“Before he heard… the call.”

From The Call of the Wild.

Buck (modeled by Terry Notary) the dog is a young St. Bernard mix living in late 1890’s California in the mansion of Judge Miller (Bradley Whitford).  However, the Gold Rush in Alaska creates a major need for dogs to help the fortune-seeking masses reach the depths of the isolated landscape.  When Buck is kidnapped and sold, he is taken away on a journey that begins with a man that breaks his spirit and sells him off to become a sled dog in Alaska.  Buck quickly learns the danger of his new home, including animal savagery, dangerous men, and life-or-death weather.  As part of a sled team delivering mail with the tough, but decent Perrault (Omar Sy) and Françoise (Cara Gee), Buck finds himself in a power struggle with the lead dog, that releases a part of him that that had been long forgotten to the house pet.  Buck journeys all across the Alaskan wilderness with the sled team, but when Perrault is removed from the route, the tired dogs are then purchased by greatly inexperienced gold rushers, Hal (Dan Stevens) and his companions Mercedes (Karen Gillan) and Charles (Colin Woodell) whose disregard for veteran advice causes the almost-deadly exhaustion of all the dogs on the team.  Luckily, a Yukon veteran named John Thorton (Harrison Ford) takes Buck from Hal and his gold-hungry group before any danger becomes Buck.  Living with Thornton, Buck finds love, purpose, and respect with Thornton in an adventure that follows the clever dog from pet to perfectly in tune with the call of the wild.

Based on Jack London’s classic adventure novel, this movie presents the happenings and characters of the book in a slightly altered way that makes it more family friendly.  The actors are relatable, the scenery is breathtaking, and the special effects are impressive, but the over-animation of the dog is disappointing.  Overall, The Call of the Wild captures the highlights of the classic adventure without the intensity that overwhelmed the book.

| Rated: PG | Running Time: 105 minutes |Genre: action/adventure|

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 0 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|