- Released: 21 February 2020
- Directed by: Chris Sanders
- Running time: 1 h 40 min
- Rating 4/5
Synopsis
The dog Buck is taken from his comfortable home in California to the Yukon in order to become a sled dog during the Gold Rush.
My Thoughts
I was really excited when this one was first announced. I'm a sucker for Jack London canine book adaptations. So when I saw that a modern take on The Call of the Wild was coming out in 2020, needless to say I got hyped!
The first thing you'll probably notice in this movie, even if you've only seen brief clips of it, is that all of the animals are CGI. Yes, no live action animals, even dogs. We basically have Harrison Ford taking to a nonexistent dog for this entire thing. How do I like this choice?
Part of me likes it. I definitely think that using more CGI to prevent the excessive use of wild animals in film and mistreatment of any animals for stunts/tricks is a good thing. But to completely CGI it, I feel that that may be over doing things. Buck's design in this film is literally based on a real dog named Buckley and there's plenty of more "at peace" moments where they could've used any real animal. It'd just require them to sit or do simple tricks. So, yeah, CGI to prevent animal exploitation good, but there's also such a thing as overdoing things.
One thing I do like about this movie aside from the acting and backstory to Thornton is the design for Buck. I think this is the first adaptation of the film where he's actually portrayed as the dog breed mix he is in the book. There, he's a Scotch shepherd-Saint Bernard mix. Although he's describing as looking like a huge wolf in the book (don't ask me how mixing two un-wolflike dogs creates a wolf), his appearance is much closer to what an actual mutt like this would look like. All his teammates, although none of them sans Spitz are huskies, also look good and all unique. I just wish they got more screen time to show off their personalities.
Spitz...is once more not portrayed as a white dog, and they literally had no excuse here as he's fully CGI like every other animal. I do like the alternative they went for, though, a black-and-white husky with a piercing blue gaze and a notched ear. It does set him apart from the rest of the team and Buck. That said, he definitely is too big to be a husky, he's portrayed as closer to a Malamute in size compared to Buck (who is...huge) despite him clearly being a husky.
The wolves also look great. While I'm not a fan of setting apart Buck's mate by being white (females must have the softer and paler colors, of course) and how incredibly small they are compared to Buck (timber wolves are huge), I do like how the wolves in general look. They are also a bit less expressive than Buck, which fits because dogs are usually more expressive in the face than wolves (we quite literally bred them that way).
That said, some of Buck's expressions do look a bit off. His eyes are a bit too human-like, with the white constantly showing. In real dogs, the eye-whites showing is not a good thing, it's called "whale eye" and is a sign of stress. So whenever Buck looks like this with his sclera showing, it just makes me read him as uncomfortable, even if the scene doesn't call for it at all. So, yes, I don't mind him being a bit more expressive than real dogs, but they overdid it.
I quite like the change of making some of the characters female, such as Francoise and Jo. Not a lot of them, but there wasn't any real prominent good female representation in either The Call of the Wild (book) or White Fang. Having Francoise be a strong dog-sledder was great to see, and I liked her chemistry with Perrault.
I also thought it was great that we got some decent representation of characters of color with both of them, something London's stories also fell a bit short off. The murderer of Thornton also went from being the Yeehat Native Americans to instead being Hal who is done being humiliated by John. I quite like this twist, it's far less yikes and also makes much more sense in the context of the movie, with Hal being build up as a main villain very well and there being no mentions of any Native Americans on the land Thornton and Buck ended up on.
The violence in this movie was very much toned down from the novel. Buck gets hit with a bat only once and instantly submits. The same happens in the conflict between Buck and Spitz. They just don't fight like how real dogs fight. They just kind of lunge at one another, bite and then knock each other over. That's just... not how real canines fight. I get that they can't show any blood, but they could at least make the violence look a bit more realistic, since these dogs look pretty realistic, too. Spitz is also just defeated after one smash by Buck, which is kind of a letdown. It was supposed to be a real struggle in the book, here it first is Spitz kicking Buck's ass and then Buck returns one blow and the fight is instantly over. Spitz nor the dog team also dies, they simply run off into the wilderness rather than being killed by Buck and sinking through the ice.
Another aspect I liked was "the call" and Buck's wild instincts being personified as a huge ethereal black wolf. You see it appear more and more as Buck becomes wilder and wilder, until he finally accepts his fate as a new member of the wolf pack.
Also, on a side note, it was cute to see Buck and the white wolf's puppies. Most adaptations don't show Buck with any offspring, so this was a cute decision.
While not fully book-accurate, I do genuinely like this adaptation a whole lot! Definitely check it out.
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