Wild Animals (2020)

Wild Animals is a 2020 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure film directed by Dane Boedigheimer & Chris Renaud and written by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Nicholas Stoller, Dane Boedigheimer, Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger, It stars the voices of Chadwick Boseman, Bill Hader, Sophia Bush, Tom Holland, Ryan Reynolds, Charles Fleischer, James Corden, Ewan McGregor and Miles Bakshi.

Produced by Illumination Entertainment, and distributed by Universal Pictures, Wild Animals was theatrically released in the United States on March 13, 2020 with a 2D and Real-D 3D format. It grossed over $139 million worldwide but received mixed reviews.

The movie launched a trilogy, with 2 sequels: Wild Animals: Escape From Africa in 2023, and Wild 3: California's Most Wanted in 2027.

Plot
The film follows a group of animals from the Central Park Zoo: Leeu, a lion (Boseman), Scott, a zebra (Hader), Sarah, an elephant (Bush), Finn, a mouse (Holland), Jack, a red panda (Reynolds), and Ricky, an anteater (Fleischer), who end up being stranded on Borneo after Scott is captured by animal control after trying to go by himself without any humans noticing.

Cast

 * Chadwick Boseman as Leeu, an African-American lion, who used to be the "king" of the Central Park Zoo, but gets crazed once he is left stranded on Borneo. He is Scott's best friend.
 * Bill Hader as Scott, an adventurous zebra who wishes to live in the wild and be free from the zoo. His behavior eventually leads him and his friends to Borneo. He is Leeu's best friend.
 * Sophia Bush as Sarah, a strong, confident Indian elephant. She is insecure about her love life, however, unaware of Finn's love towards her.
 * Tom Holland as Finn, a heroic mouse who is Sarah's love interest.
 * Ryan Reynolds as Jack, an eccentric and short-tempered red panda who speaks with a Canadian accent. He hates nature and the wild, but ends up becoming a god to Borneo's bay cats as "The Holy He".
 * Charles Fleischer as Ricky, a dim-witted anteater. Ricky is the kindest member of the group.
 * James Corden as King Puernatus, an orangutan and the king of Borneo's orangutans. He enjoys partying, but is ineffective in securing his people from the bay cats.
 * Ewan McGregor as Auxilia, a mild-mannered and calm-spoken orangutan, and the royal advisor of King Puernatus.
 * Miles Bakshi as Bellus, a cuddly pygmy squirrel who always accompany King Puernatus and Auxilia.
 * Dane Boedigheimer as Princeps, the leader of the secret spy-like fennec fox brothers. Resourceful, intelligent, and commanding, he plans on reaching Hawaii with his men to live free.
 * Robert Jennings as Mandatum, a mild-mannered fennec fox and Princeps' second in command.
 * Rob Paulsen as Luvenis, one of the fennec foxes and the younger member of the team.
 * Frank Welker as Quietus, a crazy fennec fox who can only speak in grunts and laughs.
 * Justin Roiland as Daniel and Johnson, two common meerkats and best friends. They speak with a stereotypical Australian accent. The two of them escape alongside the main animals and the penguins.
 * Whoopi Goldberg as Gramma, an old woman who tries to stop Leeu while trying to find his friend Scott.
 * Frank Welker and Dee Bradley Baker as the bay cats.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Conrad Cheetah, a cheetah in the Central Park Zoo and Finn's nemesis
 * TBA (either a veteran voice actor or an Idea Wiki user) as Grand, a panda in the Central Park Zoo and a friend of Scott.
 * TBA (either a veteran voice actor or an Idea Wiki user) as Rust, a lemur in the Central Park Zoo and a friend of Scott.
 * Chris Renaud as Benjiro, a river otter with a stereotypical Japanese accent who is an old acquaintance of Finn who knows where Scott is going.
 * TBA (either a veteran voice actor or a Idea Wiki user) as a police officer.
 * TBA (either a veteran voice actor or a Idea Wiki user) as Otter DB.
 * Jennifer Hale as a news reporter.

