cinematic roots of: ‘Alpha and Omega’

No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.

In Alpha and Omega, two animated wolves -- a lowly cur (the voice of Justin Long) and a pack leader (the voice of Hayden Panettiere) -- are relocated by humans to another park and fall in love on the road trip home. This flick sprang from (among other films):

• The Lion King (1994), for a revisit of the triumphant film about honor and family that this new flick is clearly hoping to imitate (a task it fails hopelessly at).

• Balto (1995), the animated family film about a heroic wolf-dog hybrid who leads a sled team transporting lifesaving drugs across dangerous Alaskan terrain.

• Call of the Wild (2000), the Animal Planet family adventure series, loosely based on the Jack London novel about a lost sled dog who befriends a teenage boy.

• Never Cry Wolf (1983), the beloved movie about a researcher (Charles Martin Smith) who goes into the Arctic to study wolves and ends up changing public attitudes toward the creatures.