Call of the Wild (2020) - Movie Review

When I first saw trailers for this film I didn't cringe hardcore like I did with the original Sonic movie trailer when he was a horrifying fur demon, but my lips pursed together and I winced as I watched a clearly CGI dog run about and bark at Harrison Ford. And yet I just went to see the Call of the Wild myself because it does have Harrison Ford and I wanted to give the film a chance. I walked out of the theater thinking it had some problems, but it was better than I expected.

Not long before I saw this film I discovered the movie was based on a book from over a century ago. There was also a movie version that came out in the 1930s, a movie version that came out in the 1970s, and silly children version from 2009. Not much of a surprise there though since most movies, and now more video games and TV shows, are based on books and have had multiple adaptions. However I discovered that the original Call of the Wild was quite a bit darker. From what I heard it was more violent and savage with some of its scenes, so seeing this film I saw that they really toned it down. It is possible that some people might find this censoring to be insulting towards the original source material, but since I haven't read the book and am judging the film on its own I'm not to count against it very much in this matter.

Despite its lighter tones I thought the story was pretty good and solid. We got a clear journey of our canine protagonist, Buck, and his struggles throughout the film. It wasn't easy and I clearly saw him develop as a character, going from pampered pooch to hardened pack leader. He did act a bit too smart for dog, almost like he had a human brain most of the time, but his character was pretty good and if he was human I would still be fair in terms of his story arc. He fought the natural elements, other predators, enduring some tough treatment (I'll get into that later), and made friends along his grand journey! That to me is a solid story for Buck.

Buck though is part of my biggest problem with this film and that problem is also very noticeable if you have seen the trailers: The CGI, more specifically that almost all, if not all, the animals in this film were entirely CGI. Now this is just my opinion and the CGI can be viewed in a positive way by others. It's like this; Call of the Wild is the opposite of the "live-action" Lion King from the previous year. In that film the filmmakers adapted something cartoony to something more realistic, yet the animals lost that expressiveness that made them wonderful in the original. In this version of Call of the Wild the filmmakers adapted something realistic and made it a bit more cartoony, making the animals more expressive, but with less realism to them.

There are positives and negatives to using CGI for this film. Let's start with the positives: First, with CGI you don't have to worry about animals getting hurt. There are multiple scenes of animals getting hit or about to be hit with something like a club and stuff like that is an absolute no to organizations that monitor animals in film. Second, CGI gives the filmmakers full control of the "animals" in their film. Both of these have their drawbacks though. I'm pretty sure with the original story being so violent the CGI animals can make people lose interest in the Buck and the other animals and we don't feel much danger for them. Additionally it makes you wonder how much effort was put into the film because recently a similar film has come out that's also about sled dogs: Togo on Disney Plus. That film uses real animals and it feels a lot better due to us knowing these animals are struggling through their challenges. From what I've heard there are scenes where animals could have gotten hurt in Togo, but they did it anyways while having proper safety around said animals, making me appreciate it more than what was done in Call of the Wild. In the end the CGI is a very mixed bag and something you have to experience yourself in order to cement an opinion on.

One part of the film though that everyone who saw the in trailers and which immediately caught attention was Harrison Ford. Since his character in Star Wars is canonically dead, what's to become of the actor? Oddly he's set to play Indiana Jones once more in a 5th film in the next few years, which to me sounds really stupid because he's old and he's tired of playing Indy. But before that he's in this film as John Thornton and surprisingly it looked like he was enjoying the role, which is why he puts on a great performance and we see him smiling and laughing genuinely. Maybe it's because he doesn't have to play a grumpy person this time around. Now his character is kind of a mystery in a bad way though because it's never explained why he's up in the Yukon or what his goal is, which is quite a negative to me. Additionally the trailers make it out that John Thornton was going to be a massive part of the film, but he only makes a small appearance in the first half of the film and then in the second half becomes the other leading character with Buck.

Other than Harrison Ford, the rest of the cast was pretty good. The performances were solid and the characters ranged from funny to just plain jerks. Oh my god the villain of the movie was just such a pain in the ass, he was willing to do whatever to get gold and blame John Thornton for all his troubles. We also got some Native Americans, a French African American (I think he's French, based on the dialogue, but that's just a guess), and a few other individuals, though they also, like John Thornton, didn't have much story to them. In the end they were all side characters in Buck's story and strangely I am okay with this. The human characters were never supposed to be the main stars and it was kind of refreshing to have an animal as a main protagonist in the story.

In the end Call of the Wild (2020) is a dividing film. It's got a pretty good story that was toned down a lot from the original source material and cast of characters, but the CGI and the way the animals acted were hitting some notes in the uncanny valley. It's not as bad as the "live-action" Lion King or Cats (that movie still haunts me), but it's noticeable enough for people to comment on it. Harrison Ford was in it and put on a good performance with some other actors, but their characters didn't have much to them. It was better than I anticipated, but I don't think it'll win any awards and might possibly be a film that's forgotten as time goes on.

Tentative Score: 6.75/10

Definitive Score: 6.5/10

Despite my gripes I will still recommend you go to see this film because it took a chance with what it did and there were points in the story that I genuinely cared for these CGI animals, despite the fact that some of them were played by humans in motion capture suits. That and Harrison Ford, we need him still alive in case we get another Blade Runner movie. Or maybe he'll take up voice acting like Mark Hamill. Just please can we can that Indiana Jones 5 please? That's just terrible.