The Call of the Wild Review

 
PG: Some violence, peril, thematic elements, and mild languageRuntime: 1 Hour and 40 MinutesProduction Companies: 3 Arts EntertainmentDistributor: 20th Century Studios (RIP FOX)Director: Chris SandersWriters: Michael GreenCast: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, Karen Gillan, Bradley Whitford, Colin WoodellRelease Date: February 21, 2020
Adapted from the beloved literary classic, THE CALL OF THE WILD vividly brings to the screen the story of Buck, a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life is turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team--and later its leader--Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime, ultimately finding his true place in the world and becoming his own master.
If there’s any field that I’m an absolute geek for, it’s animation. I think it’s the best medium in storytelling. Throughout the years, I’ve familiarized myself with the names of animation directors and their works. When animation directors venture off into live-action films, the results aren’t always positive. You had Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E) who did John Carter, which was a financial failure. Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2, Kung Fu Panda 3) helmed The Darkest Minds, which was just downright awful. Just recently, Brenda Chapman (The Prince of Egypt, Brave) helmed a movie I saw at Sundance called Come Away, which was probably the worst movie I sat through during the festival. You have a few exceptions, such as Marjane Satrapi, Rob Letterman, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Brad Bird (who truly gets by solely for Mission Impossible 4, which I think is the best Mission Impossible movie to date). Now it’s Chris Sanders’ turn to bat and transition into live-action filmmaking with The Call of the Wild, based on Jack London’s 1903 book of the same name that I remember seeing in school growing up but always went, “Nah, I’ll pass” because of the cover. Lo and behold, the director of The Croods, How to Train Your Dragon, and Lilo and Stitch made a live-action epic adaptation of this book and honestly, I enjoyed it.
If there’s anything you’ve heard about the film, it’s probably that it’s bolstered by a CG dog with motion capture by actor Terry Notary. In the first 20 minutes, it became clear that this dog goes through harsh, cruel abuse. As someone who has no connection to the book whatsoever, this movie couldn’t have been made today without a CG dog. PETA would’ve been on this production’s ass if they even attempted to cast a real dog. Buck goes through harsh weather conditions, gets whipped, clubbed, attacked by other dogs, etc. This dog goes through hell and back again in almost a biblical sense. You CANNOT tell this story with a real dog because that dog would die! That said, you gotta give props to Terry Notary for delivering a really good performance as Buck the dog. This is the same dude who performed as Rocket the ape from 2010’s The Planet of the Apes trilogy. He had to study his own dogs and their movements in order to learn how to portray this dog. Motion capture was the smartest way to go with this production because everyone’s interactions with the dog are genuine, especially when Ford becomes a prominent presence in the story. All of the emotional beats are present and it works through the cast's engaging performances.I love that Harrison Ford’s career trajectory lately has been strictly family films centered on dogs. I can just imagine him telling his agent, “My blockbuster days are over. I want to do nothing but dog movies now. I’ll voice a dog in an animated movie and then I’ll star in another family flick alongside a dog in a story about a dog. If it doesn’t have a dog, I don’t give a shit.” All jokes aside, he’s great in this. He’s thoroughly charming and his bonding with Buck in the latter portion of the story is effective and emotionally resonant. He’s still grumpy ol’ Ford, but it’s truly heartwarming when he’s with the dog.To be completely honest, the visual effects are really impressive. It’s obvious that so much of this is shot on a blue screen on location and stage, but seeing the landscapes and set pieces on the big screen is truly epic. When it comes to the large action set pieces, Sanders puts you in the passenger seat with his characters and whatever threat they’re up against. You get the genuine feeling of intensity and it’s translated exquisitely. So many of the action sequences had me on the edge of my seat. While I’m aware that so much of it is visual effects, I was completely invested in the dangers that Buck experiences. The effects on the dog himself are great, especially in the various environments that are brought to life by the animation team who worked on environments and lighting. I was impressed by how well textured he is in settings with crazy weather conditions where even his fur moves with the wind.
Some of the best moments are when the camera is focused on Buck doing his own thing along with the other computer-generated dogs and letting the visuals and their expressions tell the story without Ford’s narration kicking in. Even when he’s acting alongside his live-action costars, it’s relatively seamless (for the most part). Buck was never too expressive to a point where his animation hits the uncanny valley. On a $109 million dollar budget, Sanders was able to bring this story to life and tell it to such great effect. I hope other Hollywood studios — specifically Universal — take note of this as an example of what to do when hiring directors to helm movies that emphasize expensive visual effects, including CG animals. This is the answer to last month’s Dolittle, displaying that ONLY animation directors should be contacted to direct movies with multiple CG assets, instead of hiring a dude with absolutely no background in the field of animation. It’s already February and composer John Powell is back at it again for the second consecutive year, for he delivers a great score that matches the intensity and epicness of the content onscreen. It’s only when he works with Chris Sanders or Dean DeBlois that his scores are perfection. So many of the story elements made me reminisce on the beats taken from the two previous HTTYD features that when Powell’s score swept in, I questioned (shamelessly out loud), “Wait, is this a John Powell score?” And it was. Now I will be bopping to it for a good month straight. 
It takes a while to get used to the CGI on Buck. When the film starts you have this realistic setting and this completely cartoonish dog. In the first half, there are ample closeups where Buck and a human would be in the frame and it would be distracting. I don’t know if Buck needed one more render pass or some tweaks on the lighting and shadowing for some shots to have him more integrated into the scenes, but when the story takes place at night it’s seamless. It does take you out of the experience at first, but then you warm up to it. 
The Call of the Wild really had me nostalgic to be honest. We don't get family films like this anymore. So much of the story contains dark elements with silly over the top antagonists, including a slimy rich man obsessed with gold, played by a devilish Dan Stevens, and through him, it became clear what kind of movie it was. Tonally, it feels like a classic ‘90s family film that has the cajones to tread to dark, violent areas and at the same time never coddle a younger demographic. It still manages to have an overarching charm with a powerful story that families would enjoy. I would take kids who are 9 or older to see this because it’s too violent for younger audiences. But I’m telling you it’s one of those adaptations that has the power to be a timeless classic (until the next technological achievement in film hits in 10 years time and they do this again).Rating: 3.5/5 | 79%