Production
TBA

Release
Wild Animals was supposed to be released on October 2, 2020, but was changed to June 12, 2020 as the crew and Dane Boedigheimer fear competition against My Little Pony Movie 2: Ponies Into Outer Space. Then the release date finally got changed to March 13, 2020, with Boedigheimer having fears of competing with The Punisher.

Marketing
Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment signed up for 11 partners to promote the movie including:

A teaser trailer premiered on June 5, 2019 and is shown before The Secret Life of Pets 2, Toy Story 4, Spider-Man: Far From Home, The Lion King, Mr. Men, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, among other 2019 movies.
 * Wendy's (Kids meal, 8 toys)
 * Kellogg's (Free family movie ticket in such cereals like Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Krave, and Rice Krispies, also including a themed cereal with oat pieces and themed marshmallows)
 * Funko (18 Pop! dolls)
 * Mott's for Tots (with a comic or themed activity in the back of boxes of Mott's for Tots)
 * Cinemark
 * Regal Cinemas
 * AMC Theatres
 * Walmart
 * Disney Channel
 * Cartoon Network
 * Universal Kids

Trivia

 * The film is inspired by DreamWorks' Madagascar and Disney's The Wild.
 * There are the characters from the movie:
 * Leeu is inspired by Alex from Madagascar, Samson from The Wild, Simba and Mufasa from The Lion King, and Lightning McQueen from the Cars trilogy.
 * Scott is inspired by Marty from Madagascar and Ryan from The Wild.
 * Sarah is inspired by Gloria from Madagascar and Bridget from The Wild.
 * Finn is inspired by Melman from Madagascar, Benny from The Wild, and Mike from Sing.
 * Jack is inspired by Nigel from The Wild and the titular character from Deadpool (2016).
 * Ricky is inspired by Larry from the Wild, Tow Mater from the Cars trilogy, and the titular character from Who Framed Roger Rabbit?.
 * King Puernatus is inspired by King Julien from the Madagascar trilogy and Hi-5 from the Emoji Movie.
 * The fennec foxes are inspired by the penguins from Madagascar.
 * Daniel and Johnson are inspired by the titular characters from Rick and Morty.
 * The bay cats are inspired by the fossa from Madagascar and the wildebeests from The Wild.


 * This is another Illumination movie not to be composed by Heitor Pereira, in this case, the movie is composed by Christopher Lennertz, who composed the music for Hop.
 * In the scene where Scott goes in style at town, We can see various shout-outs on previous Illumination works and The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange.
 * There's a grocery store behind Scott that says "Daneboe's", which is a reference to the Daneboe's store from The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange and director Dane Boedigheimer.
 * Also behind Scott we see the Paradise Mall from Despicable Me 2.
 * There's a billboard that says "Come on down to Thneedville!", which is a reference to Illumination's CGI adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax.
 * When Scott is shown walking in the streets, we see a couple of dogs barking at him, and the dogs barking have the same models as Gidget from The Secret Life of Pets and Max from The Grinch.


 * Illumination opening variant:
 * After the Universal logo fades out, We see Bob, Stuart, Kevin, and Dave trying to tame Leeu (like what you see in a circus), In this case, Bob the Minion tells Leeu to say "Illumination", and then Leeu ignores and turns away, Then all 4 of the minions start laughing, until after several seconds Leeu lets out 5 very loud roars, and the minions start running away, screaming, and Leeu runs to get them.


 * When Sarah gives out the plan to bring back Scott to the rest of the gang, Finn says "Okay, okay, Dumbo, I think we had enough, Let's go get him until he turns into a delicious zebra cake!", which is a reference to both the Disney movie Dumbo, and the Little Debbie treat Zebra Cakes.

Sing short film
The short film Mike's First Date Night will be shown before Wild Animals.