The classic story that was written over a hundred years ago about a dog accepting his true nature and turning wild has finally received a new, more modern movie adaptation with a new CGI (computer-generated imagery) animated dog to go with it. The new “The Call of the Wild” movie retells the classic story about the once domesticated dog Buck and his journey that eventually leads him to the unknown wilderness. 

    While the core story of the book is followed in the movie, many details and side stories were never explored in the new adaptation. However, this can be expected as it is difficult to fit a whole entire book into an hour and a half movie. The skipping of parts is first prevalent at the beginning of the movie, as it glosses over what makes up a pretty big chunk of the original book. After the main dog, Buck, is captured from his first owner’s house, he is sold and taken on a boat that eventually takes him to Alaska where sled dogs are needed. In the movie, this is gone over very quickly, with it showing Buck tied up with other dogs on the ship and the humans aboard mistreating them as well. In the book, however, it is much darker, showing the dogs being beaten and some even being killed. 

    This is probably the biggest difference between the movie and the book, as the reality in the book is much more violent and gruesome than what was portrayed in the movie, but with the film having a PG rating this makes sense. Another example of a scene that was changed for the PG rating was the fight between Buck and a rival sled dog named Spitz, who Buck kills in the book, but in the movie he lets live and wander off, never to be seen again. Though this scene in the movie was less brutal, it was still a good fight that was helped by the use of CGI. While some might be put off by the movie’s use of CGI, the computer generated animals were very well made, and since every animal in the movie was created this way none of them looked out of place and fit right in with the movie and its landscapes. 

    Although many things were changed and left out from 2020’s “The Call of the Wild”, it is still a great adaptation of a classic novel. The film can be enjoyed by both fans of the original book or by people who are new to the series as the film tells the main plot very well which made the original book so interesting.