The Canadian Northwest. 1899. Fur trader Andre Dupas (Jean Coutu) navigates the mighty rivers of British Columbia in his canoe, accompanied by his three-month-old Malamute, Nikki. My Pavlovian, post-ironic response to Dupas’s red-and-black flannel shirt is to launch into Monty Python’s “Lumberjack Song,” but I cannot sustain my snarky, GenX reaction to Nikki, Wild Dog of the North for long, for one simple reason: Baby critters!
Based on the novel Nomads of the North by James Oliver Curwood, this 1961 Disney movie is an awwww-inspiring romp through evergreen forests with endless opportunities to coo over the antics of this adorable puppy and his new friend, a black bear cub named Neewa. See, Dupas and Nikki encounter Neewa just after — shades of Bambi! – Neewa’s mom dies, and Dupas knows that Neewa will not survive on his own. And then pup and cub get dumped into the river as Dupas canoes dangerous rapids. Nikki and Neewa paddle ashore but — shades of the Brothers Grimm! — they are now lost in the woods.
Man oh man, the things we let kids watch. Nikki is practically a documentary about the Darwinian horrors of the food chain disguised as a kiddie flick. As dog and bear grow to adulthood over the quickly compressed months, and then dog must venture out on his own when bear settles in for winter hibernation, we’re treated to wolverines, lynxes, wolves, and — yes — Nikki hunting and scavenging for every imaginable type of cuddly little thing. I watched in horrified fascination as a blue fox and then Nikki toyed with round little muskrats bouncing around in the snow. No, wait — that’s just my ironic reflex again. Rest assured, in the best Disney tradition, the survival of the fittest is not at all graphically depicted, and Nikki will certainly enchant kids — the bloodthirsty little savages love this kind of stuff. Be prepared, though, for wide-eyed younger tykes to ask things like, “Is Nikki gonna eat the bunny wabbit?!”
Aside from a few spots of Zapruder-quality imagery, where rough stock footage was obviously dropped in, Nikki, Wild Dog of the North is gorgeously shot, with beautiful alpine vistas and wildlife photography that doesn’t feel staged but surely must have been — how did they get a bear and a dog, natural enemies, to play so nicely together? Along with the overblown narration — a grizzly that menaces young Neewa is “mad with the instinct of the adult male to kill all cubs” — the pseudo-documentary feel serves as a potent reminder that kids’ films once weren’t just about selling toys and Happy Meals, but about sneaking a bit of edification in with the entertainment.
Even a cynic like me found her heart just about breaking as Nikki’s tale comes full circle, bringing him to bittersweet maturity as, of course, he is eventually reunited with Dupas. Old-fashioned animal stories have always been a Disney specialty, and they don’t disappoint here.
This review originally appeared at the now-defunct Apollo Guide.
