Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

The Wild Thornberrys Movie

Play trailer 1:39 Poster for The Wild Thornberrys Movie PG Released Dec 20, 2002 1h 25m Kids & Family Comedy Adventure Animation Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
80% Tomatometer 88 Reviews 51% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
The Wild Thornberrys feature film finds one of America's favorite animated families going on wild adventures around the world. Now, 12-year old Eliza is in Africa where she meets a mysterious shaman who grants her the power to talk to animals. But there's a catch -- if she reveals her gift she will lose it forever. One day Eliza discovers that poachers plan to kill an elephant herd with an electrified fence, and she and Darwin, her pet chimp, must stop them.
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

The Wild Thornberrys Movie

The Wild Thornberrys Movie

What to Know

Critics Consensus

The Wild Thornberrys Movie brings its beloved clan to the big screen for an animated adventure that should prove entertaining for all ages.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (88)
Nell Minow Common Sense Media Wholesome but also has kid appeal. Rated: 3/5 Dec 29, 2010 Full Review Bill Stamets Chicago Reader Screenwriter Kate Boutilier provides plenty of sharp patter. May 20, 2008 Full Review Empire Magazine Better-than-average. Rated: 3/5 Dec 30, 2006 Full Review Urban Cinefile Critics Urban Cinefile Splendid entertainment for the 8-12 age group and good fun for just about everyone else. Oct 18, 2008 Full Review Mark Halverson Sacramento News & Review Nickelodeon's animated explorer family runs into poachers in Africa in a sometimes-fun adventure that occasionally collapses into flat, savanna-like stretches. Rated: 2/5 Aug 7, 2008 Full Review Philip French Observer (UK) The film's draughtsmanship is more than adequate, the voicing of the characters excellent, and the songs are way above average for such fare. May 20, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (288)
Jacob B That wasn't very SMASHING of the trailer to give the whole plot away, wasn't it? Seriously, I've seen some spoileriffic trailers in my time but this movie's trailer really takes the cake. The only other movie trailer I can think of that spoiled everything to a frustrating degree was 1996's The Adventures of Pinocchio. Made the whole exercise of watching The Wild Thornberrys Movie feel redundant when I could have just watched the trailer + a few clips on YouTube to fill in the gaps and called it a day. But I'm a more honourable person than that. And even ignoring the advertising, I think this movie is just okay. A better cinematic outing for this IP than Rugrats Go Wild was, anyway. The animation's nice, the characters are mostly likeable and there are a few good moments of humour and heart but hardly a cinematic masterpiece, especially when stronger Nicktoon-based films exist in the form of the first two Rugrats and SpongeBob movies. For instance, all this fuss about our heroine going to a boarding school in London, only for her to get the hell out of dodge barely a day later and facing no real repercussions making one wonder why it was brought up in the first place when it doesn't really affect the plot in any significant capacity. She didn't even leave Africa yet when a Chekhov's Gun was established. The villains? Even without the trailers, the lack of significant characters made it immediately obvious to me that something smelled fishy about these people and since we conveniently never got a good look at the poachers in the action prologue, their true colours were clear to me. Also, isn't the main plot kind-of Eliza's fault? She and the cubs were told to avoid going past the acacia tree but she pushed her luck and look what happened. She does feel bad about it and is likeable enough to avoid coming off as unintentionally unsympathetic but not one of the animals calls her out? Let's just say Finding Nemo dealt with this kind of plot less than a year later in a more nuanced manner. Also, I didn't care about the pop song but hey, it got an Oscar nomination. Good for them. I wanted to like this movie more than I did but, while fairly accessible to newcomers, making the mistake of watching the trailer first meant this was more of a "going-through-the-motions" film for me. Sorry, Tim Curry dad, you deserved better. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 06/28/25 Full Review Stephen C A failure of a family comedy in just 1 hour and 25 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The USA grossed over $39,900,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 06/20/25 Full Review Noe G The wild Thornberrys movie is an amazing movie I give this film a 10/10 Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/12/24 Full Review Estevan G A very fun movie, especially if you are a fan of the show. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/10/24 Full Review Audience Member Over 20 years old and it's another one of the few animated Nickelodeon movies based on a popular tv show The whole cast is here from Eliza to Nigel to MaryAnn to Debbie to Darwin to Donnie It pretty much plays just like the show right down to the opening Thankfully Eliza Thornberry voiced by Lacey Chabert catches Us up to speed; A shaman she came across granted her powers with the ability to talk to animals Ever since then she's been on a non-stop journey around the world with her family, her parents actually film animal footage and provide it for the foundation they work for Here Eliza's grandmother joins them and on their latest expedition they come across a band of cheetahs But trouble begins when one of the cubs ends up getting kidnapped by poachers and Eliza has to find him and bring him back She can't do it alone as she'll need Darwin's help along with her sister The whole thing is an extended tv episode that's for sure and some fans might be bothered we spend more time at the boarding school instead of Eliza tracking down the cub But she does learn to go outside her comfort zone and learn to solve problems without her power It's got a good soundtrack, an exotic feel, wholesome stuff for family viewers and full of environmental lessons Nothing grandiose but as family entertainment goes it does the job Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/21/23 Full Review Songer K At this point, Any popular Nick Cartoon from the 90s can get a movie. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 11/13/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Wild Thornberrys Movie

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

The Wild Thornberrys Movie

The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - I Can Talk To Animals The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - I Can Talk To Animals 2:13 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - New Roommate The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - New Roommate 2:13 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Food Fight The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Food Fight 2:13 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Stampede! The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Stampede! 2:12 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Debbie's New Friend The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Debbie's New Friend 2:06 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Preparing for Boarding School The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Preparing for Boarding School 2:11 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Let's Dance The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Let's Dance 1:54 The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Debbie Tattles on Eliza The Wild Thornberrys Movie: Official Clip - Debbie Tattles on Eliza 1:58 View more videos
Rugrats Go Wild 40% 39% Rugrats Go Wild Watchlist TRAILER for Rugrats Go Wild The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie 68% 78% The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Watchlist TRAILER for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie The Incredibles 97% 75% The Incredibles Watchlist TRAILER for The Incredibles Clockstoppers 29% 30% Clockstoppers Watchlist TRAILER for Clockstoppers Ice Age 77% 82% Ice Age Watchlist TRAILER for Ice Age Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis The Wild Thornberrys feature film finds one of America's favorite animated families going on wild adventures around the world. Now, 12-year old Eliza is in Africa where she meets a mysterious shaman who grants her the power to talk to animals. But there's a catch -- if she reveals her gift she will lose it forever. One day Eliza discovers that poachers plan to kill an elephant herd with an electrified fence, and she and Darwin, her pet chimp, must stop them.
Director
Cathy Malkasian, Jeff McGrath
Producer
Gabor Csupo, Arlene Klasky
Screenwriter
Kate Boutilier
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Production Co
Nickelodeon Movies
Rating
PG (Some Adventure Peril)
Genre
Kids & Family, Comedy, Adventure, Animation
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Dec 20, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 1, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$39.9M
Runtime
1h 25m
Sound Mix
Surround
Most Popular at Home Now