Disney Studios has always been a source or manufacturer of family movies, especially those about a dog character. This is not only since the 1990s, but Disney's history with these films dates back to the 1950s. So it is surprising that the movie, "The Call of the Wild", was produced by "21 We Will Buy" two years before it went under the wings of Disney, meaning that it was under development in 2017, and Disney bought the company last year.
This is the latest quotation from Jack London's classic novel with the same title, and it is the first live action movie by Chris Sanders, who directed animated films such as "Lilo and Stitch", and "How to Train Your Dragon". Sanders is not far from his area in this movie, which tells the story of a dog-human friendship, the smartest creature on the planet.
Although he does not have the starting spark required to ignite the story's events, that is, he is somewhat slow in the beginning, the performance of Harrison Ford and the dog-hero Buck is rising to the call of the wild, especially since the dog is made entirely of special effects. Note that this is not a Harrison Ford movie, as the movie poster indicates. The old American star appears at the beginning of the movie, then disappears and returns after the first hour.
This movie is for Buck dog only. The events take place during the gold hunt in the county of Klondike in the late 19th century. The film tells the story of Buck, a Saint Bernard Scotch Collie dog, who lives a life of Dalal in Santa Clara, California with his owner, Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford).
One night, Buck is tricked and kidnapped from home, and sold to a shipping company in the Yukon region of Canada. He is sold there again to Peru (Omar Sai), a gentle postman who takes it upon himself to train Buck, to be part of the dog team dedicated to hauling trolley and postal parcels across Canadian territory.
During the trip, Buck Road intersects with John Thornton (Ford), a lone man with a gray hair, wandering in the wilds after losing his son and wife. When Buck Ford befriends and goes out on a journey to explore gold in Yukon Province, Buck changes little by little from urban life and its human masters, to be in his natural surroundings and among his peers after being drawn to the wilds.
Buck is the film's hero, although silent, but it passes through his face and emotions, and he is the captivating element of the film in many cases. Buck is made using motion capture technology, and designed by Terry Notari. Buck has high expressive abilities, which helped to create the emotional bond required between him and the viewer.
Sometimes Pak appears as a cartoon, and movements are only suitable for an animation movie, and this is one of the disadvantages of the movie, meaning that the director is confused between the style of animation and live movement, but looking at the film as a whole, we note that the decision to make a dog from special effects in full is a decision in its place, because the course of the story You put him in difficult and dangerous situations, which require him to fight to stay, and this will be very difficult to use a real trained dog, or to move between a real dog and its digital version. Even knowing that he is completely digital, we sympathize with him if he is attacked, neglected or threatened, thanks to the accuracy of Notari and his team.
As the director Sanders appears confident about himself as possible to embody Buck as a real creature, he suffers when it comes to the natural elements of the film that appears perceptibly, as if it was a remastered animation movie shot with a snapshot of a live action movie, exactly as Disney did in her films since the beginning of the past decade, Such as "Malevicent", "Beautiful and the Beast", "Cinderella", "The Lion King" and "Aladdin", and others.
When this method works, it allows Sanders, and his Polish photographer Janus Kaminski, to present the story from Buck's point of view. When it does not work, the auditor notices that the call of the wild is photographed in a studio using the green screen. But this does not prevent the film from respecting the writer's London feelings and viewpoint.
Kamensky worked very well, by the way he worked with Stephen Spielberg since 1993, and specifically since Schindler's List, thanks to him Yukon appeared alive on the screen, although the crew did not leave California, and no photographer was able to show visual effects Especially this captivating form.
The text quoted by Michael Green, who quoted Murder on the Orient Express, three years ago, is unbalanced by giving Buck a solid story accompanied by a complete and clear change in his personality, from a broken dog to another driving the herd, in addition to that we hear the narrator's voice (Ford himself) tells us Do it before it happens. But at the same time he strangely avoids delving deeper into the themes and ideas brought up by the London novel. The same applies to the human figures of the film, as it progresses from simple and attractive, as is the case with Peru and his partner Francois (Cara Gee), who deserved more space, to a typical character with a single dimension, such as the search for evil gold Hal (Dan Stevens), and this Of course it is not the fault of actors, but the writer and director’s fault. Fortunately, Ford raises the heavy load on his shoulders for the human side of the film, as it shows a high degree of lamentation for the character of Thornton, who lived a tragic suffering before the start of the film. Ford also has great harmony with Buck, despite the fact that there is no real dog while photographing, and this is one of the most difficult parts of acting, as the actor must imagine a dog or creature on the other side to interact with.
He might suffer wild call at the box office, because he is not originally from the Disney catalog, and his characters are not universally known, but in the end it is a good dog story for the family, despite not being satisfied with or convinced of Ford's space in the movie. Even if Buck is not completely convincing because he is not real, remember that any real dog will appear with solid features, and he will not have Pak's emotions and feelings clearly visible on the screen.
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The movie may suffer at the box office, because it is not originally from the "Disney" catalog, and its characters are unknown, but in the end it is a good dog story for the family.
The Harrison Ford movie is not as the movie poster indicates. The old American star appears at the beginning of the movie, then disappears and returns after the first hour.