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Harrison Ford made me believe he was talking to Greedo and Jabba the Hutt in the early " Star Wars " films and those characters were as low-tech as Gumby and Pokey compared to the technology used to create Ford's canine co-star in "The Call of the Wild." And yet, I never bought it. Instead of getting caught up in the story, I kept wondering how they achieved the effects, like the interactions between the CGI dog with the real-life people and props around him. A lot of work clearly went into scanning a dog from every angle, and getting the muscles, fur, weight, and shape to look real. But the dog still seems synthetic compared to the animals in movies like " A Dog's Purpose " and Disney's own annual nature films (even compared to fully animated characters in the original "101 Dalmatians" and " Lady and the Tramp "). And so does the story.

The problem is less the technology, which is very impressive, than it is the uneven storyline, which zigzags from slapstick to poignance to action. The Alaskan and Canadian scenery is spectacular, the production design is exceptional, and Ford brings heart and dignity to his role, including the narration throughout the film. But the movie is uneven in tone and in its sense of its audience—it is too sad and violent for young children and too superficial for older audiences. The many-times-filmed story has here been sanitized a bit for modern audiences (less racism, for example), but it is rougher than the typical PG film, including animal abuse, and sad deaths of both canines and humans.

"The Call of the Wild" is based on the episodic Jack London classic published in 1903 about a pampered pooch who triumphs over abuse to find purpose and community, and then is increasingly drawn to the limitless world beyond civilization. Ford plays John Thornton, a grizzled loner living in the Yukon who drinks to numb the pain of the loss of his son. His grief was so devastating it caused the end of his marriage. John is surrounded by prospectors seeking gold, but all he wants is to be left alone. He somehow knows everything that has happened to Buck, even when he was nowhere near, and everything Buck is feeling, too. He has a couple of encounters with Buck before they end up together out in the wilderness.

Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd mix, lives in a northern California community in the late 19th century. He has the run of the town because he is the spoiled pet of the local judge ( Bradley Whitford ). When someone breaks off a piece of bread from a sandwich to offer it to him, Buck ignores the offer and grabs the rest of the sandwich instead. The judge's family and their servants patiently rearrange the chaos he creates throughout the house, righting the porcelain vase before it falls after Buck has moved on to knock over something else. Buck is uselessly warned by the judge not to go near the picnic table filled with delicious treats for a party. But it's not that Buck can't resist; he does not even try. Buck has never had to consider anyone but himself.

But then Buck is captured. The Klondike gold rush in the Yukon means that sled dogs are needed, and top dollar is paid. Buck is sold first to a cruel man who clubs him into submission, and then to a couple who delivers mail via dogsled, Perrault ( Omar Sy ) and Francoise ( Cara Gee ). At first, Buck has no idea how to be part of a team, but as he learns how to work with others for a purpose he begins to feel a sense of pride, accomplishment, and connection he never had before, especially after he undertakes a dangerous rescue. Caring for others helps Buck realize that the alpha dog at the head of the team is cruel and selfish, and so Buck challenges him, and takes over as leader. This episode is the highlight of the film, and could easily have filled a satisfying feature on its own.

The mail route is canceled, and in a jarring mood shift from a naturalistic style to melodrama so heightened we expect the villain to twirl his moustache, the dogs are sold to an arrogant, greedy city slicker named Hal ( Dan Stevens ). He has come to the Yukon with his sister Mercedes ( Karen Gillan ) and her husband to find riches and he will do anything for gold and suspects everyone else of being as much of a cheat as he is. They fill up their sled with a Victrola and a crate of champagne, and they think they can beat the dogs into risking their lives. Just as Buck was awakened to the idea of protecting lives, John finds that he is able to care and rescues Buck (but not the other dogs). 

Once Buck and John are in a remote cabin together, Buck begins to identify with the wild wolves more than his human companion, especially when he sees a beautiful female white wolf in the woods. Just as he learned to adapt to the sled team and to living with John, he begins to adapt to life apart from humans. Or, maybe it is not adaptation or some sort of feral devolution; it is portrayed here as an evolution for Buck to become his truest self. "He was less attentive to his master's commands than to his own instincts," the narrator tells us about Buck early in the film. But what the movie shows is that Buck was acting on his own impulses, and it was understanding his truest instincts that led to nobility and accepting duty. That is the theme that has made this an enduring story for more than a century. Perhaps the next remake will tell it better.

Nell Minow is the Contributing Editor at RogerEbert.com.

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Film credits.

The Call of the Wild (2020)

Rated PG for some violence, peril, thematic elements and mild language.

100 minutes

Harrison Ford as John Thornton

Dan Stevens as Hal

Colin Woodell as Charles

Karen Gillan as Mercedes

Omar Sy as Perreault

Raven Scott as Pastry Chef

Wes Brown as Mountie

• Chris Sanders

Writer (based on the novel)

• Jack London
• Michael Green

Cinematographer

• Janusz Kaminski
• William Hoy
• David Heinz
• John Powell

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Harrison Ford in ‘The Call of the Wild’: Film Review

The Jack London novel gets a semi-CG 1960s-nature-film makeover, and that's more fakery than it needed. But Harrison Ford rescues the journey.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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Dogs, in their rambunctious domesticated way, can lead us overly civilized humans a step or two closer to the natural world. So it’s only fitting that the best dog movies have saluted that unruly canine spirit without a lot of artificial flavoring. Hollywood’s classic dog tales, like “Old Yeller” (1957) or “Lassie Come Home” (1943), are lyrical marvels of plainspoken storytelling — primal fables of love, loss, heart, and home — and so, in its way, was the last great dog movie, “Marley & Me” (2008), which treated the title pooch of John Grogan’s memoir as a scruffy agent of canine chaos who was also, in his way, a figure of faith. That said, I’ve never had much patience for synthetic anthropomorphic dog comedies like “Beethoven” or “Benji” or “Turner & Hooch.” If I want to see a dog turned into a cartoon, I’d rather watch a cartoon.

“ The Call of the Wild ,” an adaptation of the Jack London classic that’s true to the spirit, if not always the letter, of the 1903 novel (which I admit, as a kid, I could never get through), is a dog movie that’s more concocted than it has any right to be. It was produced by 20th Century Studios, back when the company had a “Fox” in its name, but in this case there’s something almost poetically appropriate about the fact that the film is now emerging from the gates of the Disney empire. That’s because “The Call of the Wild,” directed by Chris Sanders (the co-director, with Dean DeBlois, of “How to Train Your Dragon” and “Lilo & Stitch”), is a semi-live-action film that nevertheless bounces along with the glibly overdone visual logic of an old Disney dog comedy from the 1960s.

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The film’s style, to put it bluntly, is more than a bit fake.

