Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

The Call of the Wild Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 14, 2020

W.C. Fields may or may not have actually uttered the famous aphorism about never working with animals and children, but one might still wonder if the warning, whoever may have said it, could hold equally true for CGI creations. This latest film version of Jack London’s immortal The Call of the Wild is the first ostensible live action feature from director Chris Sanders, who first rose to fame in the world of animation courtesy of such efforts as Lilo & Stitch, The Croods and How to Train Your Dragon, but he hasn’t completely forsaken any computer aided visuals with regard to this particular outing, since the real “star” of this film (as opposed to marquee headliner Harrison Ford) is a CGI canine called Buck (Terry Notary was the "Andy Serkis" of this production, playing Buck with a motion capture suit that was later animated). The Call of the Wild has been variously adapted for either the small or large screen going back to the days of the silents, but perhaps because those efforts didn’t have the ability to offer computer generated pups, the screenwriters may have tended to concentrate on the human side of the story at least as much if not more so than the dog’s tale (sorry), even though London’s source novel indubitably was Buck’s story — the humans only entered the fray courtesy of their relationships to him, not vice versa. In that regard, at least, this version hews quite a bit closer to its source, but the focal star’s believability may be up for debate with some viewers. That said, and per the maybe misattributed quote from Fields above, when Buck is on the screen he becomes the inevitable eye magnet, and whatever humans there may be in the frame with him can tend to fade into the background a lot of the time.

Jack London himself came in for some critical brickbats when The Call of the Wild was first serialized in The Saturday Evening Post way back in 1903, since some curmudgeons felt he was investing a mere dog with human emotions and thoughts. There are still debates raging in some seminarian circles as to whether animals have souls, but in London’s view, they most certainly did, and London’s writing unabashedly offered a dog’s point of view of a sometimes twisted Mankind in The Call of the Wild. That anthropomorphizing tendency might be at least subliminally on display in this film version since Sanders and his animation team don’t exactly shy away from telegraphing Buck’s emotions and indeed even his thoughts.

And indeed those very human like emotions and behaviors are on display from the get go in this version, with Buck, happily ensconced as the family pet of a respected judge (Bradley Whitford) in California, is kind of like an out of control teenager, unable to restrain himself in front of any number of temptations, including but not limited to things like low hanging fruit (and/or other food). That might lead some to believe that this Call of the Wild might be aiming for low comedy (which it kind of indulges in in these early moments), but the film soon turns pretty deliberately dark when Buck is more or less sold into slavery, enduring a long voyage northward where he’s beaten into submission before ending up in the Yukon. There he briefly “meets cute” with future master John Thornton (Harrison Ford, probably showing up for a moment here to whet fans’ appetites, since he won’t be back in person for a while, though his narration graces the film throughout). That’s before Buck finally ends up with Perrault (Omar Sy), who has a sled dog team as part of a mail delivery service he runs.

This part of the film documents Buck's learning to be part of a team, but it's notable that both Perrault and his partner Françoise (Cara Gee) are both depicted as being kind hearted, caring people, which means the "villain" of this section actually turns out to be Perrault's lead dog Spitz, who does not take kindly to Buck's arrival. That "sibling rivalry" only increases when Buck saves Françoise when she plummets through a thin ice field covering a river and Buck willingly jumps in the frigid waters to rescue her. Suffice it to say, Spitz soon relinquishes his Alpha status, and in fact kind of presages Buck's "arc" by retreating into the wilderness. That leads to one of the film's kind of roller coaster inspired sequences, when Buck, leading the team and pulling Perrault and Françoise, tries to outrun an avalanche actually caused by Perrault when he shouts approval about how well Buck is pulling everything.

When some dang blasted modern technology puts an end to Perrault’s mail run (but not before another “meet cute” between Buck and Thornton), that finally allows the story to finally move on to the chief human villain, an uppity and incredibly naive “explorer” named Hal (Dan Stevens), who has fallen for a grift involving a supposedly rare map to gold and who buys Perrault’s team to get him to his supposed destination. Of course the much more experienced Thornton also shows up to warn Hal about the shortcomings of his plan, which kind of instantly tips Hal over into near obsessive territory with regard to Thornton, including a paranoiac fear that Thornton is trying to hide the location of riches in them thar hills, something that plays out in the third act.

