“Call of the Wild" has a “Lion King" Problem
Plot synopsis courtesy of IMDb.com: “A sled dog struggles for survival in the wilds of the Yukon.”
Directed by: Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch)
Written by: Michael Green (Logan)
Starring: Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), Harrison Ford (The Fugitive), Cara Gee (The Expanse)
Cinematography by: Janusz Kaminski (War Horse)
The Call of the Wild is rated PG.
Based on the classic adventure novel by Jack London, The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck, a dog who is kidnapped from his home in California. Buck is sold and shipped to the Yukon, where prospectors are madly searching for gold. He is bought by Canadien mail-carrier, Perrault (Omar Sy) and his wife Françoise (Cara Gee), who use Buck on their dogsled team as they deliver letters and packages to the various outposts and trading stations. Unaccustomed to the harsh Alaskan wilderness, Buck is forced to quickly learn how to survive on his own.
If the general plot summary tells you anything, it is that Buck (a computer-generated canine played by a performer in a motion capture suit) is the primary protagonist and keystone to the film. This shouldn’t surprise anyone who is familiar with the source material but it is difficult to relate to a non-human protagonist, especially when it is a completely digital creation. In the same way that the live-action remake of The Lion King failed to resonate with me, I struggled to emotionally connect with the first half of this film.
That is not to say that the visual effects that brought Buck to life looked cheap, but the visuals of the film overall felt imperceptible. Call of the Wild was shot in part on location in British Columbia but the visual effects sometimes fail to fully meld the virtual and actual worlds. Cut amongst sweeping wide shots of snow-covered vistas are obvious CGI backdrops that only accentuate the generic look of certain scenes. They are still gorgeous to look at, even if the computer-generated imagery sometimes seems too utopian to exist in the real world.
Throughout Buck’s time in the Yukon, he frequently crosses paths with John Thornton (Harrison Ford), an older traveler who shows up inexplicably at various outposts. While this is far from Ford’s best performance, his relationship with Buck is what finally imbues the film with substantial stakes and a tangible connection. The emotional strings the film is trying to pull are apparent but effective, and it ultimately manages to be surprisingly tender.
Clearly, Call of the Wild was made with a younger audience in mind and the story structure reflects that. It feels almost like an early cut of a much better film at times, with some odd pacing choices. I wish the film had stuck with certain storylines it abandoned and discarded some that it chose to see through to the end.
Call of the Wild was not quite what I expected it to be, and its surprises were not all bad. It seems to have captured some of what made London’s book special even if it is ultimately messy and only partially realized. It manages to stir up enough positive inspiration for adventure and rugged individualism that if I saw this as an 8-year-old I am sure it would have been my favorite movie for years to come. As an adult, it is not much more than a brief respite from the stresses of life, one that I enjoyed but will not likely revisit.
Reel Rating: 6/10
The Call of the Wild is now playing in cinemas.