Early on, when we meet Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Collie mix with a keen intelligence and adorable eyes, he’s ruling the roost of his big pastoral home in Santa Clara, California, and the way the film establishes what an innocently fearsome beast he is to have the cupboards of the kitchen shake, rattle, and roll as he bounds around the house. He’s a very big dog, but all I could think was: Come on, he’s not frigging Godzilla! Why the exaggerated effect?

Because that’s the film’s way of coddling the audience, treating us as if we needed a collective pat on the head. Buck doesn’t spend a lot time at the house before being stolen by an evil canine kidnapper, who trains him with a club and sells him into service as a sled dog. It’s the 1890s, and Buck lands in the bustling town of Skagway, Alaska, gateway to the Yukon and the dreams of a thousand prospectors. As soon as he hooks up with Perrault (Omar Sy) and François (Cara Gee), who run a mail-delivery route for the U.S. government, he learns how to be part of a dog team — but here, too, his exuberance is communicated with sled-dog sequences that have the feel of stylized CG action rides, because that’s essentially what they are.

The filmmakers employ a blend of live action and digital enhancement, and I guess you could say it’s an achievement that we can’t totally tell where the one leaves off and the other begins. But what we do know is that everything we’re seeing is a shade faster, more bumptious, more animated than real life. Does that mean it’s more exciting? I’d say that makes it less exciting.

In episodes like the one where Buck takes on and defeats the leader of the pack, a snarling Siberian husky named Spitz, or rescues François after she falls under the ice, you know you aren’t seeing the events play out with the kind of transcendent naturalism that was so enthralling, 37 years ago, in the wild-hound-in-the-Arctic landmark “Never Cry Wolf.” It may come as a shock to learn that “The Call of the Wild” was shot by Janusz Kaminski, who in his work with Steven Spielberg (“Saving Private Ryan,” “Schindler’s List,” “Munich,” “The War of the Worlds”) became a maestro of gray-streaked deep-focus existential realism, qualities that would have worked marvelously in a dog drama set in the wilderness. There are visually enthralling moments in “The Call of the Wild,” including an impressive avalanche, but most of the film has an impersonal look of sun-dappled squareness. It’s a picture-postcard saga with a real-dog-who’s-also-a-CG-dog, and that may lead some to dismiss the movie as a dog.

And yet…much as I wish the filmmakers had put more trust in the organic heartbeat of their material, “The Call of the Wild” gets better as it goes along. In Skagway, Buck forms a momentary connection with John Thornton ( Harrison Ford ), a furry figure who’s been cut loose from his family by tragedy. Buck finds Thornton’s harmonica in the snow and brings it to him (they don’t see each other again for a while), but we can already tell that this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. And the way Harrison Ford plays it, it really is. Ford acts with pure soul here (he also narrates the film with his lovely storybook growl); it’s a minimalist performance, mostly very reactive, but the saintly gruffness of Ford’s thick-gray-bearded, sad-eyed presence helps to nudge Buck to life as a character. “The Call of the Wild” turns into a movie about a difficult but devoted dog and the master who’s a bit of a lonely old mutt himself. For all the wholesome cheesiness of much of the film, you’d have to have a pretty hard heart not to be touched by it.

In John Thornton, Buck, at last, has found a master who’s worthy of him. That’s why he keeps running away with bottles of whiskey — he can sense how the booze dampens Thornton’s spirit. The two move into an abandoned prospector’s cabin and even hit pay dirt, but the film gets very Zen about this. It’s all about Thornton rediscovering how to live in the moment — which, of course, is what dogs, at least in human society, are the masters of. There’s a villain who must be defeated (totally flat, boilerplate stuff), but as Buck spends more time in the wilderness and begins to fuse with it, he becomes the free creature he was meant to be. He cuts himself loose from the artificial, concocted world. You only wish that the whole movie had done the same thing.

Reviewed at AMC Lincon Square, New York, Feb. 13, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 100 MIN.

• Production: A 20th Century Studios release of a 3 Arts Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Animation production. Producer: Erwin Stoff. Executive producers: Michael Green, Diana Pokorny, Ryan Stafford.
• Crew: Director: Chris Sanders. Screenplay: Michael Green. Camera: Janusz Kaminksi. Editors: David Heinz, William Hoy. Music: John Powell.
• With: Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, Karen Gillan, Dan Stevens, Bradley Whitford, Colin Woodell, Scott MacDonald.

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The Call of the Wild Reviews

The Call of The Wild is a highly emotional adventure that delivers a message of loyalty, courage and resilience and teaches us a lesson in humanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 11, 2023

The Call of the Wild is one of those movies that suffer from bad trailers. CGI Buck isn't an animated work of art, sure, but he's far from being distracting or annoying. I laughed, I cried, and I felt entertained by all of his crazy adventures.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 24, 2023

The Call of the Wild is a G-rated, fun, family-adventure film masquerading as a PG.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 24, 2022

A picturesque cinematic journey that is ruined by the use of a CGI dog...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 22, 2022

In “The Call of the Wild” we get a story of a dog who witnesses the best and worst of humanity. Think of it as a Disney-fied “Au Hasard Balthazar” which is still giving it way too much credit.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

“The Call of the Wild” is far from groundbreaking, and much of its first half is a slog, but it ultimately becomes a very poignant picture. It’s a solid film to enjoy with the family.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 20, 2022

From the snow and the mountains to the Northern Lights, everything comes together wonderfully on-screen, making The Call of the Wild an adventure that is likely to please all members of the family.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 26, 2022

Harrison Ford is here with narration even more lifeless than the original cut of Blade Runner.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Aug 12, 2021

The Call of the Wild is compelling and delightful. It nails Buck's fun and sweet nature and there's something oddly satisfying about seeing a dog find its true place in the world and, I guess, its identity too.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 10, 2021

The message rings true as entertainment, but overall, the project's special effects make its realities feel like part of a fantasy film.

Full Review | Jul 23, 2021

Despite awkward effects and a third act that stalls the film's momentum, it is a well-rounded film that can grow to become somewhat of a classic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5 / 5 | Jun 25, 2021

It is a charming and at times moving tale of a wonderful dog and a few humans who help him figure out his place in this world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 28, 2021

The Call of the Wild is an old-fashioned action adventure created with newfangled technology.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 30, 2021

The Call of the Wild is very much a mixed bag, veering wildly from dud to delight. But there are many worse ways to spend 100 minutes.

