'The Call Of The Wild' Featurette, TV Spot, And Clip: Harrison Ford's Canine Companion Outruns An Avalanche

Jack London's 1903 book The Call of the Wild has been adapted for the screen several times already, but there's only one that features Harrison Ford opposite a CG dog. 20th Century Studios is releasing this new iteration later this month, and they've unleashed a slew of marketing materials recently that we've gathered up below in one place.

I love that wearisome, over-it-all face Ford makes at the beginning of this video when he says, "I've had dogs all my life." I just imagine some unfortunate Fox video producer sitting across from him, trying to coax an answer out of him and get him to look excited about being involved in a featurette. "You've had dogs before, haven't you, Mr. Ford?" I imagine them saying, and their peppy attitude causes a little part of him to slowly die inside.

Those who don't know the story may have seen previous trailers and assumed that this was just a "man and his dog" story, but this TV spot does a good idea of explaining that Buck the dog is actually the main character, and the film follows his adventures as he encounters several humans along the way.

I also had no idea that this movie was directed by Chris Sanders, one of the co-directors of Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon. Those are two projects that managed to get that pet/human dynamic down to an art, and he's also pretty good at staging action sequences, which this clip proves is still the case.

Here's the film's official synopsis:

Adapted from the beloved literary classic, THE CALL OF THE WILD vividly brings to the screen the story of Buck, a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life is turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team–and later its leader–Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime, ultimately finding his true place in the world and becoming his own master.

As a live-action/animation hybrid, THE CALL OF THE WILD employs cutting edge visual effects and animation technology in order to render the animals in the film as fully photorealistic – and emotionally authentic – characters.

The Call of the Wild hits theaters on February 21, 2020.