Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (1961)

I thought Perri was the only True-Life Fantasy? Well, apparently not. Sort of. Well, there’s a big fluffy dog in it, so how can it be? Unless, of course, dog fighting is a plot point. Oh, geez.

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Real talk, this is not actually a True-Life Fantasy, but it’s very, very close. We’ve got a narrator, we’ve got animals, we’ve got wildlife photography. Winston Hibler is even back as a producer! So that’s cool, even if his narration duties are taken over by Jacques Fauteux. Like Perri before it, this film combines images taken directly from nature with the plot of an existing book. In this case, it’s Nomads of the North by James Oliver Curwood, which took forever to get going and from what I can tell from Wikipedia the movie took out the most interesting parts of the book. So that’s great. Still, the movie made a modest profit, got mostly positive reviews, won an Eddie for Best Edited Documentary, so we’ve got that going for us!

STORY

A narrator who sounds a lot like the narrator for Sleeping Beauty but isn’t introduces us to Nikki the Malamute puppy and his kindly master, Andre Dupas. It’s not a good sign when the narrator has to tell us things we’d normally find through character development. It’s also not a good sign to see the year 1899 flash up on my screen. The late 1800s means Westerns. And I hate Westerns. Anyway, Andre stops to make camp on the side of the river on his way to get supplies from the nearby fort. He warns Nikki not to go too far, but of course he goes too far while romping and playing as puppies do. He spies on Neewa the bear cub, leaving his den for the first time at his mother Noozak’s heels. He explores outside the den and is generally adorable, playing with some angry goslings.

Suddenly, Noozak bellows for Neewa to come back. We slowly hear the danger she sensed: Andre’s voice, calling for Nikki. Nikki barks, and Andre hurries over to him to investigate the bear tracks he found. Andre decides to leave it because bears are too dangerous to track, but Nikki races off. To ensure his dog doesn’t get mauled by an angry mama bear, Andre hauls him away and ties him to his canoe. We check back in on Neewa exploring the world around him while Noozak snoozes. He runs afoul of a bee and a marmot, the latter of whom chases him right down a hill. Now Neewa is thoroughly lost, so he climbs up a tree to get a better look. He spots a paw sticking out behind a rock, so he runs over, thinking he’s found her. But it’s not Noozak at all. It’s Makoos, a vicious grizzly who loves nothing more than murdering cubs. Noozak rushes to her baby’s defense, and the bears duke it out. It’s terrifying, both from a cinematic perspective and from an animal cruelty perspective.

Nikki overhears the commotion and barks to wake Andre. He doesn’t move fast enough, so the dog pulls his rope hard enough to break free of the canoe. He makes his way up the cliff, ignoring Andre’s orders to get back, stopping only when he reaches the foot of a tree. Andre catches up and scolds him for causing trouble, then spots the bear cub stranded in the treetop. Because this guy has a brain, he advises Nikki to get out of there before the mother bear finds them around the cub. A look around shows that he, tragically, has nothing to worry about. Noozak lies dead a little ways off. Andre realizes the cub will die alone in the woods, which I actually doubt, and Nikki’s barks convince him to take the cub with them.

This doesn’t go particularly well. Andre ties Neewa and Nikki together to make sure that they stay out of trouble. They struggle for freedom, but Andre holds them tight and hauls them into his canoe. In his efforts to stop his dog and his bear cub from brawling, he takes his hands off the paddles just long enough for the canoe to drift into rapids. The boat careens over a huge waterfall. Andre barely escapes with his life, and Nikki and Neewa are gone! He calls for his dog. No answer. It’s okay, though, Nikki’s alive, and Neewa is too! They paddle for their lives and grab a fallen log, rushing down the raging river until finally, they wash up on shore. Nikki hears Andre calling but Neewa stubbornly makes him trek through the wilderness, and the man can’t hear his dog barking for him. It looks like they’ll never be reunited.