Full Review | Dec 2, 2020

A 'salt of the Earth' type of film that shows nature's beauty and power. The characters within the film carry much spiritual and emotional weight. Some scenes may be difficult for dog lovers and younger audiences to watch at certain times too.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 15, 2020

The Call of the Wild is a bland disappointment that could have been so much more; had it been more trusting in its audience as well as adhering to the old-fashioned feel of its source material.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 23, 2020

While this stuff can get mighty sappy when it wants - the computer effects boosting Buck's performance can look a little strange - there is no denying how much fun it can be without trying all that hard.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 11, 2020

The best scenes in The Call of the Wild occur when Ford is on the big screen alongside Buck.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.0/4.0 | Aug 30, 2020

There'll be plenty of Ford-like, grizzled men claiming that the cinema has too much dust in the air.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2020

Call of the Wild is what I refer to as "an eye of the beholder" film. Its entertainment value very much depends on who is watching it. For this film critic who sees hundreds of films a year, I thought it was a silly waste of time.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2020

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‘The Call of the Wild’ Review: Man’s Best Friend? Cartoon Dog.

A defanged and updated version of Jack London’s classic novel doesn’t lack for excitement.

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By Ben Kenigsberg

“The Call of the Wild,” Jack London’s gripping 1903 novel, tells the story of a California house dog who discovers his inner wolf. The latest movie adaptation , directed by Chris Sanders, is, strictly speaking, the saga of a human performer who channels his inner pooch.

Buck, the heroic St. Bernard-Scotch shepherd mix of the book, is now a computer-generated creation. Terry Notary, the movement coach who taught actors how to mimic simians on the recent “Planet of the Apes” films , played the dog on the set before animation, in what the film bills as a “live action reference performance.” On the evidence, he was quite credible; any cries of “good boy!” that ring out from viewers will only seem creepy in retrospect.

Opposite Buck is Harrison Ford, countering the dog’s unnervingly expressive eyes with a disturbingly emotionless voice-over. Ford plays Buck’s eventual master, John Thornton, here a grieving father who has traveled to the Yukon for escape. (Buck buries his bottle of booze.) Pondering this interspecies communion — between a craggy star and a digital dog (based on a man playing a dog) — may prompt howls into an existential void. But as the basis for a family crowd-pleaser, the pairing is often irresistible.

The brutality of London’s tale has been softened, as have some of the creakier cultural attitudes. The courier François, described by London as “swarthy” and a “half-breed,” is now Françoise (Cara Gee), and the climactic attack by Native Americans never happens.

Still, this “Call of the Wild,” however defanged and updated, doesn’t lack for exciting canine brawls or tense rescues from frozen waters. It also doesn’t lack for an almost soothing corniness, as when the postal worker played by Omar Sy explains, “We don’t just carry the mail. We carry lives.”

The Call of the Wild Rated PG. Animal cruelty. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

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The Call of the Wild review – old-fashioned shaggy-dog story with bite

Disney’s adaptation of the classic Jack London adventure, starring Harrison Ford and a pack of CGI critters, is enjoyably corny

B eethoven meets Gladiator in this old-fashioned doggy adventure from Disney, which basically jumps out of the screen and starts licking your face. It’s digital in its effects but analogue in its heart.

A big, silly, sloppy, adorable pet St Bernard collie called Buck is forced to toughen up and find his inner survivor-warrior after he is effectively sold into slavery by evil dognappers in early-20th-century North America. He is put to work on a sled team in the freezing Klondike, where the gold rush has drawn thousands of desperate souls searching for riches. At first Buck has to be one of the dogs in the rear, behind a mean alpha canine called Spitz. And that joke about the view not changing unless you are lead dog originates from this very story. But Buck finds a soulmate and pal in a grizzled old prospector called Thornton – played by Harrison Ford – who has sadness in his heart and cares more for freedom than for gold. Ford also supplies the growly narration.

Screenwriter Michael Green has adapted the classic 1903 Jack London yarn. It has already had many feature adaptations – a silent in 1923 and then three talkies in 1935, 1972 and 1997, with Clark Gable, Charlton Heston and Rutger Hauer respectively playing the tough outdoorsman Thornton. The director here is Chris Sanders, who moves (partly) away from animation into the world of live action mixed with CGI animals from the uncanny valley.

Buck has been living a pampered life as the indulged pooch of a California judge (Bradley Whitford); but then criminals creep up at night and tempt Buck from the front porch where he had been banished by the judge after his latest disgrace. Their cruelties are all the more shocking because we we haven’t been able to help smiling at Buck’s naughtiness up until now.

At first, Buck finds himself put to work in a French-Canadian mail team owned by Perrault (Omar Sy) and his wife (Cara Gee), and the work is tough but not dishonourable. They are, after all, getting the letters through and doing a decent public service. But then Buck finds himself under the whip of an effete, contemptible and greedy adventurer called Hal (Dan Stevens) whose worst excesses are reined in a little by his wife, Mercedes (Karen Gillan).

Hal lusts for gold but has not the least idea of how to go about looking for it and becomes a vicious predator, worse than any dog. Then, as if to resolve these narrative extremes of good and bad, Buck’s flawed saviour Thornton enters the picture – lonely, ornery, boozy but with a heart of gold and a man who respects Buck.

Because Buck is emerging as a real hero, it’s his former indoor existence that now seems like miserable servitude, not his current situation. He has faced down the bully Spitz, endured snow and ice, shrugged off the scary bears and is evolving into a Nietzchean superdog, a demi-wolf leader of the pack, though with nobility. He is responding to the call of the wild, rather as Mowgli at the end of Disney’s The Jungle Book responds to the call of humanity and leaves his animal friends at the sound of a demure young woman singing. This is his destiny.

The result is a bit corny, a bit cheesy and you might feel self-conscious going, “Aww …” at creatures that are not real dogs but laptop fabrications. But it’s a robust and old-fashioned entertainment with some real storytelling bite.

The Call of the Wild is released in the UK on 19 February, in Australia on 20 February and in the US on 21 February.

• Action and adventure films
• Harrison Ford
• Drama films
• Family films
• Jack London
• Film adaptations
• Walt Disney Company

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'The Call Of The Wild' Review: A Heartfelt Survival Story Buried In A Mush Of Uncanny CGI

Most attempts to adapt the works of Jack London to the big screen have, more often than not, resulted in a neutered final product. Chris Sanders ' live-action/computer-animated adaptation of  The Call of the Wild falls firmly in this category.

Gone is the savage romance of London's short novel in all its untamed glory, instead, The Call of the Wild is a Disney-fied The Revenant — though it's even less a survival film than it is a schmaltzy celebration of that bond between dog and human. At parts, it feels more like A Dog's Purpose film than the gritty wilderness tale of London's original book. The funny thing is, London's book was a direct rebuke to that bond, painting the majestic call of natural instinct as something more awesome and powerful than any human bond.

