THE WILD (Dir: Steve Spaz Williams, 2006).

THE WILD (Dir: Steve ‘Spaz’ Williams, 2006).

With animation farmed out to Toronto based CORE Feature Animation, The Wild is a Disney animation in name only.

The movie follows Sampson the lion as he breaks out of Central Park Zoo and heads to the wild in pursuit of his estranged son. He is joined on his quest by animal pals including a giraffe, a snake and inexplicably, an English koala. Cue some lessons in the value of friendship, of being true to oneself and some eventual father / cub bonding via lots of unsubtle humour.

The Wild was originally released within months of rival studio DreamWorks’ similarly themed Madagascar and as such feels incredibly derivative of the earlier movie. In truth, The Wild had been in production for much longer, dating back to the mid 1990s when production was delayed due to similarities with The Lion King.

With it’s theme of a lion father / son relationship, a gazelle stampede and a wildebeest song and dance number reminiscent of The Lion King’s ‘Be Prepared’, The Wild has a distinct air of over familiarity. In its favour the film does have a couple of genuinely impressive moments including the Lion King-esq ‘Really Nice Day’ musical number and a sequence where the animals take a nighttime ride through New York City in a dump truck. This scene is a rare welcome moment of calm in an otherwise frantic, noisy film.

While The Wild could not escape the shadow of the far more successful Madagascar, it is a visually more impressive feature. However, of the two, I think Madagascar is, ultimately, a lot more fun.

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AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (Dir: Leo McCarey, 1957). Soon to be wed playboy Cary Grant and in-a-relationship Deborah Kerr engage in a chaste shipboard romance in movie number 10: An Affair to Remember. After some smart comedic attempts to avoid the attention of the fellow passengers, the couple arrange to rendezvous atop the Empire State Building six months later to circumstantiate their affair. Tragedy, however, intervenes before the lovers can reunite (hankies at the ready ladies). I am fully aware that this movie is considered a romantic classic and is loved by many (most famously Sleepless in Seattle director and co-writer Nora Ephron) but I, alas, am not among them. Yes, Milton Krasner’s Deluxe Color CinemaScope photography is beautiful. Yes, the leads are very attractive, although Grant at 53 was getting a bit long in the tooth to play these playboy types. But the addition of the toothsome children’s choir, some laboured shipboard farce and the manipulative sentimentality of the second half just doesn’t do it for me. It is certainly worth a watch for its leading players and some genuinely smart dialogue from McCarey and cohorts. If you like this sort of thing you may well love this glossy and glitzy cinematic equivalent of pink champagne. I personally would rather stick with Ephron’s superior rom com tribute Sleepless in Seattle. 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (Dir: Robert Zemeckis, 1988). My New Year’s resolution is to watch more movies! Made a start this afternoon with the greatest movie of the 1980’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Robert Zemeckis / Richard Williams, 1988). 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog: jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (Dir: Nicholas Ray, 1951).

A stellar cast including Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino and Ward Bond feature in Nicholas Ray’s tough and surprisingly violent film noir-ish thriller.

On Dangerous Ground is kind of a movie of two halves. The first sees sadistic cop Ryan clash with the lowlife of New York’s mean streets. However, after one display of brutality too many he is sent out of town to a rural, snow-covered isolated small town to track down the killer of a young girl, having to deal with the girl’s vengeful father and the killer’s blind sister.

The beautiful, contrasty monochrome photography in the second half is a definite plus, and the relationship that develops between Ryan and Lupino is unexpectedly tender.

A fairly overlooked title among Ray’s work, On Dangerous Ground is an enjoyably gritty hardboiled 50’s crime flick.

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BIRDS OF PREY aka THE PERFECT ALIBI (Dir: Basil Dean, 1930).

Birds of Prey, released in the US as The Perfect Alibi, is an early British talkie co-scripted by director / producer Dean and A A Milne.

Based upon Milne’s play The Fourth Wall, this creaky thriller has little of the whimsical charm of Winnie the Pooh. Rather the story concerns the murder investigation, by Frank Lawton and Dorothy Byrd, of their uncle and guardian C Aubrey Smith.

In effect, Birds of Prey is a murder mystery in which the audience know the identity of the murder. As such, its mild thrills are to be gleaned from how and when the killers will be caught. The whole affair is rather jolly and somewhat predictable. However, Nigel Bruce, in a supporting role here as a blustering major, is always entertaining and keep an eye out for an uncredited appearance by future British film legend Jack Hawkins.

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THE MALTESE FALCON (Dir: Roy Del Ruth, 1931) Movie number 5; the original version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, which I guess makes it the grandaddy of film noir. Lacking both the charismatic presence of Humphrey Bogart and the sheer style of the 1941 version, it is still entertaining enough and being made pre Hays Code means it’s a little bit saucier than the remake! 100+ movie reviews now available on my blog jinglebonesmovietime.blogspot.com