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The Call of the Wild Movie Review

The Call of the Wild is a 2020 historical adventure film directed by Chris Sanders and starring Harrison Ford. It’s a messy, but fun and solid flick.

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“There’s a place in these mountains

where a new breed of timber wolf roams,

wiser than men or wolf,

because of the dog that runs at the head of a pack“

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Set in the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, a dog named Buck is stolen from his home in California and sent to the Yukon, where he befriends an old man and begins a life-altering adventure. Based on the titular book by Jack London, the movie is a watered down version of what is supposedly a much more violent and realistic film, and that did bother me, but still the Disney-like approach is undeniably endearing here.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – the CGI dog. Yes, the entire movie is so heavily reliant on CGI, not only in the dogs, but also wolves and other animals. And I would say that the natural landscapes, definitely some of the more artistic shots are obviously computer-generated. And that did bother me as the plastic look to the movie is anything but the titular wild.

However, I would propose here that the critics were too harsh toward this pretty solid film that is far from bad, it’s not even close to being terrible. I personally found its CGI-heavy approach working at times to produce some immensely appealing, wondrous shots and takes. And also, the dogs looked better than ever as the effects reached the most realistic levels possible so far.

The Call of the Wild is cute in many scenes, especially Buck’s playing around, and I loved his relationship with Harrison Ford’s character. Ford did not phone it in here and is actually pretty good and believable in his role.

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I personally hated that over-the-top, stupidly cartoony villain who chased them and somehow found them in the woods. The movie is so implausible in multiple scenes, but some of the cartoony elements, mostly with the wolves and the reawakening of the beast, really worked. Chris Sanders here directed his first live-action feature and his animation prowess is evident throughout in this very odd, but solid computerized live-action experiment.

The Call of the Wild is certainly too heavily reliant on CGI, but most of it looks great, and some scenes are quite artistic and endearing. The whole film is cute and fun, though awfully implausible and silly at times. Harrison Ford is pretty solid here while the second half is where the movie reached its most appealing moments as everything with the humans was less interesting.