{"id":8475,"date":"2024-11-18T23:18:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8475"},"modified":"2024-11-18T23:18:42","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T04:18:42","slug":"the-call-of-the-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/18\/the-call-of-the-wild\/","title":{"rendered":"The Call of the Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Call of the Wild<\/strong> (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century\/Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence, peril, thematic elements, mild language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chris Sanders\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Powell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: February 21, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, Karen Gillan, Bradley Whitford, Jean Louisa Kelly, Michael Horse, Abraham Benrubi, Colin Woodell, Scott MacDonald.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $62.3M (US)\/$110.8M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Film historians and animal lovers will no doubt remember the controversy surrounding the 2017 drama A Dog\u2019s Purpose. Shortly before its release, a video surfaced allegedly showing one of the movie\u2019s canine stars being mistreated on the set. Although ultimately discredited, it caused a great deal of grief for the studio with the outcry from animal activists and PETA calling for a boycott. I\u2019m wondering if the makers of the new cinematic version of Jack London\u2019s The Call of the Wild<\/strong> had this in mind when they decided to go with CGI instead of a real dog.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I couldn\u2019t believe it when I saw the trailer for The Call of the Wild<\/strong>. The dog is completely CGI. It looked weird. I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d be able to get past it. I kept thinking of the 2002 version of Scooby-Doo and how strange it was with the human cast acting opposite a CGI mutt. Of course, technology has come a long way since then. It looks better than it did at the start of the century. Still, there\u2019s nothing like the real thing. It took me about 15-20 minutes to get past the CGI. Once I did, I started enjoying The Call of the Wild<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Purists might not be thrilled with the changes made in this latest incarnation of London\u2019s novel. In addition to story changes, the material has been toned down and all things non-PC removed. The basic storyline is still the same. It centers on Buck, a large domesticated dog (a St. Bernard\/Scotch Collie mix) living the high life in sunny Santa Clara circa 1895. He\u2019s a spoiled pooch who lives for people food and running wild through the house and town. One night, he\u2019s lured from the front porch of his owner\u2019s home to the back of a wagon and stolen. He\u2019s placed in a box and shipped to the Yukon, currently in the grips of the Gold Rush, where a dog of his size will fetch a good price.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Initially purchased by a mail carrier (Sy, Jurassic World) and his wife (Gee, The Expanse) as a sled dog, Buck eventually acclimates to his new surroundings and becomes the team leader. When the postal route is discontinued, he briefly becomes the property of an abusive prospector (Stevens, Downton Abbey) until he\u2019s rescued by John Thornton (Ford, Star Wars), a loner less interested in finding gold than drinking away the pain of losing his son, a tragedy that also ended his marriage. Although he really doesn\u2019t want to get attached to anyone, John bonds with Buck. For his part, Buck begins to get in touch with his wolf ancestry by running with a pack of wolves that show him the ways of the wild.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although Ford is billed as the star of The Call of the Wild<\/strong>, the real star is the dog because it\u2019s really his story. Ford\u2019s character only becomes major about halfway through the movie. He does a good job in the role. I think he\u2019s found his new niche playing grizzled old men. At 77, I don\u2019t see him doing Jack Ryan or Indiana Jones anymore even though a fifth film in the latter series was recently announced. Old age may have slowed him down, but it didn\u2019t soften him. He\u2019s still a tough guy when the occasion calls for it. He imbues his character with the right amounts of strength and sadness. He gives a decent performance, but it won\u2019t make viewers forget he once helped save a galaxy far, far away. Stevens camps it up as the wild-eyed villain with a severe case of gold fever and crazed paranoia. He does everything but twirl his mustache to relate to the audience that he\u2019s the bad guy here. Sy lends dignity as the first human that sees Buck\u2019s potential and believes in him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is adventure aplenty in The Call of the Wild<\/strong> including a rescue from an icy lake, an avalanche, a bar fight and dog fight. There\u2019s also a treacherous river journey and a climactic fight with the villain. I\u2019d like to say it recalls the adventure stories of old, but the CGI takes you out of the story in reminding you that you\u2019re watching a movie. They do a fine job with CGI Buck and the motion-capture performance by Terry Notary is good. You may not know his name, but you\u2019ve surely seen his work in films like Avatar, the Hobbit trilogy and the last two Avengers movies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even though The Call of the Wild<\/strong> is clearly the work of capable professionals, it still feels a bit fake. I do like it though. It\u2019s a better movie than I thought it would be going in. It\u2019s an entertaining movie for (almost) the whole family. Small ones and sensitive types might be upset by a few scenes of brutality and violence (all PG level stuff). It might even prompt your third or fourth-graders to download London\u2019s book. Or, if they want the full experience, they can check it out of the library. Maybe it\u2019s just me but reading an old adventure novel loses something in digital translation.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Call of the Wild (2020)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century\/Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some violence, peril, thematic elements, mild language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Chris Sanders\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Michael Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Powell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: February 21, 2020 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy, Cara Gee, Karen Gillan, Bradley Whitford, Jean Louisa Kelly, Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8692,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Call-of-the-Wild-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8694,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475\/revisions\/8694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}