White Fang

• French: Croc-Blanc
• Directed by Alexandre Espigares
• January 21, 2018 (Sundance) / March 28, 2018 (France) / July 6, 2018 (Netflix)
• Based on the 1906 book White Fang by Jack London

Voice Cast

• Marshal Weedon Scott-Nick Offerman
• Maggie Scott-Rashida Jones
• Beauty Smith-Paul Giamatti
• Grey Beaver-Eddie Spears
• Jim Hall-Dave Boat
• Bookie-Sean Kenin
• Vichi-Raquel Antonia
• Marshal Todd-Daniel Hagen
• Ned-Stephen Kramer Glickman
• William-William Calvert
• Three Eagles-Jason Grasl
• Curtis-Armando Riesco

The story of a free-spirited wolfdog and his return to freedom.

I remember reading the book that this is based on in school, but it’s been so long that this animated version of White Fang is all very fresh to me. Or it could be that this is strays so far from the source that it doesn’t trigger any memories. The latter is a concern I had shortly after the opening of White Fang with it branching into concern over quality.

Before even watching I was worried about dialogue. Not from any human character but from the animals. Many scriptwriters have stated how difficult it is to write a film or characters without dialogue. Mercifully the animals never speak. They are as silent here as I recall them being in the book with humans doing the talking.

Do not go in expecting some animal utopia where all the creatures of the world get along. It is a harsh and difficult eat or be eaten life portrayed. There is even a dispassionate yet realistic presentation of how humans can interact with these creatures that have some depth appropriate for something that is not human. 

This is a story about hard truths and growth. It is about leaving youth and the past behind and growing into adulthood. That understanding doesn’t come easy and is rarely if ever without some type of struggle. You can look it as including themes of how the lack of understanding causes problems. Honor and going your own way also enters into this.

I dare say plaything is a very adult movie. There’s not much soft about it. No introspection on feelings. Nothing but hard truths with many difficult decisions yet nothing inappropriate for children. Focusing on weighty things it takes us from White Fang’s beginnings all the way up to his eventual return to freedom. You can believe there is a driving sense to get back to what he views as his family being his mother and the Indigenous tribe she had lived with prior to the film.

There are moments where White Fang is not proving himself to others but proving himself to himself. Other times he is showing that people that he can do it. It is a nature friendly story that shows animals as like humans with their own struggles and feels. The neglect and abuse seen in his treatment can be viewed as analogous the racism portrayed.

Environments are beautiful in the CGI animation used to create this. Sometimes it looks a bit like cut scene imagery from an older Xbox game. It gets too fluid like an NPC character waiting for your response slightly randomly moving like somebody trying to make it weird.

Starting with the Indigenous people we meet all the way to the settler outpost, characters are generally just, well, people. They may be living in a different era but their actions, even those of the film’s real villain Beauty Smith, are understandable even if they are reprehensible. Marshal Weedon Scott and his wife Maggie are a believable couple with his concerns over the wolfdog not there just to create issues but rather normal. Mixing domesticated with wild is dangerous.

Largely this is a flashback beginning with Weedon Scott’s second encounter with White Fang before swinging back to his first and telling how it all lead to a dogfighting house. A great deal happens in between and we get a look at how the Indigenous people are pushed from their land for gold or moments of racism that caused further hardships. You will not finish this with a song in your heart.

Something about White Fang feels a little too short. Maybe it’s a vague recollection of the book itself. Maybe it’s another thing. It has emotion and generates feeling, but the conclusion feels swift or just neatly wrapped up. I have a sensation that something here was truncated or excised. It is not a happy ending but a life ending yet feels…rushed?

This animated version of White Fang is a nice introduction to the book. If anything, it’s probably the Great Illustrated Classics version of the story. The story we get here is the same story in broad strokes but not when you get down to the nitty-gritty much like the series. It’s a great introduction for kids but may leave literary purest a little wanting.

This White Fang may leave you feeling it’s lacking a little something but it’s a nice animated treat that you can enjoy with the kids or by yourself. It has enough emotional heart at its core that it’s not an empty experience.