‘Call of the Wild’ adaptation becomes grumpy Harrison Ford and the CG dog

Posted on February 28, 2020

By MARK VIOLA

Considering Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” was published in 1903, I’m pretty sure anyone reading this review has had the chance to read the book during their lifetime, most likely when you were a child or teenager.

Either way, we have a new film version of the book, starring Harrison Ford (“Bladerunner 2049”) and directed by Chris Sanders, who makes his live action film debut after helming such animated movies as “Lilo & Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” I mention that because, with its main animal character Buck a computer-generated creation rather than an actual dog, there are times during this movie in which it feels like a cartoon.

As the story progresses, the movie overcomes this for the most part, but it never sheds the feeling that it is trying to be to different films at the same time: a fun family adventure and an adaptation of a book that is not always the happiest. It is that struggle that keeps the movie from completely working as either.

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