Name : Adam Graham / Alias : Detroit News
"The Wild Life" is an import from Belgium that should have been left at customs.

Name : Andrew Parker / Alias : Globe and Mail
Has a handful of novel 3-D effects, lots of bright colours, competent animation and little else.

Name : Stephanie Merry / Alias : Washington Post
It's no great shock when a movie based on a beloved book falls short of the original, but few fail as confoundingly as "The Wild Life."

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
Belgians may have bragging rights on waffles, but judging from "The Wild Life," their animated fare needs help.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
A confused, charmless take on the Robinson Crusoe story.

Name : Michael Ordona / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
It exists in the kids-only zone where parents go to pay for their sins or, hopefully, get a nap.

Name : Claudia Puig / Alias : TheWrap
A dull, uninspired and frantically tedious animated re-telling of the Robinson Crusoe story, complete with a menagerie of ditzy, caterwauling beasts. Consequently, this cacophonous misfire feels a good deal longer than its 91-minute running time.

Name : Tom Russo / Alias : Boston Globe
The animators are clearly trying to craft something bubbly, but they misguidedly go all in on imitating the contemporary Disney model - or DreamWorks', at least - rather than offering anything different.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
Pacing can be painfully languid, to the point of being nap-inducing.

Name : Helen T. Verongos / Alias : New York Times
"The Wild Life" is pretty to look at, with its skies and ocean, calm or stormy, and it has a driving soundtrack. But the story lacks that extra layer of complexity and meaning that parents can appreciate.

Name : Raakhee Mirchandani / Alias : New York Daily News
Kids might be amused, but adults will find the jokes weak, the narrative bleak and little to pass the time between animal chase scenes.

Name : Soren Anderson / Alias : Seattle Times
All things considered, this pitifully plotted Belgian-French production represents the nadir of animated movies released so far this year, a farrago of frantic action and mindless cacophony.

Name : Anita Gates / Alias : New York Times
The burning question is why Mr. Hyde's story has never been made into a feature film.

Name : Ignatiy Vishnevetsky / Alias : AV Club
The sort of uninspired international pre-sales item that usually goes straight from a basement booth at the Cannes film market to a Netflix parent's peripheral vision.

Name : Sheila O'Malley / Alias : RogerEbert.com
There's always a lot to look at. The script is so-so, but the total lack of snark and cynicism in the film is refreshing.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
Whether dangling characters off the edge of a cliff or zooming around Crusoe's rickety wooden waterslide, the story is constantly on the go, launching objects and characters along the Z axis - and out over the audiences' heads.

Name : Jordan Mintzer / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
An impressively made if highly juvenile version of a literary classic.

Name : Jody Mitori / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It's like the generic version of a Disney movie.

Name : Chris Packham / Alias : Village Voice
Through photos and family lore, but mostly through Dayton's own eloquence, Mitchell assembles a biographical portrait that's inspiring in the best possible way.

Name : Peter Debruge / Alias : Variety
The formula may be familiar, but the personalities are completely fresh, yielding a menagerie of loveable - if downright ugly - cartoon critters banding together to help these two incompatible roommates from ending up on the streets.

Name : Cath Clarke / Alias : Time Out
Some funny-sweet observations about pets and our projections on to them.

Name : Jordan Mintzer / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
A film that starts off impressively but gradually tires itself out with a loud and loopy caper plot, taking a clever idea to mostly familiar places in the long run.