With the undeserved success of Chicken Little, Disney is officially a major player in the animation business again. But, since they’ve re-merged with Pixar it’s kind of irrelevant.

Anyway, Disney’s next animated film is probably their worst concept yet. Basically, it’s a blatant ripoff of Madagascar, a film which I found funny as hell but some people like to rip. Penguins are funny. Face it. The Disney version of it is called The Wild and it follows the after-visiting-hours lives of a group of zoo animals. Kiefer Sutherland voices a lion, Jim Belushi is a squirrel (probably a fat untalented one), and Eddie Izzard is a Koala.

This is a lot like Shark Tale trying to cash in on the success of Finding Nemo with another fish-based tale. You all remember how well that worked out. I still can’t wrap my head around the logic of fish using elevators.

The Wild, which has had almost no publicity from anyone anywhere until now, arrives in theaters April 14, a date which isn’t exactly a vote of confidence. Our first chance to get a look at it, will come on January 9th. No, the trailer will not debut on the internet, but on the subscription cable channel Starz, where it can be seen by as few people as possible.

Seriously, why would you subscribe to Starz? They’re called DVDs, look into it. HBO sure. Showtime, why not. But Starz? People, spend your money on fuzzy dice or something. Maybe that explains why it’s debuting there. Those are probably the people most interested in The Wild.

So, if you do flush your money on Starz, then you can be one of the first people to see the trailer for Disney’s next movie, The Wild on January 9th at one of the times I’ve listed below. Good luck with that.

- Starz at 7:15 p.m.
- Starz Kids & Family at 5:30 p.m.
- Starz Comedy at 10:00 p.m.