Nikki, Wild Dog of the North
Directed by Jack Couffer and Don Haldane
Written by Ralph Wright and Winston Hibler from a novel by James Oliver Curwood
1961/USA/Canada
Walt Disney Productions/Cangary/Westminster Films
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” ― Will Rogers[/box]
Disney gives its nature documentaries a plot and we get a pleasant family film about a Malamute dog and his friend who just happens to be a bear cub.
Nikki is still almost a puppy when his owner, a trapper, takes him with him for work in the far North Canadian wilderness. While there, they encounter mother bear and her cub. Mother is killed protecting her baby from a wolf and the cub becomes one of the family. Nikki and the cub don’t get along at all and for some reason the trapper solves that problem by tying them together and putting them in his canoe. The animals become separated from the human and we watch their friendship and adventures in the wild. Toward the end the cub goes to hibernate and Nikki is left on his own in the harsh winter where not all humans turn out to be humane.
This is quite watchable. The dog actor is very talented!
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