A Reel Review: THE CALL OF THE WILD

Jack London’s famed 1903 novel The Call of the Wild has now been adapted for the big and small screen 11 times. It is an adventure well-suited for the screen, with strong themes of survival, friendship, and personal quests for one’s self set in the backdrop of the magnificent wilderness. It is a timeless story, although some versions do reflect the era they were made in. The newest take, directed by Chris Sanders, keeps the original time period but certainly feels like an action film made in 2020. 

Buck, a large, domesticated St. Bernard, is stolen from his California home and sold to a dog-sled team in Yukon. There, he crosses paths with John Thornton (Harrison Ford), who is grieving the loss of his son. 

The first half of THE CALL OF THE WILD is episodic in nature, with Buck going from one place to another encountering friends and adversaries. As a captive he learns the pain of the club, and as a sled-dog he goes from a clumsy newcomer to the leader of the team. The film takes a while to get Buck and John together, but once they do find each other the film really finds a groove; with the two of them being lost in the woods in one sense or another. 

All the themes of the novel are at work here, and even though the script doesn’t dig too deep, the film still hits the emotional beats. There are plenty of laughs to be had and tears to be shed, and the interactions Buck has with John and others does manage to pull us in, and their personal journeys to find their place in the world parallel each nicely.

A lot has been said of the usage of a fully computer-generated (CG) dog to get Buck on the screen. The approach makes sense, as Buck, along with his fellow CG dogs, CG bears, CG wolves, CG rabbits, and CG mice…are asked to do things that would be impossible to do on-set with real animals. The issue is that CG Buck is not convincing in the least, with the rendering looking cartoony and not realistic at all. Even though Buck emotes very well with his eyes and face, he and his follow CG critters stick out like a sore thumb. What’s worse is that the film does not spend nearly enough time outdoors, with most of the environments done via green-screen. The movie looks very artificial, which takes away from the idea the “wild” is such a special place.  

Director Chris Sanders keeps the pacing brisk, the humor well-timed, and the emotional bits never overbearing. Action sequences involving a dog-fight and others with the sled team are executed nicely. 

Acting is excellent, with Harrison Ford looking inspired and having fun. He does a convincing job of acting against a dog that wasn’t really there on set (it was done with motion-capture), and his deeper bits when he goes into mourning are perfect. The rest of the cast is very good; Omar Sy, Karen Gillan, Bradley Whitford, Colin Woodell, and Cara Gee. Dan Stevens from DOWNTON ABBEY fame comes in as a bad guy, and looks and sounds like an adversary more suited to a Dudley Do-Right cartoon. 

At a brisk 100 minutes and a breezy, light script…THE CALL OF THE WILD makes for pleasant viewing that kids would love although adults would be looking for a little more. It has a great performance by Ford and some very well-done sequences, but is somewhat derailed by not only the overabundance of CG, but the lousy visual effects as well. This is one version that is firmly tied to the era that it is made in, which detracts from the timelessness the story needs. 

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it