{"id":20041,"date":"2020-02-20T14:21:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T22:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20041"},"modified":"2020-02-20T14:21:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T22:21:48","slug":"the-call-of-the-wild-has-a-nice-message-but-appears-overloaded-with-cgi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20041","title":{"rendered":"THE CALL OF THE WILD Has a Nice Message, but Appears Overloaded with CGI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/24_0006_C+-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7079\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The written work of Jack London has been celebrated for more\nthan 100 years, with some of his most popular stories set in the Yukon where he\nonce traveled and lived. His naturalist fiction loosely based on his\nexperiences strove to detail both the beauty and harshness of the wild and all lifeforms\nwho either live there or are drawn to it. His work has been adapted into film a\nfew times over the years and the latest attempt is <em>The Call of the Wild<\/em>,\nwhich uses new technology to tell its story. While advancements have no doubt\nassisted the filmmakers in accomplishing some of the trickier aspects of bringing\nthe source material to life, they also end up being responsible for the movie\u2019s\nbiggest issues.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Call-of-the-Wild-CG-cliffside-1024x498.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20044\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Buck is a large and rambunctious St. Bernard\/Scot Collie\nmix, unable to stay still and causing nothing but trouble for his owner in\nSanta Clara, California. One night, Buck is kidnapped and shipped to the north\nto be sold as a work mutt during the Gold Rush. He passes from owner to owner,\nstarting as a postal sled dog for French-Canadian mailman Perrault (Omar Sy)\nand his wife (Cara Gee) and then for a greedy prospector (Dan Stevens). The dog\nbegins having visions of a spirit wolf as he contemplates his lot in life. Buck\nalso starts to cross paths with loner John Thornton (Harrison Ford) and the two\neventually set out to find themselves and their true calling in the wilderness.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Call-of-the-Wild-CG-buck-mailman-Sy.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20046\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the story itself has been softened just a bit, the\nbasic structure and ideas remain close to the source. Buck the dog is the\ncentral character and he doesn\u2019t speak, but his thoughts and actions are\nnarrated by Thornton. As such, Harrison Ford is tasked with delivering the film\u2019s\nthemes through voice-overs and accomplishes the task well. He\u2019s also a welcome\nsight as his troubled character becomes more involved in the proceedings, verbally\nsharing his thoughts on the Yukon as he and the dog venture out into the\nunknown. Stating the observations of both the pooch and himself bluntly could have\ncome across as corny, but the performer delivers the material with\ngravitas.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Call-of-the-Wild-CG-buck.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20042\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the heavy addition of CGI that causes some concern. The\nanimals featured, including Buck are computer fabrications. On the one hand\nthis is completely understandable, as the dog is put in all kinds of dangerous\nsituations. In some shots (mostly wide ones), the pooch looks reasonably\nbelievable. However, close ups do have a rather fake and waxy look. It is more\nthan likely that small kids won\u2019t have much of a problem with the phoniness on\ndisplay, although older viewers like myself will have a harder time suspending\ndisbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Call-of-the-Wild-CG-digital-wilderness-1024x491.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-20043\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And speaking of phoniness, the other big issue the film has is with its CGI backdrops. Not only are all of the animals on display digital creations, but at times the wilderness appears to be generated in a hard drive. With the exception a couple of drone shots, many other natural elements are either completely artificial or digitally enhanced. Again, this likely won\u2019t be an issue for children, but adults will note that most of the actors in the wild look like they\u2019re on a studio backlot or standing in front of a green screen. For a movie espousing the wonders of the hinterland, returning to the life of one\u2019s forefathers and living in uncharted nature, well, you\u2019d hope for there to be some real and authentically majestic scenery in the background. There\u2019s less here than one would expect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, the messages espoused in the feature are valid and engaging. And the adventure on display will likely be exciting for younger viewers or those who don\u2019t mind the Yukon outback looking like a video game. But once again, as a grouchy adult, the reliance on computer-generated characters and locations is off-putting and seems a contradiction to both the film\u2019s and the book\u2019s message. As a result, <em>The Call of the Wild<\/em> is a passable family film, but one that never truly feels as free or untamed as it needs to be.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The written work of Jack London has been celebrated for more than 100 years, with some of his most popular stories set in the Yukon where he once traveled and lived. His naturalist fiction loosely based on his experiences strove to detail both the beauty and harshness of the wild and all lifeforms who either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,3632,3774,3775,3776,3777,3892,4079,4243,5104,5999,7287,8458,8908,10101,15364,20212,24691],"class_list":["post-20041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-buck","tag-call-of-the-wild","tag-call-of-the-wild-film-review","tag-call-of-the-wild-movie-review","tag-call-of-the-wild-review","tag-cara-gee","tag-cgi","tag-childrens-film-2","tag-dan-stevens","tag-dog","tag-family-film","tag-gold-rush","tag-harrison-ford","tag-jack-london","tag-omar-sy","tag-the-call-of-the-wild","tag-yukon"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}