It features the voices of Kiefer Sutherland, Eddie Izzard, Jim Belushi, Janeane Garofalo, Richard Kind, William Shatner, and Greg Cipes.

At the Central Park Zoo, Samson the lion tells his preteen son Ryan stories of his adventures in the Wilds of Africa.

Just as he regrets his decision, Ryan suddenly gets locked inside the container by accident, which is then being loaded onto a freight truck, eventually shipping him away in the process.

With the help of a pigeon, Hamir, Samson, and his friends go after Ryan, hiding in a garbage disposal truck, but Benny falls overboard.

After passing through Times Square and nearly being crushed in the truck, the group get cornered by a pack of rabid dogs, but instead of standing his ground, Samson escapes through the sewer rather than fighting.

A few days later the boat runs aground in Africa, where all the animals in the area are being evacuated by the carriers, as a nearby volcano is about to erupt.

This experience made Kazar believe that "The Great Him" will help him and his kind create a change in the food chain that will allow prey to become predators and vice versa.

Because of this, Samson's cruel father could no longer accept him as a son and allowed him to be sent to the zoo, where he lied about his origins to avoid further humiliation.

Samson uses the chameleons' camouflage abilities to sneak into the volcano, but when his disguise blows off due to the intense heat of the mountain, Kazar orders his army to attack.

In a 2004 presentation by Walt Disney Feature Animation, The Wild was announced in collaboration with the San Francisco-based Complete Pandemonium and Toronto-based C.O.R.E.

[8] In March 2006, for a month-long "spring break" engagement exclusive to the El Capitan Theatre, theater patrons were treated to a live performance of exotic birds which were accompanied by their keepers from the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens before a screening of the film.

[11] The DVD was accompanied with a filmmakers' commentary, five deleted scenes, bloopers, and a music video of Everlife's "Real Wild Child".

[15] During its opening weekend, the film grossed $9.6 million (equivalent to $14,509,343 in 2023) at the box office, ranking fourth behind Scary Movie 4, Ice Age: The Meltdown, and The Benchwarmers.

[19] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote that "The CGI characters seem less like artwork than humans wearing animal suits, but despite the overall ugliness and sitcom timing, this has enough action, violence, and invention to keep kids amused.

"[21] Marc Savlov, reviewing for The Austin Chronicle, wrote "The animation is top-notch, and the film sports some of the most realistic and colorful fur, feathers, and hair this side of Fashion Week in Milan.

However, The Wild feels as though much of its backstory, along with most of the good jokes, have been cut out along the circuitous path to your neighborhood cineplex, resulting in a finished film that will probably delight the under-10 set, while leaving everyone else marveling at how bored they are.

"[24] Similarly, Justin Chang of Variety felt "Samson's rescue mission directly channels the father-son Sturm und Drang of both The Lion King and Finding Nemo, though absent the former's powerhouse dramatics or the latter's eye-popping visual splendor."

In summary, he wrote that "Uninspired character animation and obnoxious banter aside, The Wild is ultimately done in by the persistent stench of been-there-seen-that.

"[25] Mike Sage of the Peterborough This Week wrote "don't be mistaking this for a Madagascar rip off, when it was that sloppy DreamWorks - that only managed to make it to theaters first because of corporate espionage".

Players get to play as Benny the Squirrel and Samson the Lion as they go through New York, the sea, and Africa to find Ryan, while battling the wicked blue wildebeest Kazar.