Rick's single mother, Margaret, is a behavioral scientist at University of California, Berkeley, and she is studying interspecies communication between humans and gorillas, using sign language.

After Rick goes on a joyride in his mother's van, she punishes him by putting him to work cleaning the cage of a female western lowland gorilla named Katie.

[5] Joey O'Bryan of The Austin Chronicle compared Born to be Wild to Free Willy, Andre (1994), and Monkey Trouble (1994).

"[8] The Washington Post critic Rita Kempley called it "a heart-yanking family yarn that resembles a simian adaptation of Nell" and also compared the movie to Free Willy.

[5] In The New York Times, Stephen Holden praised the gorilla as "one of Hollywood's more successfully designed animatronic wonders," but felt that the plot followed a "thoroughly formulaic route," was too sentimental, and "[didn't] make nearly enough out of its comic opportunities."