Review: Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe (aka The Wild Life) (2D)
Cert: PG / 90 mins / Dir. Vincent Kesteloot & Ben Stassen / Trailer



Now I know this film had opened the previous week, and that I was watching it on the first weekend of Angry Birds, but when a 10am screening of a new kids movie plays to just three people (including me), it's not a great sign of consumer confidence. This doesn't necessarily reflect directly on the film, but it's definitely a marketing misfire…

So, animation studio nWave's retooling of Daniel Defoe's classic shipwreck tale is a brave punt, given the market for more modern fare, and the artistic license required for this facelift comes in the form of the island's talking animal inhabitants, as Robinson's tale is told retrospectively through a framing device, by his parrot Tuesday (do you see what they've done there?). Unfortunately, more attention seems to have gone into animating the film's creatures than it has the human characters (and there are plenty of humans on display, here). Normally I'd wonder if this could be a narrative twist, juxtaposing the audience's pre-conceived notions of reality, but the film's writing just doesn't back that up. nWave's work is detailed and textured enough, but it often has a stiff, jerky quality which feels like a videogame cut-scene rather than a feature movie presentation.

Other problems (okay, for me) include the fauna-contingent of the entire island's eco-system comprising of seven animals of completely separate species, although I suspect this was more for budgetary reasons than creative ones. This might also be the first adventure movie in history to 'kill the dog'. Not even Roland Emmerich's disaster flicks have got the cojones to go that far. And it may well be a plot point in the book (I can't remember and haven't checked, frankly), but it's not like this is a canonical retelling of the story which has to desperately cling to every other detail.

Best bit? Robinson's aforementioned dog, Aynsley, describing to the parrot in a Scottish accent that "his island" is called England (ie, not Britain, and certainly not Scotland*¹). I don't imagine this apparent lack of attention to detail was orchestrated to piss off the viewers north of the border, but I've no doubt that's the effect it'll have.

Robinson Crusoe is sweet enough, and is a valiant effort at breathing new life into classic literature, but the spark of greatness just isn't there. It would probably make an interesting companion to the original work, but couldn't hope to replace it.

To be perfectly honest, you'd be better off spending the same money on The Angry Birds Movie and then asking yourself why video games seem to be winning out over books…

Mediocre animation like Capture The Flag or Home.



Nope.



Not particularly.



Don't know for sure, but I hope not.



Oh, probably not.



Nope.



Level 1: Robinson Crusoe is vocally performed (in the English language-version of the film, at least) by Yuri Lowenthal, who provided voice-work in Star Wars: The Old Republic.
No, it counts. No, you shut up.





*¹ Robinson himself isn't Scottish, you understand. He just has an apparently Scottish dog who doesn't know what Scotland is.

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