Movie spotlight: 'The Wild Life'

The Robinson Crusoe story has been told a multitude of ways since Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel. But "The Wild Life" (⋆⋆, PG) mines new ground by telling the tale from the perspective of the animals he encounters during his shipwrecked stay on a tropical island. It's the work of a Belgian animation studio, and it has a different feel than most of the joke-driven animated features produced stateside. This focuses on more of a historical action-adventure story line — to mixed results. There are some very impressive elements to the animation, including scenes that are rendered almost photo realistically. But without much humor and with a very straightforward story, there isn't a lot to hook you into the tale, leaving one a bit cold toward the characters.