The Call of the Wild opens with Harrison Ford 's weary narration of the story of Buck, an abnormally large St. Bernard/Scotch Collie mix who lives a comfortably domestic life under the ownership of the affluent Judge Miller ( Bradley Whitford ). The story unfolds through old pen drawings that reflect the newspaper illustrations of the time, showing the hoards of dogs sold to prospectors looking to get rich in northwestern Canada at the height of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. But as we fade from the yellowed newspaper illustration to real life, the uncanny computer-animated Buck barges in — a gentle giant whose every step seems to make his surroundings tremble. He's a dog too big for this small town that he was raised in, but he's even more out of his element when he is stolen and sold to freight haulers in Yukon. Confused and scared, Buck bears beatings and starvation before he is sold to a kindly French-Canadian gold courier (a delightfully cheery Omar Sy ) and his partner Françoise ( Cara Gee ). Buck finds himself becoming more attuned to the sled-dog lifestyle, gaining the trust and respect of the other sled dogs, except for the angry leader Spitz, who starts to feel threatened by the new arrival.

The film puts Buck through several more hardships — including a cruel new master played with a campy glee by Dan Stevens  (the role of the spoiled, greedy antagonist switched with  Karen Gillan 's slightly more empathetic take on the pampered socialite Mercedes) — before he lands in the arms of Ford's John Thornton, an alcoholic prospector mourning the loss of his son. The story follows the broad strokes of London's book fairly accurately, though with a more cautious touch when it comes to the violent dog fights and beatings of the source material, and giving a softer edge to its all the human characters, save for Stevens' Hal, who the film builds up to be the Big Bad of the movie.

This is Sanders' live-action directorial debut after the filmmaker cut his teeth co-directing Disney's  Lilo & Stitch and DreamWorks'  How to Train Your Dragon to critical acclaim. There is a springiness to his direction that speaks to his animation savvy — the physics of the world are a little out of step with reality, with each tumble hitting a bit harder, and each action sequence a little more fantastical. But most notably, the computer-animated dogs lean more cartoonish than the muted photorealism of Disney's  The Lion King or  The Jungle Book live-action remakes. Once you get over the uncanny valley of seeing dogs raise their eyebrows so many times, it becomes clear that this is intentional — the heightened gloss that coats the film, subduing its moments of violence and boosting its moments of sentimentality, has the fantastical feel of an animated film. It's a choice that works for a family-friendly version of  The Call of the Wild , but it had me wondering if this film would have been vastly improved by being an entirely animated film.

Why not just go all the way and make a fully animated  The Call of the Wild? It would allow the filmmakers to better depict the dog-to-dog dynamics that are so essential to Buck's arc (complete with actually expressive faces!) and allow the film to embrace the wilder, grim aspects of London's original book without veering into exploitative dog-fight territory. I'm in no way advocating for more gritty dog violence — the sequences that actually do play out in  The Call of the Wild were disturbing enough — but an animated take would have evened out the uneven mixture of tones in Sanders'  The Call of the Wild , with Buck's goofy hijinks sitting uncomfortably with the bleak tale of bestial survival.

The film is at its best in its contemplative second half, when it finally lives up to the premise of London's book: the primitive call of nature that beckons Buck away from the human world he had always known. Early in the film, that call takes an actual form, as a vision of a black wolf that appears to Buck whenever he's in a crises. That literal manifestation of the call is strange but effective, but nowhere near as powerful as the long quiet stretches when Buck wanders through the wilderness to befriend the wolves that roam the Yukon mountains, as Ford's prospector discovers an amazing trove of gold near the peaceful river cabin where he and Buck had traveled to escape civilization. Suspicions that Ford phoned it in for  The Call of the Wild will be proven false, as the actor gives a wonderfully grizzled and vulnerable performance as a mourning father who drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Though his character is barely more than a series of familiar character traits, Ford lends him a good-humored humanity that matches well with Buck's big-hearted gentle giant.

I wish  The Call of the Wild would trust its audience to give it the quiet, contemplative but unapologetically savage film that embodies the latter half of the film, instead of inserting silly hijinks and Stevens' scenery-chewing villain. Allow nature to run its course, for the story's primal ode to the wilderness to be heard. It would break through the monotony of computer-animated creatures and sweet schmaltz. But alas,  The Call of the Wild will fade into the latter category.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10

The Call Of The Wild Review

14 Feb 2020

The Call Of The Wild (2020)

Aptly enough, the dog-centric Call Of The Wild comes with a strong pedigree. Directed by Chris Sanders ( How To Train Your Dragon ), written by Michael Green ( Logan , Blade Runner 2049 ), shot by Steven Spielberg DP supremo Janusz Kaminski and starring Harrison Ford, this latest adaptation of Jack London’s celebrated 1903 novel (previous versions have starred Clark Gable, Charlton Heston, Rutger Hauer and Charlie Brown) about a dog’s foray through the Gold Rush is broad but entertaining. The USP — all the animals are digital in line with Disney’s admirable policy of not using real animals on set — bears variable results but the film is at times charming, at times stirring and mostly entertaining.

Following a ‘70’s Blue Peter style animation voiced by Ford setting up the Gold Rush, Call Of The Wild settles into that sub-genre of movies that follows a dog from owner to owner. Starting with a blink and you’ll miss it turn from Bradley Whitford as a wealthy judge as the muscular mutt causes havoc in a grand house, Buck (performed by movement specialist Terry Notary) moves from a sledding delivery team lead by Perrault (Sy) to dastardly dandy Hal (an overzealous Dan Stevens in a Tartan suit and wax ‘tache) to outdoorsman John Thornton (Ford), who, having left his wife after the death of their son, is a lost soul who could do with Buck’s revitalising presence

What follows is standard but well done wilderness adventure fare (falling through ice — check; avalanches — check; rough rivers — check), often beautiful thanks to Kaminski’s full fat lensing, eschewing the de-saturated look of much of his work with Spielberg. Flitting between obviously animated to completely photo-real animals, the digital menagerie has pros and cons; Buck’s performance is so attenuated — he has the range of Joaquin Phoenix and the comic timing of Phoebe Waller Bridge — that it works against you believing he is a real dog — at one point during a fight for supremacy over the sledding squad, Buck does a WWE move on rival wolf Spitz. But the upside is that Sanders can design amped up dynamic shots — the sledding sequences are exhilarating — that, combined with John Powell’s stirring score, give the film confidence and verve.

Die-hard fans of London’s novel will find the savagery and primitivism AWOL. But there’s a lot to like here from a warm relaxed Omar Sy to comedic beats that actually land and that sense of assurance being in safe filmmaking hands. It’s also worth it to see Harrison Ford do a harmonica duet with a lovable shaggy co-pilot. It’s a shame he never did the same with Chewie.

