Movie Thoughts: Call of the Wild: Howl, Buck (1981)

• Released: January 3rd, 1981
• Directed by: Kôzô Morishita
• Running time: 1h 6min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A dog is taken north where he has to work as a sled dog, which causes his old wild instincts to awaken.

Movie Thoughts: Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

• Released: April 16th, 1988
• Directed by: Isao Takahata
• Running time: 1 h 28 min
• Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

A boy named Seita and his little sister Setsuko try to survive alone in World War II era Japan.

Movie Thoughts: Benji the Hunted (1987)

 

• Released: June 4, 1987
  
• Directed by: Joe Camp
  
• Running time: 1 h 28 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

Benji winds up lost and alone in the wilderness. Now having to survive on his own, he becomes the guardian of four orphaned catamount cubs. Taking his new role as their protector seriously, he does whatever he can to keep them safe and get them to a different mountain lion parent who can take them in.

Movie Thoughts: Real Genius (1985)

• Released: August 7, 1985
  
• Directed by: Martha Coolidge
• Running time: 1 h 48 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A teenage prodigy and an almost-college dropout are set to work on a project, which turns out to secretly be a weapon for the American government.

Movie Thoughts: The NeverEnding Story (1984)

• Released: 20 July 1984
• Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen
• Running time: 1 h 42 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A boy reads a magical book about a fantastical world that needs saving, and ends up being involved in rescuing the realm himself.

Movie Thoughts: Never Cry Wolf (1983)

• Released: 1 September 1983
• Directed by: Carroll Ballard
• Running time: 1 h 45 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

In the time where wolves were still widely demonized and feared by many, a lone researcher is dropped off in the northern Canadian wilderness to study a pack of Arctic wolves for months.

Movie Thoughts: Antarctica (1983)

• Released: 23 July 1983
• Directed by: Koreyoshi Kurahara
• Running time: 2 h 23 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

Based on a true story, this movie tells the events of two Antarctica researchers and the fifteen dogs they had to leave behind to fend for themselves on the ice-cold continent for almost a year.

Movie Thoughts: The Little Mermaid (1989)

• Released: 17 November 1989
• Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker
• Running time: 1 h 23 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

A mermaid princess falls in love with the human world and trades her voice for legs to a sea witch in order to explore it.

Movie Thoughts: Oliver and Company (1988)

• Released: 18 November 1988
• Directed by: George Scribner
• Running time: 1 h 14 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A young kitten joins a dog gang in New York City and ends caught up in a conflict between the gang's human owner and his creditor.

Movie Thoughts: The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

• Released: 26 July 2017
• Directed by: Ron Clements, Burny Mattinson, David Michener
• Running time: 1 h 14 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A mouse version of Sherlock Holmes tries to crack a case having to do with a girl's missing father and his arch enemy, a rat named Ratigan.

Movie Thoughts: The Black Cauldron (1985)

• Released: 24 July 1985
• Directed by: Ted Berman, Richard Rich
• Running time: 1 h 20 min
• Rating 1/5

Synopsis

An apprentice pig-keeper, a princess, a failure of a bard and a talking hairball look for an ancient relic known as the Black Cauldron before the evil Horned King can use it to summon his undead army and conquer the realm of Prydain.

Movie Thoughts: The Fox and the Hound (1981)

• Released: 10 July 1981
• Directed by: Ted Berman, Richard Rich, Art Stevens
• Running time: 1 h 23 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

The story of an ill-fated friendship between a pet red fox and a hunting dog.

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.

Movie Thoughts: The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

• Released: 27 September 1985
• Directed by: Jeremy Kagan
• Running time: 1 h 41 min
• Rating 4/5

Synopsis

After her father finds a job in Washington and leaves her behind, a girl named Natty runs away and decides to travel all the way from Seattle to him. On her journey, she's accompanied by another runaway named Harry and a wolf. 

Movie Thoughts: Stone Fox (1987)

• Released: 30 March 1987
• Directed by: Harvey Hart
• Running time: 1 h 40 min
• Rating 2/5

Synopsis

After his only family member falls ill, twelve-year-old Willy must take care of his grandfather's cattle ranch all by himself. With the ranch almost going out of business, he decides to enter a dog sled race to hopefully acquire the prize money.

Movie Thoughts: Toby McTeague (1986)

• Released: 1 March 1986
• Directed by: Jean-Claude Lord
• Running time: 1 h 36 min
• Rating 2/5

Synopsis

A teenager named Toby wants to enter in the provincial dog sledding championships in order to preserve his father's sled dog breeding efforts.

Movie Thoughts: The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1986)

• Released: 25 August 1986
• Directed by: Masanori Hata
• Running time: 1 h 16 min
• Rating: 2/5

Synopsis

A pug and a cat befriend one another and end up in all kinds of peril in the wild.

Movie Thoughts: The Secret of NIMH (1982)

• Released: July 16 1982
• Directed by: Don Bluth
• Running time: 1 h 22 min
• Rating 5/5

Synopsis

A brave widowed mouse sets out on a quest to find the rats of NIMH, the only ones who can safetly relocate her house with her sick son inside of it.

Movie Thoughts: My Little Pony: The Movie (1986)

• Released: June 6 1986
• Directed by: Michael Joens
• Running time: 1 h 26 min
• Rating 1.5/5

Synopsis

The ponies of Paradise Estate must band together in order to defeat a villainous trio of witches that wishes to cover all of Ponyland in a purple goo.