The Call of the Wild review

THE CALL OF THE WILD:

DISTRACTING CGI ANIMALS ASIDE, THIS CANINE ADVENTURE ISN’T HALF BAD!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

20^TH CENTURY STUDIOS

Harrison Ford and his new dog Buck in The Call of the Wild

            A dog embarks on the adventure of a lifetime in The Call of the Wild, based on the book of the same name by Jack London and the first film released under 20^th Century Studios after the acquisition of Fox by Disney as well as the first live-action movie directed by Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon, The Croods). Similar to A Star is Born and Little Women, the book has been adapted numerous times with the most well-known version being the 1935 film starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young which was the last film to be released by Twentieth Century Pictures before merging with Fox, and now history is repeating itself again with this version. 

            I’ll be honest, I’m not familiar with any of the other film adaptations of The Call of the Wild nor have I read the book, but I’ll always remember seeing the trailer for this movie and being completely unimpressed by it, even with the star power of Harrison Ford (Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones franchise, Air Force One). It looked like your average man befriends dog and they go on an adventure type of movie, nothing really bad except for the CGI dogs and animals which look so artificial and lifeless that it took me out of the experience, Sonic the Hedgehog (Both designs) looked more realistic than this digital Scooby-Doo reject. 

            Nevertheless, I tried to keep an open mind on this movie (However, the more times I saw the trailer in theaters the harder it was to be open to it) until it was released which leads us to where we are now. So, is it possible to look past the unconvincing computer-animated dogs and get an engaging, heartfelt canine adventure movie or are the animated dogs too glaring to get any sense of enjoyment out of it? Sure. 

            While the CG animals are distracting and on par with the mountain lion from A Dog's Way Home, The Call of the Wild is a perfectly decent adventure film with some beautiful visuals (Animal animations aside), thrilling action sequences, and a sweet story about the friendship between a man and his dog. Although, I wouldn’t personally call it a movie to take your little ones to, this movie can get pretty intense at times and the marketing doesn’t really show it, it’s rated PG for a reason, parents! 

            The film is set during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush and follows a dog named Buck (motion-capture by Terry Notary-Avatar, Planet of the Apes (2011 trilogy), Avengers: Infinity War/Endgame), a large but playful St. Bernard/Scotch Collie hybrid that is suddenly kidnapped from his home at Santa Clara, California and shipped all the way to the Alaskan Yukon. Buck becomes the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team and the new leader soon after, and also befriends a man named John Thornton (Ford) who accompanies Buck on the adventure of a lifetime as he finds his true place in the world and most important of all, becomes his own master. 

            The film also stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast (2017), Legion (FX series)) as Hal, Omar Sy (The Intouchables, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Jurassic World) as Perrault, Karen Gillan (Doctor Who, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jumanji 2 and 3) as Mercedes, Bradley Whitford (Billy Madison, Get Out, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)) as Judge Miller, Colin Woodell (Unsane, The Purge (TV series), Unfriended: Dark Web) as Charles, Cara Gee (Empire of Dirt, The Expanse, The Carmilla Movie) as Françoise, and Scott MacDonald (Star Trek: Enterprise, Jack Frost (1997 horror film), Dexter) as Dawson. 

            Overall, The Call of the Wild probably won’t sit well with the family-friendly audience, but it’s enjoyable enough for older kids and adults. It’s nothing groundbreaking or something that will change your perspective on animal-centered movies, it’s just a simple, heartwarming adventure with both a sense of wonder and some legitimate drama (Though the CG dog can get in the way of the dramatic moments at times). 

            There is something I need to address about this movie and its marketing, if you’ve seen the trailers and think it looks like a cutesy light-hearted adventure with dogs you got another thing coming. This movie gets dark and has a lot of subject matter and scenes that are pretty intense and not suitable for young children such as animal cruelty, you don’t see it happen nor is there any blood but there is a scene where a man hits the dog with a club and you see their shadows and a pretty intense fight between Buck and another dog. 

            As mentioned before the CG animated dogs do not mesh well with the live-action environments and human characters and the animators have clearly given the dogs too much emotion in the faces (Something The Lion King 2019 definitely needed more of), several times during this movie I thought to myself “I am not watching dogs, I am watching a cartoon”. With that said, there are moments where the CGI works particularly the scenes that only feature the dogs and especially the fight between Buck and Spitz at night in the snow with the moon out, I’m not sure if it was because it took place in the dark or that there were no humans around, but that was one of the moments where it started to look convincing, but this movie desperately needed a real dog onset with CGI only being used sparingly and whenever it’s necessary because for the most part the CG dogs are distracting and took me out of the film. 

            Harrison Ford on the other hand I have nothing but praise for his performance as John and it must have been strange to be acting alongside a guy wearing a green motion-capture suit, but his line delivery and mannerisms are very convincing and felt like he was interacting with a dog despite being CGI. It shows that a lot of progression has occurred since the days of Han Solo talking to a CGI Jabba the Hutt in the Star Wars: Special Edition from 1997. 

            The Call of the Wild may not be perfect, but it’s a thrilling canine adventure that’s worth checking out even if the dogs look fake. Much like Disney’s 1991 film adaptation of White Fang, another movie based on a Jack London story, The Call of the Wild shows that it is possible to retain the grittiness and heavy subject matter of its source material while also bringing a sense of wonder and excitement to the story, if this sounds like your type of movie then you’ll probably like it, but if you’re looking for a fun family outing, might I suggest taking the kids to Sonic instead?