Suffice it to say that with some intervening (melo?)drama between Hal and Thornton, Thornton ends up with a pretty haggard Buck, and then the film takes off on a story involving yet another owner, in a kind of canine version of Winchester '73. This is the part of the film that will either tug rather generously at heartstrings or provoke a reaction that things are getting pretty cloying, depending on your personal tolerance for man-dog bonding and a number of adventures out in the Alaskan wilderness. Through all of this, Buck has been having repeated "visions" of his (and this is where some eye rolling may begin for some) "spirit animal", a kind of magical wolf that is urging Buck back to his atavistic roots. The concept at least was part of London's original formulation, but I'm not sure this particular visual trope is that helpful. In any case, a really interesting dynamic starts to develop when Buck finds a pack of wolves he's accepted into, and then kind of starts splitting his time between them and Thornton.

The film builds to a kind of overheated climax which is both like and unlike London's original, though the screenplay obviously was intentionally streamlined in terms of number of characters in this final section (since the film basically only features Buck and Thornton, with a late appearance by Hal, something fairly different from the original story) and how various characters' stories work out. Still, even with the perhaps understandable changes, the story builds to some sweet sentiment (which, again, may strike some as cloying) before offering a coda which is rather like London's original and which once again completely anthropomorphizes Buck to the point that he's honoring important anniversaries in a manner of speaking.

There's a rather interesting subtext to London's whole premise which might in its own way echo Jean-Jacques Rousseau's assertion that a primitive state of being is kind of inherently the best, offering a kind of "pre- apple of enlightenment" innocence that coexists with nature easily. It's The Call of the Wild's emphasis that this idea extends to dogs (Rousseau of course was talking about good old humans) that makes it such a singular story. This is a scenic and heartfelt rendition of the tale that does change some of London's original version, but which at least restores the focus on Buck.

The Call of the Wild Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Call of the Wild is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Disney/Buena Vista and 20th Century Studios* with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The film was shot using the Alexa 65 (the closing credits list this camera) and the IMDb states everything was finished at a 4K DI. Aside from sometimes questionable looking CGI, this is a very sharp and appealing transfer that offers consistently very good to excellent detail and fine detail levels. Reactions to the "believability" of the various CGI animals will be a matter of opinion, of course, but the rendering here typically looks nicely sharp and well detailed in terms of things like fur and facial expressions. The practical props and sets offer a wealth of fine detail in elements like fabrics and even some of the paper items that Perrault delivers. While the brightly lit outdoor moments understandably pop the best, some of the blue graded nighttime sequences offer a surprisingly good amount of detail.

*In one of those fun synchronicities that history sometimes offer us, this is the first film released under Disney's rebranding of 20th Century Fox as 20th Century Studios (you'd think they'd hang on to the Fox moniker rather than a time specific name that's already out of date, but I digress). Interestingly, the 1935 Call of the Wild was the first film under the then new partnership between 20th Century and Fox that created 20th Century Fox. For those interested in what the new masthead looks like, I've included an extra screenshot of it in position 21 (no meta pun intended, considering what century we're in).

The Call of the Wild Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Call of the Wild features a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix that is excellent and consistently immersive, but which I'm scoring at a 4.5 in order to give me a little "room" (height or otherwise) for the 4K UHD presentation's Dolby Atmos track. Surround activity is evident throughout the presentation, starting with the whistling winds that envelop the listener before the film actually even begins, and the continuing with a glut of nicely place ambient environmental effects that help to realistically evoke the great outdoors. There are some sudden bursts of LFE in the presentation, including courtesy of some of Buck's rambunctious behavior early in the film, but also in terms of later moments like the avalanche or a scene where Buck and Thornton ride the rapids of a river. Dialogue and John Powell's nice score are all presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

The Call of the Wild Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• It's All About Buck (1080p; 23:52) is a fun three part featurette that has some especially enjoyable footage of Notary acting out Buck in various scenes.


• The World of The Wild (1080p; 8:29) focuses on the film's various locations (some of which were virtual).


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:59)

The Call of the Wild Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a dog lover, The Call of the Wild is sure to hit an emotional bull's eye. Those with a more jaundiced view about CGI animals interacting with human actors may have a slightly less favorable reaction, but the film still provides some lovely scenery and a briskly told story with a distinctive focus. Technical merits are first rate, and The Call of the Wild comes Recommended.