White Fang (1991)

I have never seen a Disney film with as many disclaimers as this film. No animals were harmed in the making of this film. There are no reported cases of healthy wolves attacking people. This film was watched by the animal humane society while making this picture. What kind of film are we in for. Well, the first scene in this film is a cute little white bunny being torn apart by wolves. Is this really a Disney film? IMPORTANT NOTE: This film is based on the book of the same name by Jack London. I have read the book, but I will NOT be comparing this film too the original novel. The reason is because the film industry and the book industry are very different, so many things are bound to change. So this review will be for the film alone. The Story The story is about a wolf-dog and a young boy's lives in Alaska. The young boy wants too find gold, while the wolf-dog tries to survive a harsh world. The films switches from White Fang to the boy frequently and makes the storytelling seem quite clumsy. The pacing isn't the best either, with scenes either going on for too long or the scene is too short to tell what is going on in that scene. The Characters The characters are a mixed bag. White Fang gets a lot of character development, which is very hard for animal characters to pull off. The boy however, is very annoying. He gets barely any development and makes the most foolish decisions throughout the film. The background characters are also quite bland. Even the villains are bad for the sake of being bad. The boy's gold mining partner has an accent so thick, I could not understand a word he said. So it may be a good idea for you to turn the subtitles on while he is in the scene. The Special Effects The animals did an excellent job at there acting roles. The only complaint I have for the dog's acting is the fight scenes. They are clearly just play fighting with growling sound effects put in to make it seem like they are fighting. If they speed up some of the footage, then it would make the scenes more believable. There is some blood on the dogs after the fight scenes. But if they put some blood effects into the film while they were fighting with some blood shot onto the floor or flying around while they were fighting, then it would make it more believable. Even though this film was made in 1991, other films had the flying blood effect in some of there scenes. Some of the special effects have not aged well. But at the time that this film was made, it looked mediocre. Final Thoughts Overall, this film is mediocre at best. If you enjoyed this film, I recommend that you read the book. There is also a sequel to this film, but at the time of this review being written, White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf is not available to on FILMCLUB's website. But I will review it once it becomes available. If the film's premise does not interest you, skip this film at your discretion, but if the film looks like it will be your cup of tea, you may be howling at this film in joy. The Story 3/5 The Characters 2/5 The Special Effects 4/5 Overall 3/5