A little research, however, reveals that Disney has had ''The Wild" in the works for more than a decade in various stages of stop-and-go development, and that it's ''Madagascar" that may be the carbon copy. Certainly DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg packed more than his pencils when he was forced out of Disney in 1994, as anyone who's seen Disney/Pixar's ''A Bug's Life" and DreamWorks' ''Antz" can attest. (Disney defenders go further, pointing to ''Finding Nemo" and ''Shark Tale," ''The Emperor's New Groove" and ''The Road to El Dorado," Disney's cafeteria decor and the inside of Katzenberg's executive washroom. All right, kidding about that last one.)
None of this matters in the cutthroat world of kiddie entertainment. ''Madagascar" was released first, made its $407 million worldwide, and will be perceived as the original, while ''The Wild" will be reckoned a rip-off and still make a killing on DVD. If there's a limit to how many times kids will watch the same story -- or how many times parents will keep paying for it -- it hasn't been reached yet. Maybe when ''Over the Hedge" and ''Barnyard" are released this summer. One can pray.
Anyway, how's the movie? Technologically incredible, aesthetically pretty hideous, and narratively lumpy: Kids who aren't cynics (i.e., 9 and under) will roll with it. The story line (by four credited writers, standing in for probably dozens more over the years) tosses in some ''Lion King" generational angst by giving us Samson (voice of Kiefer Sutherland), the ferocious star of the zoo, and his rebellious young son Ryan (Greg Cipes), who's miffed that his roar hasn't broken yet. If this were the suburbs, they'd be breaking out the hormone treatments.