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• DVD & Streaming

The Call of the Wild (2020)

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Kids

Content Caution

In Theaters

• February 21, 2020
• Harrison Ford as John Thornton; Omar Sy as Perrault; Cara Gee as Françoise; Dan Stevens as Hal; Karen Gillan as Mercedes; Bradley Whitford as Judge Miller

Home Release Date

• March 27, 2020
• Chris Sanders

Distributor

• 20th Century Studios

Movie Review

As dogs’ lives go, Buck’s was pretty good.

Sure, the big ol’ St. Bernard had a penchant for getting into trouble. But his owner, Judge Miller, always seemed to smooth things over for the rambuncious pooch.

But when Buck devours a birthday party meal, he finds himself in the proverbial doghouse: Maybe a night outside is the tough love Buck needs. When the Millers get up the next morning, however, Buck is gone. That’s because Buck’s been dognapped, and he’s locked in a crate on a train headed north.

Way north.  

It’s the late 1890s, and the great Klondike Gold Rush is luring adventures and treasure hunters alike to the wilds of the Yukon territory and neighboring Alaska. One problem: They don’t have enough dogs to pull sleds into the wilderness in search of that fortune.

Which is exactly why Buck’s in a box headed to “the edge of nowhere”: Scagway, Alaska.

Buck is soon purchased by a mail carrier named Perrault. He and his wife, Françoise, shuttle missives across Alaska. And they need a new dog. Buck chafes at his chilly new life at first. Soon, though, he’s exulting in his newfound strength and his emerging role as a leader of his pack. Life is hard now, for sure, but it’s still very good to Buck.

But when Perrault’s mail route is suddenly terminated due to the arrival of the telegraph, poor Buck and his pack find themselves on the cruel auction block again. His new master, Hal, is as different from Perrault as he could be.

Hal, we see, is the worst kind of master: a rich man who wants to get richer. He’s arrived in Alaska with his sister, Mercedes, in tow. Driven by his greed, Hal knows nothing of compassion—or common sense for that matter—pushing his new sled dog team past their limits.  

Fortunately, a kind recluse named John Thornton has taken notice of Buck—as well as the shoddy character of the canine’s new master. John follows Hal and Mercedes into the wilderness, knowing it’s only a matter of time before he runs the dogs too hard and leads them all to a tragic end.

John eventually rescues Buck from Hal’s clutches (igniting the man’s rage in the process), then brings Buck home to nurse him back to health. John’s a good man, but a broken one. He’s immobilized by grief over the death of his young son years before, an event that cratered his marriage as well. Alcohol numbs his pain, but it can’t cure it (a truth Buck seems to understand better than John himself.)

As Buck grows in strength, John begins to dream again: Perhaps he and Buck could take the trip into the wilds John had hoped to take with his son. Perhaps he can find the peace that’s so eluded him.

And so John Thornton and his dog Buck head into the wilderness, both of them answering the call of the wild.  

Positive Elements

Three of Buck’s masters treat him kindly and are generous to the dog in different ways. Judge Miller loves Buck deeply but has a hard time disciplining the impulsive pooch. Perrault, in contrast, teaches Buck how to work hard and helps him move toward a deeper sense of purpose. John Thornton, meanwhile, rescues and rehabilitates Buck, and the two then plunge into the Alaskan wilderness together as something akin to equals, each helping the other.

Buck is a bighearted, loyal dog. Not only does he work hard for Perrault, he rescues Perrault’s wife, Françoise, from certain death when she plunges through the ice. He also looks out for the needs of weaker and older dogs on Perrault’s sled team.

John, for his part, gives Buck a long leash. The two of them journey deep into the Alaskan wilderness together, eventually settling in an abandoned cabin. Buck feels a growing pull toward the wilderness, the titular “call of the wild,” and John lets the dog roam and explore as he wants.

John also works to come to terms with his grief. At one point, he writes a letter to his estranged wife (with whom, it’s suggested, he hasn’t had contact in years). He acknowledges his weakness and regret for having abandoned her in the wake of their son’s death.

Perrault, for his part, is deeply committed to his work as a mailman. He often talks to Buck, and at one point, he says, “You see Buck, we don’t carry mail. We carry lives. We carry hope. We carry love.”

Spiritual Elements

Buck repeatedly sees a vision of a huge black wolf with red eyes. Despite that ephemeral animal’s ominous appearance, the creature functions as a benevolent “spirit guide” of sorts for the dog, encouraging Buck in desperate moments and leading the dog (and his owner) to safety at other key junctures.

The spirit wolf’s presence seems to foreshadow Buck’s own journey toward gradually embracing the wild part of his dog identity. The movie suggests that the real theme of Buck’s life is his movement from being a dog who’s owned and controlled by men to becoming his own master. John seems to understand that truth as well, telling Buck, “Your ancestors used to roam here.”

John also muses philosophically about the wilds they sled through, saying, “We come and go, don’t we? This is always here.” John talks of how their shared journey into the wilderness has been one of healing for him.

Perrault’s relationship with Buck seems to inspire the arctic postman in an almost spiritual way, too. Françoise tells the dog, “I’ve never seen him believe in anything as much as he believes in you.”

In Scagway, a fiery female preacher with a Bible chastises ne’er-do-wells in the name of “our Lord.”

Sexual Content

We see John shirtless as he bathes in a river.

Violent Content

Buck is initially quite timid, terrified of a thunderstorm, for instance. After he’s taken, a cruel handler beats him with a baton. The film’s narrator says of that moment in Buck’s story, “He was beaten, but he was not broken.”

Buck’s natural affection for and leadership of the other dogs in Perrault’s pack earns the ire of the team’s longtime leader, a husky named Spitz. This dog is arrogant and cruel. He kills a rabbit that Buck had let live; he bares his teeth and growls at other dogs in the pack. It’s clear that he’s a bullying leader who feels entitled to his place of privilege. Eventually, Buck and Spitz tangle, biting, scratching and attacking each other. It looks as if Spitz has gotten he best of Buck, but the opposite is in fact true.

Led by the spirit wolf, Buck guides Perrault, Françoise and the pack to safety through an ice tunnel beneath a frozen waterfall during an avalanche. Speaking of waterfalls, Buck also rescues a wolf who’s about to plunge over one, earning the acceptance of the pack he’s occasionally been running with.

A brief saloon scuffle involves traded punches; we learn that one participant in the fight is armed with a gun, which is against the saloon’s rules.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Remember the angry rich guy, Hal? He eventually finds John in the wilderness, mortally shooting him. John slowly bleeds to death (we see blood on his hands) with Buck staying right with him. Though it’s a sad scene, John is at peace with dying. John’s satisfied that he’s brought Buck into the wilderness where he can fully embrace the call of the wild. Elsewhere in this scene, Hal is trapped in a burning cabin and, it’s suggested, dies there as well.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear one use each of “h—” and “d–mit,” as well as an unfinished exclamation “son of a …”

Drug and Alcohol Content

John has an obvious drinking problem. He imbibes whiskey to numb his emotional pain. We see him asleep with a bottle at his feet and a glass at hand.

