The Call of the Wild Review

2020’s version of The Call of the Wild is the latest adaptation of Jack London’s classic children’s story. This time more special effects were used to bring the story to life.

During the Klondike Gold Rush, there was a demand for big, strong dogs to work as sleigh dogs. Because demand was so high it leads to some people stealing dogs in America, including one pampered pooch, Buck, from California. When Buck’s taken to the Yukon he becomes a sleigh dog, working for masters that were kind and cruel and despite the abuses he suffers, Buck’s good spirit shines through.

The dog movie is a classic staple of American family entertainment. Homeward Bound and Old Yeller were beloved classics, and there has been a sudden rise in dog films due to the success of A Dog’s Purpose. The Call of the Wild continues in that vein. Like many of those stories, The Call of the Wild was about the people who care for or abuse the big mutt.

During the film, Buck grows from a spoiled and rebellious K9 to being something less selfish. He becomes braver and a leader. He learns to be a part of a pack and has to take on a domineering pack leader. Eventually, Buck became an expert who knows more than his human.

As well as being a dog film The Call of the Wild was an adventure film and a child-friendly Western. As the movie progresses Buck and his humans go further into the wilderness. Buck starts life in a small town in California and moves to a small Canadian town on the edges of civilisation and towards the end of the film he lives in the wilderness. The Call of the Wild was a survival story: as a sleigh dog Buck had to survive the elements like avalanches and frozen rivers. When winter turns into spring Buck becomes more animalistic, who hunted and was more comfortable with nature.

The Call of the Wild was the first live-action film by Chris Sanders. His previous films were in animation and two of them, Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, were highly regarded films. Even though The Call of the Wild was a change of median for Sanders the DNA of his previous films was presence here. Like Lilo and Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon were set in small, remote communities, and how an animal friendship improves a person’s relationship with others. Buck helps Perrault (Omar Sy), the postman, with improving his mail runs and John (Harrison Ford) through his alcoholism and grief.

The Call of the Wild also has elements of Sanders’ other animated film: The Croods. The Croods was a kid-friendly film that had lots of physical humour. The Call of the Wild also had a lot of this type of humour. The film opens with Buck running around his home and causing chaos and it continues from there. And I would be lying if I said I didn’t chuckle during some of these moments.

The big issue with the film was special effects. The filmmakers used a motion-capture performance and CGI. The result was an uncanny valley effect because the dog’s actions and facial movements were unnatural. The dogs’ faces were overly expressive, especially Buck’s, making The Call of the Wild have the opposite problem to Disney’s remake of The Lion King. Nor did it help the film that Buck didn’t actually like he was physically in the same locations as the people around him. The Call of the Wild could have avoided this problem by either using real dogs for most scenes or been 100% animated.

In films like Homeward Bound and A Dog’s Purpose, the animals were given a voice. Animals were able to talk to each other or the audience could hear their thoughts. So it was refreshing to see the dogs in The Call of the Wild being unable to speak and Sanders showed the animals having to use non-verbal communication. This was particularly effective when the film had to show Buck interact with other animals, like how his rivalry with Spitz the Husky grew.

The Call of the Wild was an earnest and well-meaning film that wanted to be a family-friendly adventure.