The Wild Thornberrys
by Jan Aaron
See it now at a local multiplex or later on video, but don’t miss The Wild Thornberry’s Movie. The animated film version of the popular Nickelodeon TV show, follows the adventures of Nigel Thornberry (voiced by Tim Curry) and his American wife, Marianne (Jodi Carlisle), who roam the African plains making nature documentaries. The movie packages serious environmental and ecological themes for tots while affectionately portraying savanna landscapes and Nairobi marketplace scenes in easy on the eye bright and earth tones.
Of the two daughters, Eliza (Lacey Chabert) enjoys Africa, while her sister Debbie (Danielle Harris) yearns for London. There also is Donnie, a wild child adopted by the Thornberrys, who literally bounces in and out of scenes. So great is Eliza’s love of animals, a shaman (Kevin Michael Richardson) grants her the secret power to talk to them. Soon Eliza gets in trouble when she tries to save a cheetah from helicopter-flying poachers. Worried about her wild ways, her starchy visiting grandmother (Lynn Redgrave) sends her to boarding school in London.
Shunned at first by her snooty classmates, Eliza talks with squirrels and her best buddy, a chimp, Darwin, (Tom Kane), who stowed away along with her. Later, she wins everyone over with tales of her life in Africa, but in a dream the shaman tells her she must return to Africa to save little Tally.
By this time, her family is off on a mission to save elephants, also the prime targets for the poachers. As Eliza races about trying to retrieve Tally from the same poachers, her mission becomes more complicated and even bored Debbie joins in and tries to track her sister’s whereabouts, both grandparents parachute in and everything eventually works out. (78 minutes, PG, Paramount Pictures release.)
When the tots are tucked in, take in: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, an engaging French import telling a love story from two vastly different his and her viewpoints, and Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary, a riveting interview with Trudi Junge, his personal secretary from 1942 until the day he died. (Call 777-FILM for timings to all.)#
