Call of the Wild (2020)

Director Chris Sanders is probably most famous for playing Stitch opposite Lilo. He's a prolific animation director (although I'm not really a fan of his work outside of Lilo and Stitch) which made him well suited for this adaptation of the classic novel about a dog whose performance is all CGI. In fact so much of the movie is CGI. The film supposedly set in the Yukon was shot in California making a need for much special effects just to generate all the environments. In many ways The Call of the Wild is an animated movie.

This has its pros and cons. Some of the scenes are absolutely beautiful and the dogs are able to interact with personified expressions and perform incredible stunts, none of which would be possible with real locations and real animals. But it also gives the entire film an air of non-reality. It rarely feels authentic. Yes the effects are remarkable. The Call of the Wild shows us just how far visual effects have come. But there is no hiding the fact that Buck is not real. Very little of the film is real.

There is something incredibly ironic about a story like this, whose main theme is about and animal escaping their domestication and returning to natural, "wild" existence, which is constructed so meticulously with CGI. The film is the opposite of naturalistic. The film tones down some of this theme to play less as a comment on humanity's attempts to control the natural world and more on a romanticized notion of "freedom." The Call of the Wild here becomes more of a simple adventure story, a buddy movie, a sentimental tale. In that it works, but perhaps it looses something in toning down the novel's main purpose.

The film takes some liberties with the novel's story but generally follows the narrative. Perhaps it softens some of the animal cruelty depicted in the book as well as some of the colonialist/racist assumptions, while still telling a harrowing tale of adventure from a dog's point of view. The film, like the novel, feels a bit episodic but the story of the singular dog, his strength and bravery is palpable. It will please crowds with its shiny effects and charming story. But it does play it a bit safe. It also tells the story fairly quickly. Sometimes it uses Harrison Ford's narration to give us plot points and character developments it doesn't have time to show us.

Harrison Ford still has all the charisma he needs to be a leading man. At 77 he shows us he can still pull off a shirtless scene as he bathes in a cold river.

Call of the Wild 
Starring: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, Karen Gillan, Bradley Witford
Director: Chris Sanders
Writer: Michael Green