The Wild Thornberrys Movie is a 2002 American animated feature film based on the television series of the same name. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and produced by Klasky-Csupo and Nickelodeon Movies, and was released on December 20, 2002.
Plot
The film begins with Eliza Thornberry, aged thirteen, playing with a family of cheetahs in East Africa, where her parents work as roving wildlife photographers for a television nature show. Eliza has the magical ability to talk and communicate with wild animals. The cheetah mother, Akela, has left Eliza in charge of her cubs; however, Eliza strays beyond the security of the area, and one of the cheetah cubs, Tally, is kidnapped by a poacher. Eliza's persistent efforts to rescue the cub lead her British grandmother Cordelia (who is visiting them) to send her off to an English boarding school, as Cordelia believes that Eliza is constantly endangering herself in Africa and Eliza will be much safer in England. Eliza is unhappy because she will no longer be able to view the imminent solar eclipse and will not be able to locate Tally. Debbie, a materialistic girl who dislikes Africa, is upset and envious that she is not the one being sent away to England. Darwin, who is Eliza's "pet" chimpanzee smuggles himself into her luggage and travels to school with her. Rumors about Eliza's past spread through the school, but Eliza becomes more popular over time. However, Eliza quickly becomes fed up of the school and manages to persuade a stuck-up British school girl to lend her a visa in order to get out of England.
Eliza and Darwin catch an airplane back to Nairobi followed by a train back to their family's site. While on the train the duo notice an injured rhino outside the train and get off to help it. Eliza speaks with the rhino who tells her about an electric fence set to kill elephants coming through a pass. Then they are assisted by a young couple, supposedly animal conservationists, and the rhino is taken away by a ranger. A night spent with the couple reveals that the two are actually the poachers planning to kill the elephants coming through the pass on the day of the eclipse. Eliza also discovers Tally who was kidnapped. Eliza is discovered by the poachers while she is sneaking around and they interrogate her about how she came to know about the fence.
Meanwhile, Debbie has been left alone by Mr. and Mrs. Thornberry to take care of her mischievous adopted brother Donnie near their motor home. One day Debbie becomes lost in the jungle while trying to find Donnie. She comes to a friendly native village where no-one speaks English. After several failed attempts to get her motorcycle out of the mud in which it is stuck, she meets a teenage boy from the village who helps her to get the motorcycle out. The village members, worried that Debbie will get killed out in the wilderness, send the teenage boy as her guide. Back at the Bree and Sloane's camp, while tying Eliza up, Sloane questions her on how she knows about the fence. He threatens her by saying she'll never see her family again unless she tells him. Just then, Bree opens the door and tells Sloane she hears something coming. When they go to investigate, Tally bites on the rope bounding Eliza to free her. She and Darwin get into argument to which Eliza ends by yelling at him to, for once, be quiet. Eliza then sees Sloane grab Debbie on a screen. Eliza rushes out of the trailer to help her, but is stopped by Bree. Eliza pleads with the Sloane to let Debbie go, but he demands to know her source of information. Eliza says it was just a guess and let's it slip about the explosives which Sloane never mentioned. Knowing she's lying, Sloane threatens to throw Debbie over the cliff. To save Debbie, Eliza admits she knows about the fence because of her power. A storm takes away the power. Eliza pulls Tally out of the trailer and tells Darwin to go with them. Darwin, unable to understand her, just makes monkey sounds at her. Eliza realizes her power is really gone and pulls Darwin after her. The group end up on a log drifting down the river as the storm continues.
Later on, the storm has stopped. Debbie and Eliza talk about her powers and Debbie tells Eliza to tell Darwin how she hates how he leaves pizza crust under the cushions. Eliza tells Debbie that she can't because she broke the rule of telling anybody about her powers. Debbie then realizes that Eliza gave up her powers for her to save her life. Eliza tells Debbie about the fight she and Darwin had and that she can't apologize for being mean to him.
They get to the pass, just in time for the eclipse. They find hundreds of elephants, being led to death by their matriarch, unaware of the fence. Eliza jumps onto the lead elephant, and desperately tries to tell her to stop. She uses a necklace her dad gave her before she left and hurls it at the electric fence. The fence goes off and electrocutes the necklace, and the elephants see what's going to happen. They begin to turn around but Bree and Sloane fire off another round of explosives, making the elephants charge towards it again. Then she remembers how elephant mothers tell their young how to go; she taps the elephant in a certain way, causing her to stop right in front of the fence. Everyone stops, and the elephants are saved. But Sloane swings in on a helecopter and grabs Eliza. When the elephants grab onto the helicopter to help her, Eliza falls into the river as the helicopter crashes. She is then helped out of the river by the shaman who originally gave her the power to speak to animals. He tells her that she saved the day using not her powers but with her heart, and as a reward he gives Eliza her powers back. She apologizes to Darwin, and the poachers are captured. They return to their trailer and explain to their parents what has been happening. Eliza tells Debbie that if she does not keep her secret she will be turned into a baboon, and upon hearing this information Debbie becomes hysterical and interrupts her father's recording session. And Tally is reunited with his mother once again.
