Movie Thoughts: Kavik the Wolf Dog (1980)

• Released: 20 January 1980
• Directed by: Peter Carter
• Running time: 1 h 40 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A boy takes in a traumatized wolfdog that survived a plane crash, only for the dog to be taken away by a rich man. Now, the wolfdog Kavik must face his fears and travel 2000 miles back to his beloved true owner Andy.

My Thoughts

I haven't read the book of Kavik, so I had no idea what to expect here unlike, say Call of the Wild adaptations. So let's see if it's any good.

I honestly quite liked the story. For the standard boy befriends wolf/dog storyline, it had some unique aspects to it. For example, no dead parents. Andy has a good bond with both of them and they're both alive and kicking even by the end of the film. There also wasn't a huge sled dog race involved, only in the very beginning of the movie. Most movies I've seen about boys taking in sled dogs end with a big race of some kind. This just didn't have it. Andy wanted to have Kavik as his beloved pet and that was enough for him. 

Kavik also isn't the usual ferocious and brave animal protagonist, but suffers very realistically from trauma after the plane crash. The only reason he overcomes it is because, after escaping the rich dude, he has to face his biggest fears on his way back north to Andy. And he does succeed, eventually killing a wolf, but he never turns outright cruel, even against the dogs that used to bully him back in Andy's town.

I will say that the aspect of Kavik being a wolfdog is completely irrelevant to the movie. I think they bring it up once, maybe, but he looks like a dog, he acts like a dog, he's just a dog. I guess Kavik the Dog wouldn't be as cool of a title. The wolves in this movie were also actually played by real wolves, not huskies or anything. Kavik himself is portrayed by a German shepherd, which seems to be a popular choice for casting wolf-like dogs or wolfdogs in movies (see: White Fang (1973) or various Call of the Wild adaptations).

I did genuinely like the bond between Andy and Kavik. You did feel a real connection between the two. The villain was honestly just a bit of a boring bland rich "I want to show off with this cool dog" type of antagonist. The characters in this movie were all pretty standard overall, but decent nonetheless.

I'd say Kavik is a pretty decent movie! Not my personal favorite, but I'd put it above some of the other wolfdog/sled dog movies I've watched.