Disney’s adaptation of the classic Jack
London adventure, starring Harrison Ford and a pack of CGI critters, is enjoyably corny
Beethoven meets Gladiator in this old-fashioned doggy adventure from
Disney, which basically jumps out of the screen and starts licking your face. It’s digital in its effects but analogue in its heart.
A big, silly, sloppy, adorable pet St Bernard collie called Buck is forced to toughen up and find his inner survivor-warrior after he is effectively sold into slavery by evil dognappers in early-20th-century North America. He is put to work on a sled team in the freezing Klondike, where the gold rush has drawn thousands of desperate souls searching for riches. At first Buck has to be one of the dogs in the rear, behind a mean alpha canine called Spitz. And that joke about the view not changing unless you are lead dog originates from this very story. But Buck finds a soulmate and pal in a grizzled old prospector called Thornton – played by Harrison Ford – who has sadness in his heart and cares more for freedom than for gold. Ford also supplies the growly narration.