Movie Thoughts: Flight of the White Wolf (1990)

• Released: 28 April 1990
• Directed by: Yosei Maeda
• Running time: 1 hr 3 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A boy named Russ takes his semi-tame pet wolf on a journey to a preserve where it can live out the rest of its life in the wild. 

My Thoughts

Watched the unofficial fandub by Silver Fang Fandubs.

Some things about this movie I really liked. I liked the style, I liked the voice acting (particularly Russ, his voice was really good and much more fitting than that of the official dub), I liked the animation, I liked the backgrounds. But I also have some major problems with it.

The whole premise of the movie is just kind of bad. Wolves are not meant to be kept as pets in the first place, and now we basically have an entire movie about releasing a pet wolf into the wild. Human-reared animals with 0 experience in the wild or with their own kind will not survive in the wild. The movie even points this out several times, too, but never fully addresses everything. They're like "Oh you can't hunt" and then move on like it's not a major point of contention. The idea of calling a reputable zoo or rescue center to house the wolf is also never brought up. What's better, to doom this injured wolf that can't hunt to a slow and paintful death or to let it live out the rest of its life in peace in a rescue center? I sure as hell know the answer.

I also wanted to say that the wolf in this is really bland. Like, other human characters at least have something to them, but the wolf has no personality whatsoever. I get that it's harder to convey when you don't have the animals talk, but even the expressions and body language of the wolf are just so neutral constantly. That could've used more work.

Overall an okay movie. You'll probably like it if you don't look too deeply into it like I do.