Movie Thoughts: The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon (1997)

• Released: June 22 1997
• Directed by: Peter Svatek
• Running time: 1 h 31 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A dog named Buck is taken north to work as a sled dog in during the Gold Rush era.

My Thoughts

We all know the story of The Call of the Wild, it's definitely one of the most popular and iconic xenofiction books out there. So how does this movie adapt it? Let's see.

First of all, I think that this is definitely the most faithful adaptation of the book I've come across so far. I've seen many of them, and not all of them were good or loyal to the book, but this one pretty much hits all the important characters and plot points in approximately the right order. Some moments obviously had to be cut for time, but otherwise it pretty much plays out exactly as the novel does.

The storytelling was done solidly, and the acting was much the same. I also never failed to be invested in this flick.

The dog-acting was done pretty well, and I liked how, despite him not being the book-accurate Saint Bernard-Scotch Collie mix, Buck still somewhat looks like how I imagined, though in this case he's a Leonberger. He still hits that mark of large mountain dog, though. Spitz this time is played by a German shepherd, a choice I'm not too fond of since I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a sled-dog type such as a husky in the book. Also, in the book he's pure white instead of black and dark brown. Curly is interestingly not a Newfoundland but instead some kind mutt, which I thought was an interesting choice. 

The fights between the dogs are very clearly faked (tails wagging all around), but at least it still seemed like they were fighting due to the sound effects and chaotic filming, as well as the fake blood they added. One thing I did not see coming in the movie, though, was an actual dead husky being pulled along by the sled dogs after it passes. We never see them die, but it's still kind of eerie to see the actual dead body of a dog being used for this. I just hope it was euthanized for ethical reasons and not for the sake of the movie. 

For the wolves, I'm glad they actually used canines that resembled wolves and not just huskies, which often leads to confusion due to huskies also being used as sled-dogs in Call of the Wild adaptations. I think what they got for the role of wolf in this movie was a high-content wolfdog. It looked like a wolf, but it definitely has some doggish characteristics such as its muzzle. The wolf pack that appears later on clearly has some husky/sled dog blood going on, though.

The soundtrack was decent but a bit overused and repetitive. 

I'd say this is a pretty great adaptation of the book, at least very faithful.