A CGI Dog's Bland Adventure | The Call of the Wild Review

The Call of the Wild is the latest of many adaptations of the 1903 novel by Jack London. Chris Sanders directed this particular version in his first live-action feature film, having only worked in animation in the past. The film made its debut in theaters on February 21, 2020.

Even though the film is primarily focused on a CGI dog, the live-action cast consists of Harrison Ford (who also serves as the narrator), Dan Stevens, Karen Gillan, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, and Bradley Whitford.

Here’s my brief synopsis of the film:

As the Gold Rush swept through the Yukon in the late 1800s, the demand for tough, obedient dogs for sled teams grew very high. One day, a sheltered St. Bernard/Scotch Collie mix named Buck is abducted from his California home and shipped to the regions far north. From there, he learns to develop his own identity and purpose as he moves from one master to the next.

This review is the transcribed version of the YouTube review linked above; that video is about 3 and a half minutes long, so it's a quick watch. Regardless of the way you take in my opinion, I hope you enjoy my thoughts on The Call of the Wild!

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As someone who has never owned a dog and likely never will, it’s sometimes tough for me to connect with movies dedicated to them. The appeal to certain audiences makes perfect sense to me, but not so much on a personal level. I simply enjoy dogs when I get to see and interact with them, yet don’t feel compelled to get one of my own. That’s why I hope that anyone reading this will understand that I have no particular bias with regard to dog movies.

(Photo Source: IMDb)

But also, having not read the original novel or seen any previous adaptation of it, I went into this experience completely blind. With that, this latest film version offers a serviceable adventure with a dog at its center, but I doubt that it will be held in high regard over time.

Possibly the biggest reason for this lies in how the visual effects will dig a pit for The Call of the Wild to fall into. Even today as it plays in the most advanced theater screens across the globe, the digitally-created images hardly look convincing at all. It’s beyond me why Fox felt the need to spend between $125-150 million on a movie with strange-looking computer-generated animals, when they could have just cut down on those costs by letting talented animators work on something else, opting instead to hire animal trainers. That way the filmmakers not only could have minimized the financial risk but they also could have won over more audiences with actual animals, delivering a nostalgic movie reminiscent of 90s Disney films like Homeward Bound and Iron Will.

Or, what if they just made an animated movie instead? Director Chris Sanders’ resume traces back to big projects with Disney and DreamWorks, so it would have made a lot of sense for this story where the main character is a dog. Animation is much better-suited for allowing characters that normally can’t act like humans to become much more expressive.

But I digress, for The Call of the Wild is a movie that ironically has digital dogs straight out of the uncanny valley yet somehow act more like people than the mostly cartoonish human cast of characters. Harrison Ford is captivating as usual and his character is more grounded in reality than the others, but otherwise, humans act exactly how you might expect them to in a story empathetic to an animal perspective. This absolutely is not a good thing since it messes up every attempt the movie makes at being realistic, particularly with how painfully hammy Dan Stevens delivers his lines as the villain.

But other than this major problem, though, I don’t really have much else to say about this movie. As a coming-of-age story for a dog, I suppose it’s serviceable. Each act of the movie provides a logical progression in Buck’s characterization, and the place his arc ends up at the end made sense to me. And despite what I’ve said about how the dogs look, at least the animators knew how to make them expressive enough even with the movie’s need to be realistic. It finds the fine line between Happy Feet’s hyperrealism and the absolute inhuman lack of emotion in the Lion King remake, and it worked well enough in the movie’s favor, especially in a pivotal fight scene set against the backdrop of Aurora Borealis.

(Photo Source: IMDb)

All that aside, the movie barely has much to offer in terms of conflict, plot, and impactful themes, so it just ends up meandering until it ends with little fanfare. Those who love dogs may get more out of The Call of the Wild, but I at least wanted to express my genuine opinion to help those who were on the fence. It’s a film I do not regret seeing, but unfortunately, this Yukon adventure will not remain in my memory for long.

SCORE: C

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AGE RECOMMENDATION: Even though there are a lot of perilous situations presented here, nothing in the story is particularly violent or terrifying. You will witness violence inflicted between animals, humans, and both, though. The youngest of viewers may experience some fear and distress here, but otherwise, The Call is the Wild should play decently enough for families. (9+)