Weird Zoo movie?

[lenshanem]

Am I off but does that new computer animated zoo movie coming out from Disney look like the EXACT same story as Madagascar??? It boggles my mind ever time I see the preview. Am I the only one?

[jiggerj]

Am I off but does that new computer animated zoo movie coming out from Disney look like the EXACT same story as Madagascar??? It boggles my mind ever time I see the preview. Am I the only one?

Nope I saw that too and thought the exact same thing- :veryconfu

[matysgranma]

I agree 100%. That's the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the preview!

[AmyBeth68]

Ditto. I saw the preview last night and was sooo surprised how familiar it looked. I just couldn't believe it....everything from the lion being the main character to the zoo in New York. Boggles the mind?!

[PoohsPal]

I thought what I saw was advertising madagascar on DV at first. Yup, REALLY similar.

[lenshanem]

I wonder why in the world they are even putting this out? It is like they totally copied the other movie. Makes Disney look bad IMO.

[tjkraz]

I literally had not even heard of this film until I read this thread today. Go figure. :idontgeti

That said, it's hard to tell how The Wild and Madagascar ended up following similar paths. Animated films spend so many years in development that it's entirely possible that Madagascar was more of a rip-off than The Wild--they just happened to make it to screens sooner.

With the tens of millions of dollars involved, just shelving the film upon hearing that another studio is pursuing a similar project is virtually out of the question. Besides, it could end up being far superior to Madagascar.

The fact that Disney is releasing it to theaters may be a good sign. If they thought audiences would ignore it as a Madagascar wanna-be, they might have just dumped it on video like Bambi 2 and those other "cheap-quels."

On the other hand, the fact that I hadn't even heard of the film (and I doubt I'm alone in that regard) doesn't say much for the marketing budget.

Time will tell...

[lllovell]

I have seen a few advertisements for this one and thought the same.

I think it doesn't come out until the middle of April maybe, so that might explain why you haven't heard of it Tim. Then again, Valiant (which my son's loved) got NO advertisement, so sometimes it is hard to know.

I am sure we will end up seeing this one too, just might wait for the dollar movie release. :cool2:

Laura

[lenshanem]

Tim, sounds like you're talking about something like when Antz beat Bugs Life to the screens.

Madagascar was out last summer? I dunno, even if this did happen you'd think they'd have shelved it to save face - surely they knew about it at some point when it wasn't that far along in production?

It makes Disney look totally uncreative.

I'm really looking forward to the new team over there. I bet some big hits will be coming our way!

I take my girls to all the movies that come out. Good for rainy or cold weekends. OT - don't go to see Doogall. OMG, that has to be one of the WORST movies I have ever seen. My Dad went along with us and he was asleep within the first ten minutes.

[gopherit]

I agree that it does take a long time to produce a movie - but usually Disney gives you a TASTE of what's to come. I recall seeing ads for various movies well over a year in advance of release. And I do NOT recall EVER seeing ads for this one until now. I find it verrrrrrrry strange. Even the name (The WIld) smacks of Madagascar too since that's where Marty alwasy wanted to go.

I recall reading that, in the case of Madagascar, some parts of it were done many moons prior - namely, the penguins were actually an idea pitched and set aside for a prior project, then, seeing the opportunity to plug them into a blank spot in the Madagascar movie, the creators seized it. Not sure if I'm recalling that correctly or not ...

In any case - if some dude can sue over The DaVanci Code claiming stolen ideas, wonder why no one has done so over The Madagascar Code.....

[AFMom]

They are so similar it's almost painful to watch the preview..... like waiting for a train wreck to happen. I can't believe they even take place in the same city!!!! Someone screwed up here.
Hopefully when the movie actually comes out there will be more to it than we see now - something that REALLY differentiates it.

[lenshanem]

gopherit, after reading your post I had like a brain kick! I remember seeing some "extra" Madagascar short before some movie (Was it an old lady with her dog and the penguins fighting in her apartment? And there was a Christmas tree...) ANYWAY, I remember doing a double take cause one of the producers or something like that was a former big name Disney animator. Maybe I'll think of the name...

[tjkraz]

Well, I did some digging and it looks like I may have been giving Disney a little too much credit. Here's as good a summary as any (dated October '05):

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/article.php?id=1697

I know it's been a convenient excuse for years now, but I guess we'll just have to chalk this up to another Eisner-era blunder.

