BEFORE: Linking from "The Lorax", Zac Efron was also in "New Year's Eve" with Larry Miller.
THE PLOT: Two young wolves at opposite ends of their pack's social order are thrown together into a foreign land and need each other to return home, but love complicates everything.
AFTER: Well, if there's a low-watermark to the talking animal genre, this might be it. I wondered why this 2010 film took so long to air on cable, and it's no doubt because the film just isn't very good. It ends up making the same point as "Brave" did - wolves should be free to marry whoever they want - but are wolves even monogamous? Or do they just live in packs?
Perhaps the plot more closely resembles "Forces of Nature", since the two wolves fall in love while traveling home, and one is engaged already. But this time it's the female who's engaged, and you have to imagine Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock as wolves. Go ahead, I dare you.
I might have been inclined to return to the identity/purpose theme, since there are supposedly Alphas and Omegas within a wolfpack - but the roles aren't very well defined. You might think the Alphas are the great hunters and the Omegas fulfill lesser roles, but Alphas instead seem good at jumping and flipping in the air, and Omegas hunt squirrels and surf down mountains on tree bark. Umm, OK, but wouldn't wolf society value hunting more, since it's so important to their survival? The film sees no need to clearly define the roles, or state what will happen if an Alpha loves an Omega, other than to suggest that one pack would then fight another, and the Alpha's mother would rip out the Omega's throat.
There's not even a coherent point made about love and how it works. We're supposed to believe that the two leads are right for each other, even though one is "engaged" to an Alpha from another pack - but they fall in love after spending so much time together getting home. So is it "love the one you're with", or not? If they're meant for each other, why don't they realize it themselves? Very confusing.
The two bird characters only add to the confusion - note that in the real world, the wolves would have probably eaten them, but I guess they needed their help to get home. The birds understand how trains work, and also know which campers will be heading back to where the wolves need to be. (All aboard the Coincidence Express...) And the birds play golf, for some strange reason.
This might spark conversations between parents and kids about love and sex - since the wolves pair up and "howl" together, while sort of dancing/gyrating in pairs. It's a thinly-veiled metaphor, since the wolves ask each other "Was it good for you?" afterwards. But since one wolf keeps on howling without his partner, this may lead to some more questions from the kids...
Also starring the voices of Justin Long (last heard in "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked"), Hayden Panettiere (last heard in "Hoodwinked Two! Hood vs. Evil"), Danny Glover (last seen in "2012"), Dennis Hopper (last seen in "Rebel Without a Cause"), Vicki Lewis, Christina Ricci (last seen in "New York, I Love You").
RATING: 2 out of 10 caribou
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