Buck, however, doesn’t think much of John’s drinking. The wise dog seems to know that it’s killing John, and so the dog dumps out a bottle of liquor at one point. John’s not happy, of course, but that “intervention” marks an important turning point for John, who begins to dream of bigger things instead of just dousing his grief with alcohol.

Later on, John hides a bottle from Buck in the rafters of a cabin so that the dog won’t dump it, too. At that point, though, John has quit drinking compulsively.

We see patrons drinking at a saloon. Some are obviously inebriated. Among Mercedes and Hal’s possessions packed onto their sled is a huge case of champagne.

Other Negative Elements

Buck is badly mistreated on his journey to Alaska, being deprived of food and water for most of the trip.

Dog movies take direct aim at our hearts. Whether it’s Old Yeller or Lassie, Benji or Marley, Hachi or Hooch or Beethoven or Togo, lovable canines invite audiences to enter into some doggone good stories. (Though you’ll often need a case o’ Kleenex by the time credits roll. I’m looking at you, Old Yeller and Benji. And Marley. And Hachi.)

And so it is here. Well, sort of.

Yes, Buck’s adorable, friendly nature is simply irresistable. Yes, his perilous exploits plunging through Alaskan snow are a sight to see. But there’s one big difference here: Buck, you see, is a CGI dog . (As are his furry friends and enemies). At times, Buck’s digitized DNA is glaringly obvious and slightly offputting.

That said, Jack London’s classic 19th-century dog story retains its resonance in the 21st century. Digital or not, Buck’s a good dog, the kind we root for as he goes up against various obstacles, setbacks and enemies. That mild peril, combined with some violence between humans, is among the main issues parents will need to navigate here. Buck’s spirit wolf guide is another, as it might be especially frightening to very young or sensitive viewers. We also hear a smattering of profanity, too, and witness John’s drinking problem (which Buck humorously “confronts”).

But those issues probably won’t be deal killers for most families of older tweens on up. And Harrison Ford’s craggy turn as a grieving old recluse lends this digi-doggy tale a satisfying shot of emotional heft.

The Call of the Wild may not be the best dog movie you’ve ever seen. But this classic man-and-dog adventure still has something to offer families looking for an old-fashioned, Disney-style escape.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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Rotten Tomatoes' 99%-Rated "Best Movie Of All Time" Is The Ultimate Insult To Its Creator

Pixar finally has its toy story replacement franchise after 13 years of searching, 10 complicated movies that people pretend to understand (but really don't).

Disney's been the go-to source for heartstring-tugging family movies about dogs since the '90s (or, really, as far back as Old Yeller in 1957), so it's kind of surprising The Call of the Wild didn't originate there. The latest adaptation of Jack London's classic adventure novel, the film was developed under Fox - now 20th Century Studios - and marks the live-action debut for director Chris Sanders of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon fame. Sanders is firmly in his wheelhouse retelling this story about a four-legged creature and the relationships they form with their bipedal companions, even if his filmmaking sensibilities remain a better fit for animation. Though it lacks the grit and gristle of the best London adaptations, The Call of the Wild is elevated by Harrison Ford and a very good CGI doggo.

Set around the time of the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1800s, the story follows Buck, a massive St. Bernard/Scotch Collie dog who leads a pampered life in Santa Clara, California, under the eyes of his master Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford). One night, however, Buck is tricked and stolen from his home, only to end up being sold to freight haulers in the Yukon. Once there, he's quickly purchased by Perrault (Omar Sy), a kindly mail delivery man who trains him to become part of his dog sled team. Along the way, Buck crosses paths with and befriends John Thornton (Ford), a grizzled loner wandering the wilderness in the wake of a personal loss. But when the pair set off on a journey into an unexplored region of the Yukon together, Buck is increasingly pulled away from the world of human masters and finds himself yearning to live freely in the wild.

Related: Every Disney Movie Coming in 2020

Easily the most eyebrow-raising thing about The Call of the Wild heading into its release, Buck is also its most captivating element. Realized through a combination of photorealistic computer animation and a stand-in performance by movement coach and motion-capture extraordinaire Terry Notary, the character is highly expressive, emotive, and ultimately lovable, assuming you can get past the initial uncanny valley aspect. The decision to render Buck in this fashion makes more sense than not; in addition to being larger than life (cartoonishly so, in certain scenes) in his physicality, he's constantly being put in dangerous situations or having to fight to survive, in a way that would've been harder to manage switching back and forth between a real dog and a CGI one. Even knowing he's a digital creation, you feel for Buck when he's abused, neglected, or threatened, thanks to Notary and the visual effects team's fine work.

But as comfortable as Sanders seems to be bringing Buck to convincing life, he struggles when it comes to  The Call of the Wild 's non-CGI components. The movie looks and feels a lot like an animated film redone shot for shot in live-action, much in the same way many of Disney's live-action remakes of their animated features have. At times this works, allowing Sanders and his cinematographer Janusz Kamiński to really present this story from Buck's perspective; at other times, it becomes obvious The Call of the Wild was primarily shot on sound stages with green screen backdrops and not on-location. Still, the movie has the same awe and respect for nature as London's work famously did, and Kamiński's masterful usage of silhouettes and light beams (as he's used on all of Steven Spielberg's films since Schindler's List ) makes the Yukon backdrop come alive visually in a way it wouldn't have otherwise.

The adapted script by Michael Green ( Murder on the Orient Express ) is similarly uneven in the way it gives Buck a perfectly sturdy coming of age arc (here, reframed as Buck learning to "be his own master"), yet avoids digging any deeper into its source material's themes or ideas. That goes double for The Call of the Wild 's human characters, which range from simple yet engaging (Perrault and his associate Francoise, played by Cara Gee) to a one-note stereotype in the case of Dan Stevens as Hal (a cruel and uppity prospector), but through no fault of the actual actors. Fortunately, Ford does the bulk of the heavy lifting on the human side, lending real pathos to Thornton's tragic backstory and serving as the movie's appropriately gruff-voiced narrator. He even has decent chemistry with Buck, despite not having a flesh-and-blood dog to interact with during shooting.

It almost makes sense The Call of the Wild eventually found its way under Disney's umbrella; it fits into the same category of adaptations that soften the darker aspects of the classic stories that inspired them (without dropping them entirely) and give their rougher texture a fresh coat of gentler CGI-heavy paint, yet make for otherwise respectable family-friendly entertainment, like most of their recent live-action films. The Call of the Wild will surely have a harder time at the box office without the built-in nostalgia Disney's remakes of their animated features come with, but for those game for an old-fashioned adventure in the wilderness, the movie should do the trick. And if Buck isn't always convincing as a real-life dog, he's still proof it's better to make a photorealistic CGI critter who's overly expressive (and perhaps even a little stylized) than one that's uncomfortably dead-eyed, if truer to real life.

