best looking examples of that format. It begins with a stunning, stylistic fantasy sequence that I expect will see plenty of action in video (and audio) demonstrations. Later, the film aims for a bit more photo-realism than Madagascar, particularly in the treatment of its main characters.

The gorgeous transfer is alone worth the price of the disc. Clear, well-saturated colors support a sharply defined image that's alive with depth, three-dimensionality, and outstanding contrast.

The sound here (Dolby Digital track auditioned; the disc also offers a 24-bit, 48kHz uncompressed 5.1-channel track) is a little behind the image in its wow-factor, but not by a lot. It isn't often showy, but the fundamental qualities of a great soundtrack are all in place here---good bass and surrounds where needed, crisp but natural dialogue, and, most important, a sweet, clean quality that offers plenty of detail without throwing it at you.

This may not be a great film, but it is an enjoyable one, dramatically enhanced by great looking and great sounding Blu-ray disc.

(Picture: 9.5 (out of 10), Sound: 8 (DD), Film: 6.5)