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The Wild Life | 2016 | PG | - 1.3.2
An animated tale about Robinson Crusoe (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) and his dog who are shipwrecked on a tropical island in the South Pacific. They meet a parrot (voiced by David Howard) and a small group of animals, gain their confidence and together build and defend a deluxe treehouse. Also with the voices of Laila Berzins, Joey Camen, Sandy Fox, Colin Metzger, Marieve Herington and Jeff Doucette. Directed by Vincent Kesteloot & Ben Stassen. [1:30]
SEX/NUDITY 1 - A female parrot seems to be flying up to a male parrot as a voiceover from the male bird says that good things will happen. A goat puts on glasses and tells a tapir that she is gorgeous.
► A tapir wiggles its large buttocks toward the audience in close-up. A cat rubs her stomach and a voiceover says that she is pregnant; we later see about a dozen kittens.
► Two shirtless men are shown.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - High winds hit an island and blow debris around, break the mast of a ship off, blow a crate of chickens overboard, and cause men and a dog to slide all over the decks and the floor in the hold. Heavy rains cause a boat to tip and a dog slides over the railing, but a man catches it to pull it back and the man and dog are trapped below in the hold where they slide around, bump furniture and barrels, and are knocked unconscious; the boat is later shown broken in half near a rocky island (only the man, dog and two cats survived).
► A man picks up a squawking, limping, groaning bird, takes it to a wrecked ship, and fixes the wing with a loud crunch; two cats enter, chase the bird, swing on a wooden chandelier, and cause lit candles to fall and create a large fire; a parrot bites a cat on the paw and it snarls as large flames and smoke cloud the screen; a heavy door falls on and traps a dog and a large shelving unit falls on that (the cats and parrot escape, singed, and the ship explodes) and the camera cuts to a man putting up a cross on a pile of rocks and putting the dog's collar on top of the cross, indicating the dog's death.
► A ship's captain uses a spyglass to see the image of a burning ship with flames and smoke, and a man hanging from a rope by the back of belted waist, arms and legs dangling just above the ground; a goat seems to be chewing the man's ear and later, a pirate inspects the man's mouth for gold teeth (we see the pirate's eye from a point of view inside the mouth and a partial tongue and clean white teeth).
► A pirate captain tells a prisoner that the crew would be hanged in England and the prisoner must now become a pirate; the prisoner tries to steal a rowboat, that falls over a pirate, not harming him and a vault opens on deck and weapons fall out (double headed axes, knives, swords, maces, clubs, musket pistols and rifles); six men chase the prisoner, who jumps into a raft from which several cats are leaving to come on board and the first six men shoot rifles and pistols at the escapee, but miss.
► Cats organize island animals to attack humans and paint the animals' faces with mud (as war paint); the animals attack the man, pull his coat away and beat it up on the ground. A small bird snaps its beak on a man's fingers and he is startled. Cats attack a man, and a parrot knocks some of the cats off with a wooden board; many cats fall, slip out a window, and land in a waterslide made of hollow bamboo sections and a chameleon throws fruit at a sliding cat and a banana sticks in the feline's mouth and the cat removes the peel and tries to use it as a parachute, to no avail; a goat bites a yowling cat's paw, a tapir head-butts several cats, a cat grabs a prickly animal and looks confused when it gets short quills stuck in its paws.
► Many cats chase a parrot up a rickety wooden watch tower where a tapir slams her buttocks against the tower at ground level to weaken the structure; the parrot gets a wing caught in the top trap door as the tower goes over (the wing is freed in time to save the bird) and we see a dozen cats floating in the sea.
► A parrot points a rifle at menacing cats and awkwardly drops the gun; a chameleon pulls the trigger with its tongue and a rifle ball hits an ottoman (it catches fire), a cat knocks a lit lantern into the basement of a tree house and the whole house goes up in flames and smoke, a parrot flies in and moves a wooden pole off a man caught in the basement and the man swings by a rope to the ground, but the hook on the rope gets caught on his belt and the man dangles just above the ground.
► Two cats argue repeatedly, a female smacking a male on the head or face; the female states that they will avenge themselves on all humans, because a man kept them in the belly of a ship to eat rats; she plans to kill the shipwrecked man, his dog and all their animal friends.
► A blind goat falls over a cliff because a rolling pineapple tripped him and other animals; four animals in total hang onto a branch growing from the cliff, it breaks, and they hang from a breaking lower branch while a chameleon tries to catch them with his long tongue, as does an echidna with a rope but they all fall into a tunnel and slide to the ground, where a large rock falls in front of them and breaks, but hits no one.
