Box office During its opening weekend, the film grossed $9.6 million () at the box office, ranking fourth behind
Scary Movie 4,
Ice Age: The Meltdown, and
The Benchwarmers.
The Wild grossed $37.4 million () in the United States and $64.9 million () in other countries for a worldwide total of $102.3 million (). On
Metacritic, the film has a score of 47 out of 100 based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the
Chicago Reader wrote that "The CGI characters seem less like artwork than humans wearing animal suits, but despite the overall ugliness and sitcom timing, this has enough action, violence, and invention to keep kids amused."
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four. He praised the film's animation, but acknowledged the film's realism ventured towards the
uncanny valley. He remarked that the "framing of some of the characters is too close; they hog the foreground and obscure the background. And the fur, hair and feathers on the creatures look so detailed, thanks to the wonders of CGI, that once again we're wandering toward the Uncanny Valley." Marc Savlov, reviewing for
The Austin Chronicle, wrote "The animation is top-notch, and the film sports some of the most realistic and colorful fur, feathers, and hair this side of Fashion Week in Milan. However,
The Wild feels as though much of its backstory, along with most of the good jokes, have been cut out along the circuitous path to your neighborhood cineplex, resulting in a finished film that will probably delight the under-10 set, while leaving everyone else marveling at how bored they are." Carrie Rickey of
The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film two stars out of four writing: "Though dull, there are three reasons one might want to see the film: The computer animators' ability to realistically represent animal fur is nothing short of dazzling. So detailed are the lion's mane and squirrel's tail that younger viewers could mistake it for a petting zoo."
Comparisons to Madagascar Critics considered
The Wild to be heavily derivative of the 2005
DreamWorks film
Madagascar. Claudia Puig, reviewing for
USA Today, suggested that
The Wild was "the most wildly derivative animated movie in ages. It borrows its theme from
Finding Nemo, copies elements of
The Lion King and has a shockingly similar plot to
Madagascar." Similarly, Justin Chang of
Variety felt "Samson's rescue mission directly channels the father-son Sturm und Drang of both
The Lion King and
Finding Nemo, though absent the former's powerhouse dramatics or the latter's eye-popping visual splendor." In summary, he wrote that "Uninspired character animation and obnoxious banter aside,
The Wild is ultimately done in by the persistent stench of been-there-seen-that." Similarities include its setting in New York's
Central Park Zoo, similar animals as characters, and the primary plot of introducing zoo animals to the wild. The name of the film and the tag line, "Start spreading the newspaper", a play on the opening line from the "
Theme from New York, New York", were both used as integral plot points in
Madagascar. A few critics defended
The Wild as the superior film. Michael Wilmington of the
Chicago Tribune wrote "
The Wild is better, mostly because it has some truly spectacular animation and because the cast is just as likable—even, in some cases, preferable." Mike Sage of the
Peterborough This Week wrote "don't be mistaking this for a
Madagascar rip off, when it was that sloppy
DreamWorks - that only managed to make it to theaters first because of corporate espionage". Without addressing which film was the original concept, Tim Cogshell of
Boxoffice Magazine simply wrote "for the adult who may very well have to experience this film, and who may have experienced
Madagascar,
The Wild is better. The animation is better, the jokes intended for your children are better, the jokes intended for you and not your children are much better, the songs are better, and it's more fun."
Accolades Jen Rudin and Corbin Bronson won the
Artios Award for Best Animated Voice-Over Feature Casting 2006. The film was nominated for the 2006
Stinkers Bad Movie Award for Worst Animated Film. ==Soundtrack==