Cast and Crew
Cast Besides the regulars (see Wild Thornberrys article), the cast also includes:
- Obba Babatunde - Boko, a native boy Debbie runs into later on
- Brenda Blethyn - Mrs. Fairgood, a teacher at the boarding school
- Rupert Everett and Marisa Tomei - Husband and wife Sloan and Bree Blackburn, wildlife conservationists, or so they say and the film antagonists, scheming to kill hundreds of elephants at once
- Lynn Redgrave - Cordelia Jasmin McGold Thornberry
- Cree Summer - Phaedra, the elephant Eliza is riding at the start of the film
- Alfre Woodard - Akela, mother of the kidnapped cub
- Melissa Greenspan - Sarah Wellington, Eliza's roommate at Lady Beatrice's.
- Michael "Flea" Balzary - Donnie
- Crystal Scales - Cheetah Cubs
- Kimberly Brooks - Tally, one of Akela's cubs
- Brock Peters - Jomo
- Alexandra Boyd - Victoria
- Moira Quirk - Jane
- Earl Boen - Gorilla
- Kevin Michael Richardson - Shaman Mnyambo
- Tara Strong, Hynden Walch and Mae Whitman as schoolgirls
- Roger L. Jackson - Reggie (an English squirrel) and Thunder (a Clydesdale)
- Johnny Kassir and Charles Shaughnessy - Squirrels
- Billy Brown - Rhino
- Jeff Coopwood - Tim, Park Ranger
- Didier M. Ngole - Ranger and a BaAka villager
- Anthony Okungbowa - Ranger
- James Brown Orleans - Zebu
- Michael Chinyamurindi - Cart owner
- Malonga Casquelourd - BaAka Leader
- Alu Amina, Nsaka Kaninda, B. Dido Tshimanga, Camille Ntoto, Colette Elimo, Lunkeba Tezo, Jeanne Klimi, Inousca Kayombo and Mata Mokwala as BaAka villagers
- Keith Szarabajka - poacher
- Saye Lah - African
- Ethan Phillips - Loris
- Additional voices - Victoria Hoffman, Laraine Newman, Joanna Rubiner and Lauren Tom
Crew
Reception
Box office
It opened in the US box office on December 20, 2002, and only finished #6 for the weekend, with only $6,013,847 for 3,012 theaters for an average of only $1,997 per venue. The film ended up with a modest $40,108,697 domestically, partly because the film came out on the same day as The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. But, in light of generally favorable reviews it managed to out-gross its holiday animated competition Treasure Planet and Eight Crazy Nights.
Critical Response
Reviews were mostly positive. It currently holds a 78% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes (making it the best-ranked Nickelodeon Movie on the site until The Spiderwick Chronicles took over with 79% freshness) and a rating of 69 (meaning generally favorable reviews) on Metacritic. A parody featured on a movie poster in an episode of The Simpsons called 'The Wild Dingleberries Movie.'
Awards
It was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Father and Daughter" by Paul Simon but not for Best Animated Feature.
Soundtrack
An original motion picture soundtrack was released on November 26, 2002 from Walt Disney Records.
Track listing
- "Father & Daughter" - Paul Simon
- "Iwoya" - Angelique Kidjo featuring Dave Matthews
- "Dance With Us" - P. Diddy & Brandy featuring Bow Wow
- "Animal Nation" - Peter Gabriel
- "Happy" - Sita
- "Motla Le Pula (The Rain Maker)" - Hugh Masekela
- "Don't Walk Away" - Youssou N' Dour featuring Sting
- "Acci-dent" - Baha Men
- "Monkey Man" - Reel Big Fish
- "Shaking The Tree (02 Remix)" - Peter Gabriel & Youssou N' Dour featuring Shaggy
- "Get Out Of London" - The Pretenders
- "Africa" - Las Hijas Del Sol
- "End Of Forever" - Nick Carter
- "Awa Awa" - Wes
External links