NEXT: Watch The Call of the Wild Trailer

The Call of the Wild  is now playing in U.S. theaters. It is 105 minutes long and is rated PG for some violence, peril, thematic elements and mild language.

Key Release Dates

The call of the wild, our rating:.

• Movie Reviews
• 3 star movies

The Call of the Wild (2020) Review

A tamer call.

The Call of the Wild

As a great American classic novel, The Call of the Wild has had its fair share of adaptations. None of them really got as big as say, a 20th Century production starring Harrison Ford , but they showed up.

That’s the thing about Call of the Wild: it’s tough to adapt due to the harrowing nature of some of its content, but director Chris Sanders and the folks at 20th Century decided to go with a distinctly family-friendly route this time around, which both helps and hurts its integrity.

Gruff Harrison Ford voiceovers overtly explaining the themes of the story, a CGI dog that ensures the stunts are easy to film, and a sanitized look at a few of the more impactful moments in the book (including a fight where Buck, the star dog of the film, merely beats a fellow dog in a skirmish and lets him walk away instead of murdering him): those are the sort of beats that 2020’s Call of the Wild hits. It’s strange, though, because, with every scene where Buck is goofily chasing a rabbit much to the chagrin of his domestic owners at the start, there’s an earnest, emotional crescendo alongside an absolutely breathtaking score.

Call of the Wild is full of conflicting tonal issues. The CGI dog was done deliberately to give the film a more family-friendly veneer, but it detracts from some of the realism, in a literal sense, when the stakes are high. The CGI sets the stage for a larger-than-life, fiction feel to the proceedings but becomes a bit self-indulgent when practically every animal is done in that same style.

As Buck is dognapped and whisked away to Alaska to slowly answer the call of the wild, the CGI figure occasionally becomes more emotive and relatable through the events of the narrative. You root for Buck in a sense, despite the fact that he looks like a cartoon character, acted behind-the-scenes by a motion capture performer. Not having the animals talk is easily the strongest creative decision, as the scenes where they interact with one another with no spoken dialogue are among the most interesting in the film.

From the human perspective, Chris Sanders elicits some of the most human performances I’ve seen in a family film in some time. Harrison Ford is always reliable as a depressed old man (and has been for the past decade), but Omar Sy upstages him as Buck’s first new owner in the Alaskan tundra. Once that score kicks in and an emotional moment hits: Sy’s earnestness further sells it and ultimately brought me back into the film. Ford carries the rest, juxtaposed to an odd mustache-twirling turn by Dan Stevens as the film’s Looney Tunes-villain. Temper your expectations for Call of the Wild. If you’re expecting a sweeping epic that stays completely true to Jack London’s original story, you’re going to be disappointed. But the alterations fit the frame of a fine family film, and the heart is still very much intact. With Togo in the rearview window, it’s a great time for dog movies.

Final Thoughts

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‘The Call of the Wild’ review: Bring the kids to this defanged dog tale, with a well-cast Harrison Ford

Movie review.

“The Call of the Wild” is rated PG. That is important.

It’s important because as everyone familiar with Jack London’s classic 1903 novel knows, its hero dog Buck is clubbed, whipped and later ripped in a vicious dogfight in the early sections of the book. That would rate at least a PG-13, if not a hard R, if it were ever faithfully conveyed to the big screen.

What the makers of this latest “Call” (there have been several earlier adaptations dating back to a 1923 silent version) have therefore done is to file off the rough edges. No traumatic beatings. No blood. It’s family-friendly now. Bring the kids.

Unlike many of those other iterations, this one tracks the London source material with a reasonable degree of fidelity.

As in the novel, Buck is a big, friendly St. Bernard-Scotch Collie mix owned by a rich California judge (Bradley Whitford) who is dognapped by a treacherous member of the household staff, sold, clubbed into submission and then shanghaied north to the Klondike gold fields in the 1890s. The beating scene is fleetingly brief and staged in silhouette. Trauma defanged.

He’s put in harness and becomes the member of a dogsled team hauling mail to prospectors drawn to the frigid fastness of the Yukon in the hunt for the yellow stuff.

“He was beaten, but he was not broken,” intones a grizzled Harrison Ford, well-cast in the role of the tale’s main human, sourdough John Thornton.

In fact, Buck thrives, thanks to kindly treatment by a pair of mushers played by Omar Sy and Cara Gee. Strong and smart (and did I mention big? 140 pounds), he quickly becomes an alpha dog and the leader of the team.

Thornton enters the picture early when he first sees Buck fresh off the boat in Skagway, and much later when he intervenes to rescue the dog from an abusive owner after the Sy and Gee characters depart the picture.

Thornton narrates the story in voice-over, revealing himself to be a man seeking solitude in the far north following the death of his son and the collapse of his marriage. Ford, muted and reflective, is very effective conveying Thornton’s heartbreak.

He observes that Buck is a very special animal, and later, when he takes ownership of him, senses the dog, now in a land of wolves, is feeling primordial stirrings of kinship with the feral creatures. London had a term for those feelings: the call of the wild.

Along with that PG, another term is central to this picture: CG. Buck is a computer-generated animal, patterned after a St. Bernard/Shepherd mix  found by director Chris Sanders’ wife, Jessica. Buck’s  motions and expressions were generated by an actor named Terry Notary, who was then subbed out and replaced via motion-capture technology.

With expressive eyes and powerful movements, Buck is incredibly lifelike. The filmmakers do go overboard at times in scenes showing him hiding liquor bottles from the despairing Thornton or going full Lassie when he rescues a character from drowning in an icy river.

All other dogs in the picture are computer creations as is the wintry scenery, including the shimmering Northern Lights. The movie was filmed in California, but you’d never know it.

The essence of the London story is retained, with stouthearted Buck being annealed by adversity, overcoming brutality, confusion and loneliness and then responding to the kindness of Thornton to become the leader of the pack.

And all that is accomplished with a soft touch. What we have here is the call of the mild.

★★★ “The Call of the Wild,”  with Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, Dan Stevens, Bradley Whitford. Directed by Chris Sanders, from a screenplay by Michael Green. 100 minutes. Rated PG for some violence, peril, thematic elements and mild language. Opens Feb. 21 at multiple theaters.

