The Boonie Bears franchise has been going strong since 2012, with ten separate TV series totalling up to 676 episodes, and eight films with The Wild Life serving as the ninth. And up until I saw this film listed at my local cinema, I had no idea this even existed. I went into this about as blind as any other talking animal movie I’ve reviewed on here, and considering that sub-genre has basically become my nemesis over this blog’s lifespan, I can’t say I was expecting much. I don’t know if this has more to do with lowered expectations, lack of other options with the constant schedule shuffling, or if this film is genuinely good but… yeah, I had way more fun with this than I ever could have anticipated.
For a start, going in completely unknowing of the larger franchise behind this film, I didn’t run into any real issues concerning continuity. Aside from accepting that the titular Boonie Bears named Briar and Bramble are able to talk in a world populated by humans, that’s about it for background that’s required for this film. Although I’m sure that there’s some bits of character development I missed out on given the wealth of prior material, that would only serve to enhance what it is already a quite fun experience, rather than being absolutely necessary to get into it.
The film itself is basically the ultimate in talking animal narratives, in that it involves the Wild Land theme park where guests can access highly advanced technology that allows them to turn into anthropomorphic animals, along with provide large areas to run, swim, or fly around in. The animation to bring those ideas to life is genuinely impressive, making everything from the very populated locale of the park to the eye-catching variety in terrain, right down to the invigorating scenes of characters running and flying as they wish, look stunning. It captures a similar sense of freedom as something like the Animorphs books, but without the ultra-depressing caveats to do with child soldiers and loss of identity.
That said, though, this film can get surprisingly emotional at times, both in the rapture of seeing park owner Vick try out the technology for the first time, and in the explanation for where this technology came from and (later on) why it starts going haywire. Both of those developments have to do with the idea of happiness and how this sort of literal transformation allows the user to let go of their earthly dilemmas and stresses and just enjoy life through their newfound fur and feathers. It’s quite poignant in places, and when it gets to the requisite villain and their reason for what we see (which, much like the other developments, I will not be spoiling here), it reaches a level of twisted logic that is… well, among the cleverest writing I think I’ve ever seen out of the talking animal set.
I don’t know how well this holds up next to the rest of the franchise, but the mere possibility that the other films or even the TV series are up to this standard almost makes me even angrier at the majority of the bargain bin garbage I’ve reviewed on here, knowing that I could’ve been watching something this fun and engaging instead of crap like Little Foot and The Queen’s Corgi. Admittedly, I probably would’ve seen those regardless (damn my compulsion to watch everything I can), but it’s been far too long since an animated film had me so utterly transported into the world being depicted. Including flying tiger sharks and owls with freeze ray backpacks certainly helped, but for a film all about finding happiness in life, it certainly followed through because that’s what I found from watching this.
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