Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13304 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-14
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Animated, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian
• Dubbed in: Dutch, Greek
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 82 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The characters in The Wild Thornberrys Movie are well-defined and delightful; the well-written script zips along and the animation is visually dynamic. This charming movie version of the Nickelodeon cartoon centres on Eliza, the youngest daughter of the Thornberry family. Her parents, Nigel and Marianne, travel the world to create nature programmes for television. But Eliza, thanks to a mystical encounter, has the power to talk to animals--a power that leads her on the hunt for poachers in Africa who have captured a baby cheetah. Eliza's best friend, a chimpanzee named Darwin, is along for the ride, while her resentful teenage sister Debbie is trying to bring her back to their parents. All in all, this is an excellent animated feature featuring the voices of Tim Curry, Lacey Chabert, Rupert Everett, Marisa Tomei, Alfred Woodard and Lynn Redgrave. --Bret Fetzer

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
The plucky, pigtailed Eliza Thornberry (voiced by Lacey Chabert) and her high-strung chimpanzee pal (Tom Kane) are out to stop some poachers in this feature film version of the Nickelodeon TV cartoon show. While her family is off on a trek through the Serengeti in their high-tech, gadget-filled RV, Eliza is sent off to a stuffy English boarding school by her strict grandmother (Lynn Redgrave). Poor Eliza must figure out how to escape back to Africa and put a stop to the aforementioned evil poachers, all without her special ability to talk to the animals, a power she lost because of her obnoxious sister Debbie (Danielle Harris). Produced and animated by Klasky-Csupo (the team responsible for THE RUGRATS MOVIE) the THORNBERRYS' colorful 2D animation style is refreshingly simplistic, yet still manages to depict its jungle settings with surprisingly vivid intensity. Youngsters should be consistently engaged and adults will appreciate the high zaniness level, rapid-fire plotting, and absence of cloying sentiment. Celebrity voices include: Rupert Everett, Tim Curry, Marisa Tomei, and Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea as Eliza's little brother Donnie, a gibbering wild child raised by apes. The soundtrack includes tunes by Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon.

Customer Reviews

Great
A great film for parents and kids to watch together, if you have watched the series you will not be disappointed by this film. It has all the great content of the series in bigger handfuls. Eliza is up to her usual tricks and poor Darwin the chimp has to put up with the consequences as well. As I missed out on the earlier episodes of the tv shows it also explained some things I was not sure about.

A good movie spin off from the clever TV series
The family (mum, dad, daughter 10, son 8) saw this at the cinema and really enjoyed it. Its works well on the small screen as well and has quite a serious storyline, although to be honest the kids have only watched it a few times, so perhaps try renting as well - they prefered to watch their many hours of TV Wild Thornberry episodes on video instead, as there is far more variety (and even I enjoy watching them). However this is a very successful movie translation with a strong conservationist story. It's not unlike Tarzan really with it's England public school sequences. Your children would probably appreciate the film more if they are familiar with the TV series (but then they will have probably seen it already). Unfortunately the TV series isn't being screened at the moment. I think the film will still make perfect sense if you aren't familiar with The Wild Thornberrys - it's just the exact reason why Eliza can talk to animals that is glossed over, although to be honest that only took up a few seconds of the original 90 episode TV series anyway. Eliza's constant kindness to animals was rewarded by a powerful African witch-doctor/shaman spirit who granted her the ability to talk to animals (not that she can change their inate behaviour much though) - however it's on condition that she must keep this gift completely secret to prevent it being misused by other humans.

I far preferred this movie to the later 'Rugrat's go wild'. It's particularly of interest to a UK audience as Nigel Thornberry is very English, and a cross between David Attenborough and George Sanders (Sheer Khan in The Jungle Book). Plus any film with Brit Tim Curry involved is always fun (the voice of Nigel). There's also Lynn Redgrave as Cordelia Thornberry - Nigel's mum. The film particularly suites girls as both main leads are girls, although the animal action sequences and wild-boys Donny and Darwin keep the young men happy. Highly recommended for a 5 to 11 audience (and their parents), particularly as now it's an old title, it's quite cheap. It's also actually available to buy cheaply in the UK, unlike sadly most of the classy TV series - although a few single PAL Wild Thornberry DVDs, e.g. 'Heroes of the animal kingdom', 'Call of the wild' [6 episodes], and 'The origins of Donnie' [4 episodes], are available to rent and buy on Amazon at the moment. The Wild Thornberrys TV show hasn't actually been cancelled either, it's technically been put on 'hold' for a few years as there were so many episodes already made.

wow
to completely understand it you would of have to of seen the series. Iy is fukll of imotion laughter and suspence all in one. staring Alasia darwin nigal debbie and mum not forgeting donnie is perfect for all ages from 3 to 30 and has a brilliant end a chance for a sequal.