The Wild Thornberrys Movie is a 2002 animated family feature film based on the 1998 television cartoon series of the same name. It was produced by Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies are released into theaters on December 20, 2002.
Plot
The film begins with Twelve-year-old Eliza Thornberry, playing with a family of cheetahs in East Africa, where her parents work as roving wildlife photographers for a television nature show. Eliza has the magical ability to talk and communicate with wild animals. The cheetah mother, Akela, has left Eliza in charge of her cubs; however, Eliza strays beyond the security of the area, and one of the cheetah cubs, Tally, is kidnapped by a poacher. Eliza's persistent efforts to rescue the cub lead her British grandmother Cordelia (who is visiting them) to send her off to an English boarding school, as Cordelia believes that Eliza is constantly endangering herself in Africa and Eliza will be much safer in England. Eliza is unhappy because she will no longer be able to view the imminent solar eclipse and will not be able to locate Tally. Debbie, a materialistic girl who dislikes Africa, is upset and envious that she is not the one being sent away to London. Darwin, who is Eliza's "pet" chimpanzee and best friend, smuggles himself into her luggage and travels to school with her. Rumors about Eliza's past spread through the school, but Eliza becomes more popular over time. However, Eliza quickly becomes fed up of the school and manages to persuade a stuck-up British school girl to lend her a visa in order to get out of London.
Eliza and Darwin catch an airplane back to Africa followed by a train back to their family's site. While on the train the duo notice an injured rhino outside the train and get off to help it. Eliza speaks with the rhino who tells her about an electric fence set to kill elephants coming through a pass. Then they are assisted by a young couple, supposedly animal conservationists, and the rhino is taken away by a ranger. A night spent with the couple reveals that the two are actually the poachers planning to kill the elephants coming through the pass on the day of the eclipse. Eliza also discovers her friend, the cheetah cub, who was kidnapped. Eliza is discovered by the poachers while she is sneaking around and they interrogate her about how she came to know about the rhino and the fence.
Meanwhile, Debbie has been left alone by Mr. and Mrs. Thornberry to take care of her mischievous adopted brother Donnie near their motor home. One day, Debbie becomes lost in the jungle while trying to find Donnie. She comes to a friendly native village where no one speaks English. After several failed attempts to get her motorcycle out of the mud in which it is stuck, she meets a teenage boy from the village named Boko who helps her to get the motorcycle out. The village members, worried that Debbie will get killed out in the wilderness, send Boko as her guide. Back at the poachers' camp, as Eliza is getting her hands tied, the poacher tells her about the animal powers, and then the other poacher hears something coming. They finally find Debbie, and Eliza and Debbie end up in a skirmish with the poachers. The teenage native boy is lost during the commotion, and to save Debbie, Eliza admits to how she got the information on the electric fence. A storm begins and takes away Eliza's powers to speak to animals, preventing her from apologizing to Darwin after an argument. The group end up on a log drifting down the river with Darwin still holding a grudge.
Debbie and Eliza talk about her powers and Debbie apologizes for some things she had done in the past to hurt Eliza. They get to the pass, just in time for the eclipse. They find hundreds of elephants, being led to death by their matriarch, unaware of the fence. During the eclipse, Bree and Sloan get their henchmen to detonate explosives in the valley to get the elephants to stampede. Eliza jumps onto Phaedra, and desperately tries to tell her to stop. She uses a necklace Nigel gave her before she left and hurls it at the fence. It begins to react and the elephants quickly stop. Bree and Sloan order their henchmen to fire off another round of explosives, making the elephants charge towards it again. Then Eliza remembers how elephant mothers tell their young how to go; she taps the elephant in a certain way, causing her to stop right in front of the fence. Everyone stops, and the elephants are saved. The poachers become angry and notice what is happening.
Sloan swings in on the helicopter, grabs Eliza, and throws her into a raging river, but not before saying that she won't be there once he and Bree cut out the elephants' "ivory" tusks. Eliza then meets Shaman Mnyambo who tells her that she saved the day using not her powers but with her heart, and as a reward he gives Eliza her powers back. She apologizes to Darwin, the helicopter is pulled out of the sky by the elephants, and the poachers are arrested by rangers. They return to their parents and return Tally to his mother. Eliza tells Debbie that if she does not keep her secret she will be turned into a baboon, and upon hearing this information Debbie becomes hysterical and interrupts her father's recording session.
Cast
- Lacey Chabert - Eliza Thornberry, the main character that has the ability to talk to animals.
- Danielle Harris - Debbie Thornberry, Eliza's older sister.
- Tim Curry - Nigel Thornberry and Col. Radcliffe Thornberry, Eliza's Father and Grandfather respectively.
- Jody Carlisle - Marianne Thornberry, Nigel's wife who operates the film camera.
- Tom Kane - Darwin Thornberry, a chimpanzee that travels with the family. A close friend of Eliza.
- Michael Balzary - Donnie Thornberry, a feral boy raised by orangutans.
- Obba Babatunde - Boko, a native boy Debbie runs into later on.
- Brenda Blethyn - Mrs. Fairgood, a teacher at the boarding school.
- Rupert Everett and Marisa Tomei - Husband and wife Sloan and Bree Blackburn, wildlife conservationists, or so they say.
- Lynn Redgrave - Grandmumsy Cordelia Thornberry, the mother of Nigel Thornberry and wife of Col. Radcliffe Thornberry.
- Cree Summer - Phaedra, the elephant Eliza is riding at the start of the film.
- Alfre Woodard - Akela, mother of the kidnapped cub.
- Melissa Greenspan - Sarah Wellington, Eliza's roommate at Madame Beatrice's.
Reception
Box office
It opened in the US box office in 2002, the same year as when Hey Arnold!: The Movie was released, and highest-grossing only a modest $40 million domestically, in spite of generally favorable reviews.
Awards
It was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Father and Daughter" by Paul Simon.
Taglines
- This Could Be The Beginning Of A Beautiful Adventure.
- New Home. New Friends. No Powers.
- You don't need extraordinary powers to do extraordinary things.
- Go Wild!!!
Trivia
- The shaman looks drastically different and more confident than in the show.
- Boko, an African Tribe member, befriends Debbie and gives her a skirt. She is seen wearing it, and then in the next scene when she leaves the Tribe, she is wearing her pants again.
- This is the first and, to date, only film based on a Nicktoon to earn an Academy Award nomination.
- This is the only Klasky Csupo film production with Nickelodeon Movies where Mark Mothersbaugh is not the composer, as he is not involved with the original series, either. He did, however, provide music for Rugrats Go Wild, which featured characters from The Wild Thornberrys.
- This is the first Nickelodeon film to be shot in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.