This Sunday, January 1, 2023, TF1 takes you on extraordinary adventures with the broadcast at 9:10 p.m. of The forest’s call. The hero of this family film is Buck, a courageous dog who will have to face many dangers after being stolen from his family. On his way, he will meet benevolent men, like John Thornton, an old loner with a big tender heart played by Harrison Ford (who will soon be on the screen of the fifth part of the adventures of Indiana Jones), as well as Perrault, a young postal courier played by Omar Sy, who sent Harrison Ford to graze on the shooting of the film. Buck will also find himself in the grip of much less recommendable people, in particular Hal, a young upstart gold digger played by Dan Stevens, the actor of the series Legion on Disney+ Star, who also played the Beast in The beauty and the Beast after Ryan Gosling turned down the role.
A novel that has been adapted into a film several times
If this version, released in 2020 at the cinema, is the latest, it is far from being the first adaptation on the big screen of this cult novel written by Jack London. In 1935, this great classic of literature was already transposed to the cinema with Clark Gable, the mythical Rhett Butler of the cult film Gone with the wind. In 1972, it was Charlon Heston, the hero of the great cinema classics that are Ben Hur and The ten Commandments who takes on the role of Jack Thornton, with the French actress Michèle Mercier at his side. Closer to home, in 1997, it was a TV movie with the late Rutger Hauer which took hold of Buck’s adventures before this very last version of the 2020s.
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A little nod to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
While it generally follows the plot of Jack London’s novel, this adaptation of The forest’s call however, offers some liberties with respect to the original story and even allows itself a little fantasy by winking at a great Walt Disney classic whose universe is, a priori, very far from that of the adventures of Buck. This great classic is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated film of all time. Thus, when Buck leads a pack of sled dogs under Hal’s command, each of the dogs has the character of a dwarf from Snow White: Dolly is Shy, Pike is Grumpy, Joe is Happy, Billy is Sleeper, Dave is Dopey, Dub is Atchoum and Sol-Leck is Prof. On the other hand, the pack does not sing in chorus Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, we come home from work !