I did read at least one report claiming that Disney's version had been in development for a longer period of time. But one of the great things about CGI is that you can continue to tweak your story, not to mention visual elements, without incurring nearly the cost that you would on a live action feature. In other words, you can't keep calling-in Tim Allen and dozens of other actors for re-shoots on The Shaggy Dog, but you can significantly alter portions of a 100% CGI film with minor (if any) assistance from the voice talent.

It sure seems like SOMEONE should have ordered a few story changes after Madagascar was released almost a year ago.

Two possibilities:

1. It's so good that Disney feels it will stand on its own and nullify any comparisons to Madagascar.

2. It's a total dog and they didn't want to put ANY additional $$$ into the film since they knew it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference.

Anyone care to wager? ;)

[gopherit]

gopherit, after reading your post I had like a brain kick! I remember seeing some "extra" Madagascar short before some movie (Was it an old lady with her dog and the penguins fighting in her apartment? And there was a Christmas tree...) ANYWAY, I remember doing a double take cause one of the producers or something like that was a former big name Disney animator. Maybe I'll think of the name...

That flick came out with Wallace and Grommit, but was also sold along with the release of the Madagascar DVD. If you have the Madagascar DVD, you could find it there.

I don't know that the Disney version of zoo critters in NY will have the penguins... but that's not a plus, in my book. I love those guys. Like James Bond meets Mary Poppins - too cool.

[lenshanem]

Wow... I'm sure glad Eisner is gone.

I would think the Disney company would be humiliated by this.

Shoot, I'm embarrassed by it. :ROTFL:

That is right about that short. I saw it before that Wallace movie. (which was very cute BTW.) Does it have the credits for that short film on the Madagascar DVD? I know there was a former Disney animator on that project, just can't remember which one.

[AFMom]

om my - I didn't know they knocked off the penguins as well. It's going from bad to worse. Thanks for the article.

[lenshanem]

Well, I took the girls to see Shaggy Dog today and at least it is a winner. We all laughed pretty hard. Tim Allen even made an inside joke to Toy Story in the movie.

[gopherit]

About the only place they could excel, in my opinion, would be the story line. Frankly - while we enjoyed Madagascar - I found the whole Alex story line disturbing. I don't think he ever did see himself as self-centered, and in the end, they all wanted to cater to him ("ok, let's go wherever the Lion wants to go!") Granted, they weren't going ANYWHERE thanks to the fuel-using penguins, but still... I didn't care for the giraffe character either. Just cal me picky, but if those are areas that, if Diseny chose to shine there, I'd be pleased. (But I truly do hope the animation picks up more color in the final show!)

[cobbler]

With the exception of the Pixar movies, Disney has bombed quite a bit lately.

I am so glad this is going to turn around. Disney will do well again and we will all hear about that in a couple of months when Cars comes out.

I am so glad they didn't lose Pixar completely and hopefully their animation will turn out better.

I don't know if I will go see this or wait until it comes to DVD. I haven't even see Madagascar.

I wish they would put some of the great classics on the IMAX like they did a while ago. Beauty and the Beast and I thought Lion King was going to come out but it never panned out.

I so hope things will turn around for their animation.

[lllovell]

I think the Lion King was released to IMAX. I remember it being here in Atlanta I thought. (but I am ALWAYS sure my memory is full of holes so maybe I am remembering wrong!)

Either way, the children's movie market must be one of the biggest these days. I can remember when we would go almost a year without a child's movie release and now with CGI, they theaters almost always have something "child" appropriate in them. Must be lots of $$$ in it, so maybe they don't even care about the whole "been there seen that" aspect. Or maybe they will count on the ignorant general public thinking "wow - a remake already?" since Disney has been rehashing a LOT of its older movies in the last few years.

Either way, we will wait til the dollar movies for this one. We finally saw Narnia this past weekend and it was GREAT (except for a few blue screen moments that didn't even need to be in there - it was like they ran out of money and said ok kids, just stand here for a minute...the fight scenes were incredible as was Aslan and then you had bad blue screen stuff - weird).

Laura

[lenshanem]

Saw it today. It was OK. Animation fairly decent, perhaps better than Madagascar. Storyline weak, not any originality to it at all. A cross between Madagascar and Lion King? I dunno! There were so many little things that were familiar to Madagascar I can't believe there wasn't some spying or something going on there in one of the parties. Kids sat thru it OK. Funny to see sooo many previews for computer animated films beforehand. They are all starting to look the same. I'm ready for some good old fashioned hand drawn animation again.

[DarthGoofy]

Funny to see sooo many previews for computer animated films beforehand. They are all starting to look the same. I'm ready for some good old fashioned hand drawn animation again.

We saw it Friday and I was thinking the same thing.