Robinson Crusoe (2016 film)
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| Music by | Ramin Djawadi |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
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| Budget | $13 million[1] |
| Box office | $39.5 million[2] |
Robinson Crusoe (released in North America as The Wild Life) is a 2016 Belgian-French 3D computer-animated adventure comedy film directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen and written by Lee Christopher, Domonic Paris and Graham Weldon. The film is loosely based on Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, but from the point of view of the island's animals.
Plot
On a tiny isolated South Pacific Island, a Scarlet Macaw named Mak and his friends live the perfect life. Blue skies, beautiful turquoise water, and lots of delicious fruit and crunchy insects. But every day is the same and Mak is really bored. Convinced there is more than just water over the horizon, he dreams of leaving his little paradise and exploring the world. Meanwhile, Robinson Crusoe and his dog Aynsley have booked passage on a ship in order to explore the islands. During a very violent tropical storm, the two are locked in the ship's hull with a pair of embittered cats, Mel and May, while the crew escapes with their lives.
Washing ashore on the island, Crusoe begins to take stock of the remaining supplies while the animals, unsure of what to make of the new arrivals, hide out on the beach. Mak, seeing his chance to get off the island, convinces the others to hide while he keeps an eye on them. Unfortunately, he is attacked by Mel and May, having also survived the storm. Aynsley manages to drive them off and Crusoe takes Mak aboard the wreckage to recover. He names the bird Tuesday and Aynsley convinces him that Crusoe is not a problem.
Determined to take control of the island and make the human pay for the years of bad treatment they had to endure, Mel and May trick the other animals into believing Crusoe is going to eat Mak. They have them attack Crusoe while they go after Mak and Aynsley in order to cover their tracks. In the ensuing chaos, Aynsley is pinned under a door as the wreckage begins catching fire. Mak makes it out in time, but the resulting explosion kills Aynsley and strands Mel and May on "Curse Island", a rock off the coast that the animals view as a death sentence.
Mak leads a grieving Crusoe to the others in an attempt to cheer him up. Slowly but surely the islanders drop their guards and begin helping him adjust to life on the island. However, the kingfisher Kiki becomes increasingly annoyed by the others' willingness to adapt to Crusoe's lifestyle. Meanwhile, Crusoe is visibly upset by the dwindling possibility of a rescue. One day, Kiki is flying out near the remains of the wreckage when Mel and May, with multiple litters of youngsters, decide to put an end to their lives and wreak havoc on their little piece of Eden.
Despite Mel and May's best efforts, the islanders manage to drive them back. Realizing the cats won't stop harassing them, Mak traps them on a watchtower Crusoe had built while the animals knock it into the sea. Their victory is shortlived when a fire set by May endangers Crusoe, who was knocked unconscious in the previous fight. Mak manages to get him out, but Crusoe becomes caught in some rigging. Complicating matters is that the fire attracts the attention of a group of pirates led by Long John Silver who take Crusoe hostage. Crusoe manages to placate them with a fictionalized version of what happened at the expense of the captain forcing him into the crew.
A poorly planned escape attempt by Crusoe results in a hectic chase. Mak, who followed Crusoe onto the boat, rescues him and a pair of mice and make their way back to the island while the cats, who snuck onto the ship on a jerry-rigged life raft, are taken in by the pirates.
During the credits, Mak narrates how he's given up on wanting to explore the world while the animals help Crusoe repair the treehouse he had built earlier and implies the two of them fell in love respectively with a woman and, presumably female, bird that washed up on the island.
Voice cast
| Character | German | English | Brazilian Portuguese |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robinson Crusoe | Matthias Schweighöfer | Yuri Lowenthal | Danton Mello |
| Papagei Dienstag / Tuesday / Mak | Kaya Yanar | David Howard Thornton | Manolo Rey |
| Tapir Rosie | Cindy aus Marzahn | Laila Berzins | Mabel Cezar |
| Ziegenbock Zottel / Scrubby | Dieter Hallervorden | Joey Camen | Rodrigo Oliveira |
| Stachelschwein / Epi | Aylin Tezel | Sandy Fox | Ana Lucia Menezes |
| Carmello | Gerald Schaale | Colin Metzger | Márcio Simões |
| Kiki | Melanie Hinze | Lindsay Torrance | Miriam Ficher |
| Pango | Tobias Lelle | Jeff Doucette | Daniel Müller |
| Ping / May | Ghadah Al-Akel | Debi Tinsley | Luisa Viotti |
| Pong / Mel | Tommy Morgenstern | Jeff Doucette | Claudio Galvan |
| Edgar / Aynsley | Bert Franzke | Doug Stone | Marco Ribeiro |
| Rufus | Jesco Wirthgen | Joe Ochman | Guto Nejaim |
| Cecil | Jan Makino | Michael Sorich | Cafi Balloussier |
| Tom Cat | - | Kyle Hebert | Ricardo Rossatto |
| Friday | - | Jay Jones | - |
| Long John Silver | Axel Lutter | Dennis O'Connor | Isaac Bardavid |
| Sleeping Sailor | - | George Babbit | - |
| Sailor #1 | - | Joe Ochman | Marcelo Sandryini |
| Sailor #2 | - | Lex Lang | Hercules Franco |
| Bosun | Jan David Ronfeldt | Ron Allen | - |
Reception
Box office
As of 11 September 2016[update] the film has grossed $8.0 million in North America and $30.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $38.4 million.[2]
In the United States, where the film is marketed as The Wild Life, it was released on 9 September 2016, alongside The Disappointments Room, Sully and When the Bough Breaks, and was projected to gross around $5 million from 2,493 theaters in its opening weekend.[3] It went on to gross $3.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing 5th at the box office.[4] In China, the film was released on 4 October 2016, and has grossed CN¥48.6 million.[5]
Critical response
Robinson Crusoe received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 15%, based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Wild Life uses its classic source material as a half-hearted springboard into a colorfully animated but essentially empty experience that only the youngest of viewers will find at all entertaining."[6] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 36 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[7]
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.[8]
Home media
The Wild Life was released by Summit Entertainment on Blu-ray and DVD on November 29, 2016.
References
- ^ Smith, Brandon (9 September 2016). "What You Should Know Before Seeing: 'The Wild Life'". Rotoscopers. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
- ^ a b "The Wild Life (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
- ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (7 September 2016). "Clint Eastwood's 'Sully' Launches Fall Awards Season, But Can 'Bough' Break At No. 1? – B.O. Preview". Deadline. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (11 September 2016). "'Sully' Soaring, 'Bough' Breaks To Mid-Teen, 'Wild Life' Snoozing, 'Disappointments' DOA". Deadline. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
- ^ "鲁滨逊漂流记（2016）". cbooo.cn (in Chinese). Retrieved 16 October 2016.
- ^ "The Wild Life (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- ^ "The Wild Life Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 14 September 2016.
- ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.