► A man slashes a meat knife toward a parrot and misses. A chicken tied to a ship's wheel platform looks scared as men throw knives that stick in the wood around it. Two cats in a ship's hold show teeth and claws and menace chickens, one cat catching its head in wooden cage bars flings the cage door off onto a barking dog, who shakes the cat by the neck. Two mice run away from cats, frightened. A cat bites a man on a finger and the man yelps (no blood shows). A man tosses two cats into a ship's hold and shuts the trap door. A man points a rifle at a frightened looking tapir, but cannot fire and the animal runs away. A cat catches a parrot and a dog shakes the cat by the neck, until the parrot falls with one wing dislocated and a man fires a shot over the cat's head to scare them off.
► A chameleon bats a dog's nose with a sticky tongue, while small animals stomp their feet and pound on rocks on the other side of a ridge to make noise; a man yells, "Cannibals!" and runs for cover. A man and a dog emerge from a shipwreck, causing several small animals to run away in fright and the animals argue about contacting the new visitors that may be dangerous. Six animals eat bugs on an island. Two cats eat bugs in a cave. A goat tries to eat a metal lantern. Two cats eat tiny bugs and complain they can find no other food several times. A fly flies into the mouth of the female cat and she grunts. A male cat says that bugs "taste just like chicken." Another animal says that a neighboring land, Curse Island, has only bug inhabitants. 15 cats scuffle over one old fish skeleton; they chase a small bird and catch her, but a parrot snatches her away. 15 cats chase a group of assorted small animals and a tapir sits on a few of them. A cat bites a man's ankle (no blood). Several cats jump on a man and knock him down; he gets up and fends them off with a broom.
► A pirate walking with a crutch wakes the captain, who fires a pistol into the air with a loud report. A man finds four rifles and a keg of gunpowder and practices shooting at a playing card stuck on some wood and misses several times; rifle ball heat singes the hair of a cat and the feathers of a bird as the balls soars past and stick in walls and rocks before hearing seven loud shots off-screen as the man continues rifle practice.
► A man repeatedly falls down as he carries things from a ship to the shore, finally falling into a barrel. A man falls into a lower floor of a treehouse and is knocked unconscious. A temporary house frame that a man builds falls on top of him, but he is not injured. A man hits his hand with a hammer and yelps. Animals swing on ropes a few times. A parrot swings from a ship to a rock ledge. Three small animals accidentally swing from ropes as they try to help build a house, and get stuck in the air. A small animal pokes a man with a stick as he prays silently before a meal. Cats eat all the food on a captain's dinner table and a parrot flies away with two mice that the cats have been stalking.
► A tapir scratches its large rear end on a wooden support beam for a house and causes it to shake; she goes through a small pet door and breaks the larger door. A tapir bangs her rear end on a tall wooden lookout tower until it falls over into the sea.
► A pirate mumbles several nonsense syllables of faux cursing.
► A man gags and retches three times on a ship, bending over the side of the deck twice, but we see no vomit. A man on an island grimaces and retches when animals gulp food, but does not get sick. A small animal gags and says it will become sick, but does not. A reference is made to upchucking. A man snores, a goat snores, and a tapir snores in separate scenes. A small animal tells a group of animals they may smell bad. A parrot says the inside of a tall boot smells bad. A man grimaces at a tapir's rear end, suggesting it is ugly and may smell bad.
LANGUAGE 2 - Name-calling (dummy, crazy, insane, loony, bonkers, whackadoodle, one kipper short of a meat pie, fool, fools, idiot, hopeless, mangy, scurvy, sea monsters, monsters, ratter, hideous, old goat, ingrate, fur-ball, green gilled landlubber, green gilled human), exclamations (I'll be gobsmacked, son of a sea cook, bloody, shut-up, oh shut it, shut).
SUBSTANCE USE - A pirate uncorks a bottle and pours a mug of some liquid before giving it to a man who drinks and then coughs, a parrot drinks from a mug and gags, a pirate says that the bird taught the man to drink (alcohol implied), several pirates hold brown bottles and drink from them, pirates talk about rum, a pirate on deck holds a brown bottle of what may be rum, and a bird says that a group of animals slept off a pineapple hangover after eating pineapples.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Piracy, shipwreck, survival, death, loss, grief, multiculturalism, animal cruelty, helping others, working together, community, friendship, trust, respect, exploring new places.
MESSAGE - Overcoming obstacles and hardships is easier when you have friends to help.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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