Born To Be Wild

It would be easy to call Born To Be Wild a Free Willy with primates; it would also be misleading. Though both films share certain sentiments, this one muddies the message with schlock. Wil Horneff is a teen misfit who befriends gorilla Katie and escapes with her in a stolen van. Katie is often an actor in an ape suit — which lets the filmmakers take anthropomorphic liberties to get easy laughs and tears. Adults will be annoyed, but kids come away thinking of gorillas as ideal playmates who have finger-paint fights. That's not funny, that's dumb. C-

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