As a boy I read “The Call of the Wild,” Jack London’s 1903 novel about a dog named Buck. Stolen and sold as a Yukon sled dog, Buck shakes off “the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.”
It’s a thrilling story.
At playtime I used to reenact parts of this tale about the Klondike Gold Rush with my docile cocker spaniel, Shanango. Very happy to have a home with steady meals, my dog didn’t quite get the “call of the wild” part.
Now Harrison Ford – between his last “Star Wars” movie and next “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movie – is acting out the Jack London story in a new adventure film.
The book has been adapted to the screen many times before – starring (or narrated by) such names as Clark Gable, Charlton Heston, Richard Dreyfuss, Rick Schroder, Christopher Lloyd, and Rutger Hauer.
This latest version is the first live-action film to be directed by Chris Sanders (“Lilo & Stitch,” “How to Train Your Dragon”) — if you can describe a film starring a computer-animated dog as “live.”
But you can certainly put an emphasis on action. This gritty, sub-zero outing involves wolves, trappers, mountainous terrain, icy waters, packs of sled dogs, and grizzly bears.
A white-bearded, grizzled Harrison Ford plays a prospector named John Thornton who crosses paths with the big-hearted dog.
Mostly a CGI creation, Buck was modeled after a pooch named Buckley that the director’s wife adopted from a shelter in Kansas. Buckley is a cross between a St. Bernard and a Scotch Shepherd (a herding dog similar to a border collie), the same mixed breed as Buck in Jack London’s book. This is the first film to correctly reflect the dog’s breed.
Harrison Ford says, “I don’t have to be a leading man anymore.” At 77, he’s happy to play supporting actor to a dog.
He was always a reluctant superstar, he tells us. “I think of the people that go to my movies more as customers than I do as fans. ‘Fans’ feels kind of weird to me, always has.”
This is the first film released by Disney since it bought Fox. The new logo drops “Fox,” branding it as 20th Century Pictures. Ironically, a 1935 version of “The Call of the Wild” was the last film released by 20th Century Pictures before it merged with Fox.
What is old is new again.
This film was not shot on location. CGI technology has turned the Los Angeles studios and environs of Santa Clara, California, into the frozen Yukon. You can thank Moving Picture Company (MPC) of Montreal for the great computer graphics work.
Actor and stunt coordinator Terry Notary was the stand-in for the CGI creation of Buck.
As the studio says, “In the grand scheme of things, it’s probably best to make a movie like ‘The Call of the Wild’ with a digital dog. For one thing, since the dog is pretty much the main character, making him animated allows the filmmakers to better to control him. There’s no need to hire animal trainers and several different dogs just to get things done. And there’s the added factor of safety: having a digital dog ensures that a real animal (or animals) won’t end up exploited, or injured, or abused (even by accident).
Jack London wrote another book titled “White Fang.” As he explained in a letter to his publisher, this book was “Not a sequel to ‘Call of the Wild.’ But a companion to it.”
If 20th Century Pictures decides to do a second film, it won’t have to inconvenience septuagenarian Harrison Ford. It can easily render both Ford and the dog as CGI. Who needs live actors anymore?
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Movie Reviewer
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com