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‘Call of the Wild’ Review: Harrison Ford’s Digital-Dog Day Afternoon

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Maybe it’s a sign of times that Harrison Ford is sharing a screen with a digital dog. Why use a real canine when a computer can make certain that a pixelated pup performs according to SAG rules and not his actual nature? You can hear the voices of future filmmakers, echoing throughout the Hollywood Hills: “Get more feeling into the mutt’s eyes.” “Make him run faster than a real dog can!” That’s the case in The Call of the Wild, the umpteenth screen version of Jack London’s classic 1903 adventure novel about a St. Bernard/Scotch Collie named Buck who finds his true heart in helping grizzled, hard-drinking prospector John Thornton (Ford) search for gold in the Yukon. Luckily, Ford is at his droll, grumpy-old-man best, so he can do his own acting without having his emotions computer generated. At least for now.

The Call of the Wild, rated a cozy PG, misses the edgy darkness of London’s tale and is too cute by half. But it fulfills its promise as harmless entertainment — The Call of the Mild is more apt title. From the comic early scenes, in which the untrained Buck runs amok at the plush California ranch owned by a sweetly patient Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford), the film proceeds to the only semi-scary dog-napping that lands Buck in Alaska as a sled dog who resists the whip of servitude. Obedience needs to be beaten into Buck (ouch!) until he learns the game from a kindly French-Canadian couple, played by Omar Sy and Cara Gee, who run a dog-driven, mail-delivery service. But the use of the telegraph soon makes sled-teams obsolete, putting Buck out of business until  he is sold to Mercedes (Karen Gillan) and her villainous brother Hal (Dan Stevens), a cruel idiot who tries to force Buck’s team to cross a frozen river that’s quickly melting.

You get the drill. Working from a merely serviceable script by Martin Green, animation director Chris Sanders makes his live-action debut in a film that too often feels like a cartoon in the manner of his previous films Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods. It’s understandable that you wouldn’t want to put an actual dog in scenes that require a dangerous underwater rescue and an escape from a life-crushing avalanche. But something is missing here. Lassie, Rin Tin-Tin and Beethoven would have all been pink-slipped if they tried to star in movies today. Imagine a digital French Mastiff slobbering all over Tom Hanks in Turner& Hooch. It just wouldn’t be the same.

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And it isn’t. The great cinematographer Janusz Kaminski ( Schindler’s List ), shooting on sets in Los Angeles, works hard to give the film an epic, lost-in-the 1890’s Klondike scope. He succeeds more often than the computers do at bringing all the dogs to life, as well as a Timberland wolf who becomes Buck’s romantic interest. The illusion works best when it comes down to the interaction of one man and one dog. Ford’s natural warmth, humor and star charisma help audiences suspend disbelief, as does the talent of Terry Notary, the motion-capture artist and former Cirque du Soleil performer, who stood in for Buck on set. Notary was brilliant as the ape man who went batshit at a fancy museum party in Ruben Ostlund’s The Square in 2017. And he gives everything he’s got here as he and Ford interact as costars, wrestling, battling and bonding (Thornton even rubs Buck’s belly). It’s a neat party trick.

But the feeling persists that a real dog could have closed the emotional gap that technology puts between illusion and reality (last year’s photorealistic take on The Lion King had the same distancing problem). Digital slight-of-hand makes a poor substitute for all things bright and beautiful. Faking it is no answer to Jack London’s call of the wild — or an audience’s call for astonishment.

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Call of the wild, common sense media reviewers.

Dog-centric adventure drama is age-appropriate but bland.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

A young girl sheds her preconceived notions about

The main character lies at one point, but there ar

Two neighbor characters are menacing; one man flas

Motherlovin' is as envelope-pushing as it gets.

Parents need to know that this sweet but predictable film inspired by Jack London's classic novel is squeaky clean -- there's no nudity, drinking, smoking, or swearing. And the message, while conventional, is positive: Sometimes what you want may not be what you need. That said, there are a few scenes/characters --…

Positive Messages

A young girl sheds her preconceived notions about rural life and begins to enjoy her environment.

Positive Role Models

The main character lies at one point, but there are consequences, and she learns a lesson. A grandfather forges a strong relationship with his granddaughter (though he also gets upset with her). The neighbors are bullies, but it's clear that their behavior isn't meant to be emulated.

Violence & Scariness

Two neighbor characters are menacing; one man flashes a rifle.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this sweet but predictable film inspired by Jack London's classic novel is squeaky clean -- there's no nudity, drinking, smoking, or swearing. And the message, while conventional, is positive: Sometimes what you want may not be what you need. That said, there are a few scenes/characters -- bullying neighbors, a grandfather getting upset with his granddaughter -- that make the tone a little too grown-up for the youngest viewers. It's also worth noting that the film is presented in 3-D in some locations, which could make some of the images more intense for little kids. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

Inspired by Jack London's classic tale, CALL OF THE WILD finds young Ryan Hale (Ariel Gade) shedding her big-city ways while visiting her grandfather ( Christopher Lloyd ) in Montana. When she finds a wild dog at death's door, it brings out her inner nursemaid, and she devotes herself to healing the animal, which she names Buck. Ryan decides to enter Buck as lead dog in an upcoming sledding race, and all goes well until a local bully and his father start making noise about the dog not being Ryan's to keep. Even her grandfather, who reads the London novel to her out loud as motivation, begins to doubt his decision to support Ryan when she lies about a practice that went awry and Buck runs away. Is Buck ready to be tamed?

Is It Any Good?

CALL OF THE WILD means well, but that's not enough to make it compelling. Problem number one: lackluster dialogue. "It's Tracy," announces one character as his crush approaches. "She's the prettiest girl in town." (Who talks like that?) Number two: cheesy foreshadowing. Every time a particularly enigmatic local shows up onscreen, the wind whistles, solemn music trills, and the camerawork slows. (Ah, he must be a mystic!) Number three: a storyline that, put plainly, hits all the expected marks without much distinction (it screens like an after-school special). Plus, the race that everyone anticipates so hotly is stripped of any excitement.

But the movie tries -- does it ever! -- and you can't fault its earnestness. It means well, and the landscape looks pretty, too. With a feel-good story like this, it's best to shoot straight for the heart.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what Ryan learns over the course of the movie. Do others learn something from her as well? Why does the wolf dog tug at her heart?

Families can also discuss the appeal of nature/animal movies. How does this one compare to others you've seen? And if you've read the book, how does it stack up to that?

Movie Details

• In theaters : June 12, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : December 22, 2009
• Cast : Ariel Gade , Christopher Lloyd , Wes Studi
• Director : Richard Gabai
• Inclusion Information : Indigenous actors
• Studio : Vivendi
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Topics : Adventures , Book Characters
• Run time : 86 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : some violence, language, thematic material, and brief smoking
• Last updated : January 22, 2024

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• $1,000,000 (estimated)

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