Alright, I know these movies are relatively dated, but after having watched The Wild last night, I figure I had to make this post.

Did anyone notice that Disney's "The Wild" is basically Dreamworks' "Madacascar" all over again, just without Chris Rock? Let me compare and contrast the two, shall we?

Madagascar
-Main characters are a Zebra, a Lion, a Hippo, and a Girafffe. They don't have really imaginative names; pretty much run of the mill human names like Gloria, Alex, Melman (who the F*** would name their kid THAT?!), and Marty.
-Marty feels that he needs to experience the "wild" to know what it truly is to be a free, wild animal
-All animals somehow sneak out of their cages at night and break out of the zoo. In their own ways, each has a night on the town with "hilarious" results.
-Since ONE character wants to go to the "wild", his friends are obligated to go after him and stop him, but they end up all getting there anyway.

The Wild
-Main characters are a father-and-son pair of lions (deja vu, eh?), a giraffe (...deja vu again?!), a koala, a bleeding fool of a snake, and a squirrel. Once again with the unimaginative, run of the mill human names like Ryan, Samson, Bridget, etc.
-Ryan, Samson's son, feels that he needs to experience the wild because he can't roar like his wild animal father. He feels that if he goes there, he'll feel like a real lion
-All the animals somehow sneak out of their cages at night, play some kind of hockey-esque game at the penguin tank with EVERY ANIMAL FROM THE ZOO THERE. Ryan sneaks into the infamous "green boxes", boxes which take animals away from the zoo or bring them in. He is driven away without the knowledge of the drivers (...???!?!) that very night.
-Since ONE character wants to go to the "wild," his friends and father are obligated to go after him and bring him back, but somehow the characters end up driving a tug boat from New York to Africa (...?!??!?!)

After watching "The Wild", I threw up my hands and just said to myself "Come on, Disney, come on." I mean honestly, the plots are practically the same, yet "The Wild" lacks the Disney flair, panache, and quality of their past movies. Sure, the animation is great, but that's about it. Plot wise, it is merely a repeat of Dreamworks' "Madagascar" and quite frankly I'm appalled by this.

Is Disney really so out of ideas that it has to rely on the movies a rival company makes to boost their own inspiration?

"The Wild" was a major let down to me because, unlike other Disney movies, we don't have icon-ish, memorable characters. This movie is aimed at being a heartwarming tale between a father and son even though they're far apart... hm.... Didn't "Finding Nemo" do that already, only they did a good, over-the-top job with it? But let's see, what did Finding Nemo have that this movie didn't? I dunno.... original plot, perhaps? Interesting characters? The fact that Marlon really was against a lot of odds to get his son back?

I've said my piece though. What do you think, O Glorious Pop Culture Junkies? What are your opinions on:
-The Wild
-Madagascar
-The downward spiral Disney is travelling faster than Chipp Zanuff amped on sugar