The Wild Thornberrys Movie on DVD

Paramount’s Wild Thornberrys movie is a pretty good animated African adventure, but it doesn’t come close to the quality of such Disney outings as “The Lion King” or “Tarzan.”

That said, however, its sights appear set much lower than with those other classics, which were conceived of as theatrical extravaganzas rather than being TV cartoons spun off for the big screen.

That isn’t to say it’s no good. It’s just that we’ve been spoiled by the competition.

This movie version of the Nickelodeon cartoon series centers on the Thornberry family’s youngest daughter, Eliza, who has been given a gift of talking with animals, a la Dr. Doolittle.

Nigel and Marianne Thornbury, the parents, have a really great gig: they travel around the world creating nature programs for television. This pleases Eliza, who loves grooving with the various critters, though her sister Debbie is a valley girl-wannabe who longs for the bright lights and big cities and spends most of the movie whining about her lot in life.

Thanks to an unfortunate accident, Eliza gets sent away to boarding school, much to Debbie’s chagin (she wanted to go) - though she isn’t there long before running away back to Africa to save a baby Cheetah friend of hers for whose capture by poachers she feels responsible.

Eliza’s best friend, by the way, is a chimpanzee named Darwin who accompanies her everywhere and is also her closest confidante. He has some good lines.

Eliza’s attempt to rescue the Cheetah - and in the process save the lives of a herd or elephants - brings her into dangerous contact with ruthless poachers and other dangers, but of course she prevails and all ends well.

The characters, with the possible exception of Debbie, are quite delightful, and the script (which is surprisingly well-written despite our angst over the film as a whole) moves along from adventure to adventure quickly, never bogging down. The animation is okay; it’s good TV animation but it doesn’t really impress on the big screen and rather than blending in seamlessly the extensive use of computer animation is very visible.

The voice cast features Tim Curry, Lacey Chabert, Rupert Everett, Marisa Tomei, Alfre Woodard, and Lynn Redgrave and, as one might expect from such names, they're very good.

The DVD features anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) and Pan&Scan on a single disc, which is as it should be. Picture quality is very good, with bright and rich colors and good detail.

Audio is also very good; it’s Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, though there isn’t a lot of surround.

Extras include the music video for Paul Simon’s Oscar-nominated song (in full frame - not 16x9 TV compatible - and what appears to be mono sound), a demo for the Wild Thornberrys PC Game, and the theatrical trailer.

Okay, we weren’t overly enamored with the movie, though it definitely has its moments. But it’ll probably please fans of the Nickelodeon series immensely, and that’s probably what its bottom line is anyway.

The Wild Thornberrys Movie, from Paramount Home Video
85 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 16x9 TV compatible/Pan&Scan, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring the voices of Tim Curry, Lacey Chabert, Rupert Everett, Marisa Tomei, Alfre Woodard, and Lynn Redgrave
Produced by Arlene Klasky and Gabor Csupo,
written by Kate Boutilier, Directed by Jeff McGrath and Cathy Malkasian

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