Good evening everyone, and welcome to another session of movie reviewing! Tonight, we review a movie that happens to be based on a novel that was written a long time ago. It stars people like Harrison Ford, and a few other people, as well as animals! Released just recently, we proudly present my review of The Call Of The Wild, produces by 20th Century Studios (yeah, apparently, that’s what it’s called now, instead of 20th Century Fox). Go figure!
Plot: Set during the late 19th Century Gold Rush, Buck lives in Santa Clara, California with his master. But one night, he gets abducted by dognappers, and taken to the Yukon in Alaska. As he endures the cold winters, while also making friends with John Thornton, and a team of sled dogs, will Buck be able to maintain his spirit in the end?
Many of you have probably heard of the book The Call Of The Wild, if not read it as well, have you not? Well, if you haven’t, then you should read the book before seeing the movie very soon. Well, whether you have read the book or not, some of you at least hopefully know that a movie came out recently. That begs the following questions. First off, did the new movie do the original book justice, and was this film better than a movie adaptation like say the 2018 Disney film A Wrinkle In Time? Well, let’s start things off by saying that the book of any story is almost always going to be superior to any film, or even play adaptation any day. However, there’s no denying that the movie version of The Call Of The Wild is still a very enjoyable story. Also, in all honesty, if you were one of those people who thought that 2018’s A Wrinkle In Time was either okay, or you just hated that one with a passion, you’ll more than likely feel a whole lot better with The Call Of The Wild. Sure, the movie took quite a few liberties. However, even if that’s the case, this film seems to stay very true to the source material. Additionally, The Call Of The Wild seems to have a feel of family films like Iron Will, Balto, or, to a lesser degree, maybe even Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron. There is such a good amount of depth, and heart to this story. What’s more is that Harrison Ford does well with both acting, and narration whenever he provides that. The movie also has a fantastic score by John Powell. Man, whether or not you’ve seen movies like How To Train Your Dragon, or live-action films that he’s provided a musical score for, there’s no doubt that Powell can make music just as good as someone like Hans Zimmer, John Williams, and quite a few other music composers. In addition to all of this, the movie does great with showing how both difficult, and also how hopeful things in life seemed to be during this particular time period in history. Finally, The Call Of The Wild will more than likely help teach people some very valuable lessons about life in general.
The only downsides to this movie are that, for one, the animals maybe could have actually been live-action animals. Not to say that they look bad. Still, when this is supposed to have real humans, and things alike that, why not have the animals be a little more realistic, you know? Also, there were maybe one or two things from the novel that probably could have been kept in the movie as well.
And that’s my review for The Call Of The Wild. Despite having me or two flaws in the movie, the film version of The Call Of The Wild is very much worth seeing. It has a good story, amazing scenery, a mostly good story, very good messages, and quite a few other elements that make this film worth your while. Even if this film could have added a couple more things to this movie that were at least included in the book, there’s still plenty of elements that make this movie worth your while. Try to see this one if you haven’t! You won’t regret it!
Final Grade: A-
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 