Robinson Crusoe: The Wild Life tells an alternate version of the classic tale. It tells the story from the perspective of Mak, a parrot living on a remote island who unlike his other animal friends is eager to leave and explore the world. That's when Robinson Crusoe washes up on shore. The animals are initially scared of him and try to drive him off, but Mac, seeing Crusoe as a chance to escape, befriends him instead. Crusoe renames the parrots Tuesday, and ends up working with the rest of the animals to make the island more livable. But a pair of cats that also washed up with him has other plans.
This is a pretty odd film. Its oddness first manifests in its structure. It actually begins with pirates rescuing Crusoe from what appears to be a precarious situation on the island. It then proceeds as an extended flashback, as Tuesday tells the story of a couple of mice on board the ship. This immediately takes away almost all the tension in the story. Whatever else happens in the plot, the audience that it's all going to lead to Crusoe on that ship, with the parrot telling the story.
The weirdness extends to the villains. The filmmakers just seem to hate cats. They are depicted here as totally evil, going against their own self-interest in pursuit of a vague sense of revenge. It offers them little sympathy, and part of their eventual scheme to take over the island is basically to reproduce enough times to have an entire army of cats. Yes, part of this plot involves the villains having children for the sole purpose of using them in their war against Crusoe and the other animals on the island. It is bizarre, to say the least.
But these are just components to a story that doesn't really seem to know what it wants to say. Is the parrot right for wanting to leave the island and see the wonders of the world? Are the other animals right that the intrusion of man into their idyllic utopian life can only bring bad things? The film doesn't really offer much of a firm stand. It seems to basically stump for the friendship between Crusoe and Tuesday, making it out like it's enough to secure the narrative. And it really isn't. By the end of the film, it's pretty tough to say what this film is really going for.
The animation is decidedly subpar. It's bright and colorful, but little else. The character designs are unimaginative, and the action sequences are a mess. And since the film's story is so thin, it ends up investing a lot in these action sequences. It tries to use manic action to make up for the weak narrative, and it doesn't really work. The voice work is passable, but not really very good either. There is an odd rhythm to the dialogue that makes it feel like everything was recorded in separate rooms.
Robinson Crusoe: The Wild Life is just really odd, and not in a good way. It's certainly a little intriguing how all these disparate elements came together, but one suspects that a general lack of skill and experience is what's behind all the bizarre things that may be found in this movie. It moves strangely, its story set up in a completely stilted way. It offers up paper villains that go to insane lengths in their pursuit of the protagonists. And when all of it is over, it isn't even clear what the movie is trying to convey through all that weirdness. It probably means well enough, but intentions aren't what make a film good in the long run.
My Rating:
