With climate and ecological catastrophe at the forefront of conversations about the outdoors these days, it would have been easy toremake Jack London’s 1903 classic novelin a way that rallied viewers to engage with the natural world.Like Buck, the story’s canine protagonist, who eventually abandons human society to join the wolves of the forest, today’s audiences might benefit from connecting with the natural surroundings we’velongtaken for granted.
However, the, which hittheaters February 21, remains polite and politically agnosticwhile subtly glorifying wild places and adventure. Audiences are taken on a virtual Disneyland ride through the Yukon’s gold rush,starring a computer-generated and easy-to-love version of Buck, aSaintBernard–Scotch collie mix,and live-action human heroes led by Harrison Ford.The plot will be familiar to most older audiences: Buck begins the story as the domesticated pet of Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford)but is kidnapped from his home in California and shipped to a boomtown in northwest Canada, where he’s sold to mushers and soon learns to thrive on the frontier as a member of a mail-running dogsled team. Laterthe team is sold to the movie’s villain, an inexperienced, mean, and cartoonishly dressedprospector (Dan Stevens). But Buck is soon saved by John Thorton,played byFordwith gruffness and a grandfatherly sympathy. Given more freedom than ever, Buck is drawn to the forest, where he meets a pack of wolves. He travels back and forth between Thorton and the forestand eventually joins the pack permanently, embracing his wild ancestral birthright.
But while 20th Century Fox (now owned by Disney)has made a children’sversion of TheCall of the Wild designed forwide appeal,Ford has no reservations about advocacy. During a recentpress interviewin Los Angeles, I asked Ford what he would say to any fans that didn’t believe in climate change.
“Get out of my house,” Ford replied, without hesitation.
That response won’t surprise anyone familiar with Ford’s years of unapologetic environmental activism. A former Boy Scout and currentresident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Ford was once from Indonesia during a documentary shootas he aggressively questioned the country’s forestry minister about illegal logging in one of the country’s national parks. Now 77 years old, Ford says he was drawn to TheCall of the Wildas an opportunity to make a family film.
Fans of the book may be divided about this unabashedlytame remake, but the film succeedsby doublingdown on two thingsoutdoorspeople will appreciate: dogs and adventure. There were no real canines used on set,and Buck’s movements are a little too perfectly expressive to be confused with a real animal—but the CGI captures all the reasons we love gregarious, mischievous pets like Buck, and rooting for a protagonist without any lines isn’tdifficult.
Those of a certain age in the audience will be treated to a reminder of the exasperated Ford that they loved in Indiana Jonesand Star Wars: “Son of a…,” Ford mutterscharacteristicallyat one pointas he walks outside and slamsa door behind him, newly resolved to rescue Buck. (Of course, this being Disney, the noise from the slamming door cuts off Ford’s line before any expletives are heard.)
As an adaptation, the movie freely discards some of the grittier and darker parts of the book (London’s versionincludes far more graphic violence).It’s not a perfect representation of dogsledding, the gold rush, or the Yukon either. It was also filmed outside Los Angeles and heavily augmented with CGI, and it’s kind of depressingly impressive to realize that a film about the role of nature in our lives chose to have its depictions of natural scenery magnificently rendered by computers. What the movie gets right is thesense of belonging that one experiences—whether one is human or a dog—when communing with the natural world.
It’s a feeling Ford knows well: he and his family just spent 12days rafting on the Colorado River, which he described as transcendental. “Each day it is just you, geology, sky, and the power of nature,” he said. He spoke slowly and seriously, taking time to find the right words. “The beauty of interrelationships, the biodiversity, all of this spectacular complication that’s part of nature, that’s life,” he continued. “That’s as elemental as it gets.”
Humans have often attempted to express the elation, contentment, or sense of pure rightness that comes from spending time in the wild. Attempts to capture those feelingsin popular stories can often be sappy or insufficient compared to actualexperience, andDisney’s new adaptation, bursting with cheesy moments and CGI-altered reality, is no exception. But at the end of the day, what’sthe harm of an utterly tame, family-friendly flick that glorifies an animated approximation of the wild? With anyluck,it’ll inspire some of the children watching to go outside.