Title: The Call of the Wild
Rating: PG
Director: Chris Sanders
Starring: Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, Omar Sy
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins

What It Is: Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life gets turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon in the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail-delivery dog sled team, Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime as he ultimately finds his true place in the world.

What We Think: A good family film, however, I was a bit misleading. This is definitely an interesting take on a coming of age story. Prior to seeing this film, I was under the impression (based solely on seeing clips of it in the theatre I worked at) that this film was about the relationship between Buck and John Thorton played by Harrison Ford. Silly me did not think to read the synopsis of this film prior to seeing it. A mistake I won’t make again in the future. This film really focused more on Buck the dog’s growth than any of the humans. So, if you are not interested in seeing a coming of age film about an obvious CGI dog, you may want to pass on this film. CGI is by far better in this film that it was in Cats and this is coming from someone who only saw clips of Cats when doing theatre checks. At the end of the day, not a bad film but I can’t see this being everyone’s cup of tea.

Our Grade: B, This film is a very good film to take your kids to, however, not the best film ever made. I still enjoyed the film but seeing it once in the theatre was enough for me.