Recently, two of my children and I decided to watch The Call of The Wild starring Harrison Ford. My eighth grade English class finished reading the book recently, so I was excited when the movie hit our small-town theater. I have a life-long love/hate relationship with movies based on books.  Granted, it is more “hate” than “love”.  Not too many things in life irk me more than ruining a perfectly good literature plotline by letting Hollywood take a crack at it. For example, the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been close to my heart since I was a young girl. I don’t know how many times I have read the novel, but it is enough to know that the 1994 version of the movie was terrible.  Harry Potter lost me the moment I knew that my favorite ghost, Peeves, was literally cut out of the picture.

The Call of the Wild is a compelling book from the point of view of the dog, Buck. Jack London personified the animals so that we could get a better understanding of their role in the world. Jack London also used a great deal of imagery to emphasize Buck’s journey from being a pampered pet to a creature living in the wild.

So how does the movie measure up?  Without giving too much of a spoiler, here are some of the main points:

Positives

1.Harrison Ford
Really, need I say more?

Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org

2. Plot Changes

The plot was logical, and changes that were made didn’t seem random. Despite the intensity, there was some comedy relief.

Photo courtesy of lukasbieiri on Pixabay.com

3. A Fun Family Movie

It is cleaned up a lot.  Almost all the violence is removed from the viewer.  The movie is geared towards a younger audience, so the movie is nowhere near as violent and bloody as the book.

Photo courtesy of James DeMers on Pixabay.com

Negatives

1.  A Lot Of Adaptation
It is a huge departure from the book. Do not attend the movie and think that you are going to see what you have read. Don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Just realize that the experience you have from the movie will be very different than the one from reading the book.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

2. Point Of View Shift

The POV is not from Buck. The movie has an omniscient narrator in the voice of John Thornton (Harrison Ford). That is a shift I wasn’t expecting and didn’t care for.  It just didn’t work for me.

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com

3. Cleaned Up Too Much
Most of the violence is taken out. I understand why it was taken out, but the rivalry between Spitz and Buck is a pivotal point in the book. It is one of the main points where Buck learns about survival and leadership.  This is lost in the movie version.

Photo courtesy of klimkin on Pixabay.com

4. Significance Of The Title
The call of the wild is mostly in the title.  With so much of the plotline either left out or cleaned up to show much less blood and gore, the importance of the title is left hanging by a thread.

Photo courtesy of Mysticartdesign

My best advice is to yes, go see it with your family but leave any literature-induced expectations at home.  Also, I strongly advise seeing it in a theater.  Some of the live reactions from the audience add to the overall experience. Harrison Ford is fabulous, no surprise there.  But what was a surprise that even though so much was changed from the original novel, the movie was still endearing and fun to watch.  I’m not sure I would watch it again, but for an impromptu evening out with my kids, it was worth it.