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Born to be Wild is the heartwarming story of a young boy,
Rick, and his quest to free Katie, a Gorilla that had been
stolen from her family out of the jungle at a very young age
and is now on her way to be a side show at a local flea
market.
Rick is a rebellious
15-year-old whose mother has had a tough time trying to keep
him in line after Dad walked out on them. Rick's mother is
currently doing work on Ape behavior at her research center.
She has been working with Katie, a very intelligent Gorilla,
teaching her sign language. Unfortunately, Rick's mom has only
leased Katie from her legal owner, Mr. Charnley, also the
owner of the local flea market. He refuses to renew her lease,
as his other Gorilla, Bobo, who had been his side show
feature, died. He now intends to replace Bobo with Katie, and
does just that. Rick, upon seeing Katie in this horrible
little caged-in exhibition, decides there is nothing else to
do but break Katie out. He hides in the flea market bathroom
until after the store has closed and releases Katie. He and
Katie evade the night guards and take off in Rick's mom's van.
Rick goes by Lacey Carr's house, a friend from school, hoping
she can help him find a place for Katie to hide. She gives him
the name of her Uncle Max, who lives in Washington, telling
Rick that her uncle will be able to help Rick get Katie across
the Canadian border, where Katie will be safe. We watch as
Rick and Katie start on their long journey to Uncle Max's
house, and along the way, boy and Gorilla become life long
friends.
Although this movie
revolves around Katie the Gorilla, all Gorilla action was done
with animatronics and the aid of an actor in a Gorilla suit.
No real Gorillas were used in the making of this film.
Live animal action
is minimal. In one scene at Max's house, Max's dog is seen
lifting his leg on a policeman. The dog was filmed close up
standing next to the policeman from an overhead angle. The
dog's trainer was out of camera range holding a fake plastic
dog leg at the side of the dog. The trainer then squirted a
water gun from underneath the dog, making it appear as though
the dog relieved himself on the policeman.
In another scene,
you see approximately a dozen cows in a fenced in area
alongside an old country road. Max, Rick, Lacey and Katie, in
trying to elude the police, swerve off the road and crash
their van through the fence, landing in a large muddy ditch.
The cows were on the far end of the area. The van was never
close to the cows, nor did it appear to be.
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