The Wild Thornberrys Movie

Plot

Eliza Thornberry is babysitting a cheetah family in Kenya after the mother, Akela, leaves her cubs in Eliza’s care. While playing, Eliza wanders too far from the cheetahs’ territory, and one of the cubs, Tally, gets snatched by poachers. Determined to rescue Tally, Eliza’s grandmother Cordelia, who is strict, decides to send her to a boarding school in London to keep her safe. Once there, Eliza finds that her pet chimpanzee, Darwin, has secretly hidden in her suitcase.

Darwin tries to fit in at the school but ends up causing trouble for both of them. After a dream where Shaman Mnyambo tells her to go save Tally, Eliza and Darwin decide to head back to Kenya. On a train from Nairobi, they come across a male rhinoceros that’s been injured—shot at the river by the same poachers who took Tally. With help from two veterinarians named Sloan and Bree Blackburn, they treat the rhino.

Back at the family’s RV, the Comvee, Eliza’s older sister Debbie is stuck watching their feral younger brother Donnie while their parents, Nigel and Marianne, are off filming a solar eclipse in Tembo Valley. Eliza returns to the Comvee for supplies, and after a brief argument, Debbie follows her, along with Darwin and Donnie. Meanwhile, Cordelia and her husband, Colonel Radcliffe, catch up with Nigel and Marianne to tell them Eliza has run away, and they all start searching for her to force her back to school.

Darwin, Eliza, and Donnie meet a gorilla who says it saw people putting up a fence across Tembo Valley. They then bump into the Blackburns again, and Eliza figures out the poachers are after the elephant herd moving through the valley. Later, the trio finds Tally inside the Blackburns’ RV, revealing that the Blackburns are the poachers. The Blackburns capture them and show that the fence is electrified.

Debbie meets a local Mbuti boy named Boko, sent by village elders to help her. They reach the Blackburns’ RV, but Sloan takes Debbie hostage after learning she’s Eliza’s sister. When Sloan threatens to kill Debbie unless Eliza explains how she discovered their plan, Eliza confesses it’s because she can talk to animals. A storm hits, stripping Eliza of her powers, and the Blackburns escape.

Reception

The Wild Thornberrys Movie hit theaters in the U.S. on December 20, 2002, landing in sixth place for its opening weekend with $6 million from 3,012 locations, averaging about $1,997 per screen. Its domestic total reached a modest $40 million, a figure partly attributed to its release just two days after The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Still, thanks to generally positive reviews, it outperformed another animated film, Treasure Planet, which earned roughly $38 million domestically. Notably, it is one of the few films to open in over 3,000 theaters and then improve its box office in the second weekend, climbing 22.5% from $6 million to $7.4 million.

Critical response

Critics were mostly kind. On Rotten Tomatoes, a majority of critics gave it a favorable review, with the site’s consensus calling it “an animated adventure that should prove entertaining for all ages.” Metacritic assigned a weighted score of 69 out of 100 from 25 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of “A.” Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper both endorsed it with “Two Thumbs Up” on their show.

Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised it as “a witty and delightful Christmas present for the entire family,” noting it “balances some honest heart-tugging with a sophisticated sense of humor,” which he considered rare for children’s films. Dave Kehr of The New York Times was less impressed, calling it an “extended Saturday morning cartoon” that is “bland but harmless,” and unfavorably compared it to Disney’s The Lion King. Claudia Puig of USA Today gave it three out of four stars, writing that it “will no doubt brighten the day of parents looking for family activities during the holidays.” The film also received reviews from Boston.com and Film4.

Accolades

The movie earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Father and Daughter” by Paul Simon, but lost to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile.

Music

The film's original soundtrack, featuring Paul Simon's "Father and Daughter," hit stores on November 26, 2002, via Zomba Music, Jive Records, and Nick Records on CD and cassette. George Acogny served as executive producer.

Simon's song, penned specifically for the movie, was issued as a single and later earned nominations for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song. A separate score album arrived on April 8, 2003, through Silverline Records. It contains the theme "Bridge to the Stars," with music by Randy Kerber and J. Peter Robinson, lyrics by Maribeth Derry, and vocals from Tracey Amos and Lisa McClowry. This score release is no longer in print.

Did You Know?

• A video game based on the movie was released by THQ for the Game Boy Advance and PC.
• A standalone sequel and crossover with characters from Rugrats, titled Rugrats Go Wild, was released in 2003.