That night, Neewa tries to climb a tree for a safe place to sleep. Nikki can’t climb, so he gets dragged upwards by the rope on his neck. Let me repeat this. This dog is almost hanged by a bear cub. On screen. Ughghghgghghh. Eventually, Neewa chooses a lower branch and Nikki contorts into a position that won’t strangle him. It’s not a great solution but at least they’re not almost hanging dogs anymore. The next morning, Nikki wakes to the call of his stomach, but Neewa keeps foiling his attempts to hunt. Neewa’s just fine living off grass, so why wouldn’t Nikki be? Eventually, Nikki decides to try it for lack of any other options. They come across a bee tree, which Neewa clambers into to try to eat the honey while Nikki keeps his distance for fear of getting stung.

Then Nikki smells something. Something familiar. A human! Could it be Andre? In his determination the break free of the struggling bear cub, Nikki breaks the leather string. He leaves Neewa behind and follows the trail all the way to the human camp. It quickly becomes apparent that this human, Jacques Lebeau, is not as kind as Andre. Not at all. He treats his hunting partner, Makoki, as a servant, just because he happens to be Native American, and Makoki’s starting to get tired of it. It got my dander up but it’s a little different when the bad guy says stuff like that compared to everyone. We’re not supposed to agree with him. To keep the peace, Makoki offers to take Lebeau to the best trap lines, but only if he gets an equal share in the resulting furs. Lebeau initially refuses, but without Makoki’s help he’ll get nothing so he has to agree.

Of course, Nikki, being a dog, understands none of this, so he howls, thinking he’s found human companionship at last. Lebeau mistakes him for a wolf and tries to shoot him. Nikki bolts and hides in a hollow log, his faith in humans gone. Suddenly, a pack of timber wolves races past, reminding Nikki just how lonely he really is. As he muses on it, a wet black nose pokes its way into the log. It’s Neewa! He’s back! And now they’re best friends for life. The bear cub leads Nikki out into the world, but the remains of the leather string catches on a branch and almost garrotes him! What is it with this movie and almost hanging the animals? And it only gets worse from here. At least he’s able to get his collar off.

Now Nikki is free to act on his hunting instincts! But he’s not great at it. He chases a rabbit right into a lynx’s territory, but the lynx isn’t the only creature he has to contend with. A vicious wolverine has his eye on the kill. Nikki doesn’t know any better so he engages the wolverine in brutal combat while Neewa looks on. Finally, Nikki gives up and concedes the rabbit, escaping to lick his wounds. But the ravenous wolverine isn’t done yet. He abandons the rabbit (after all that!) to bully the lynx for the deer it killed. Neewa sneaks in as the wolverine and lynx duke it out to snatch what’s left of the rabbit. He offers it to Nikki, but it’s a matter of pride for Nikki to fight his own battles.

By summertime, Nikki is fully grown and Neewa is much, much bigger. Despite their increased and dangerous strength, the two are still playmates and the narration takes great pains to promise they’d never hurt each other. Somehow I find that doubtful, looking at the filming in this thing. Still, it’s presented as an accident when Nikki knocks Neewa down a ridge, so I’ll go with it for the sake of the recap. Neewa tumbles down the hill right into the path of Makoos, the very same bear that killed his mother! He climbs a tree to escape, where he’s perfectly safe even without Nikki’s help. But Nikki tries to help anyway, and actually gets the killer bear away so Neewa can climb down to safety. The dog tricks Makoos into entering a hollow log, then shoves it down a hill. When it smashes at the bottom, all Makoos can do is lash out at bushes. Nikki and Neewa are safe at last!

Winter comes so we get our obligatory scene of our cute animals playing in the snow, just like in Bambi and Perri. They find themselves at just outside the very den where Neewa was born. The bear cub snuggles up inside and falls asleep. It’s time to hibernate. Nikki doesn’t understand this and howls to wake him up, but he’s out like a light. Frustrated, Nikki takes off on his own to search for food with little success. He bullies some muskrats but loses them, then tries to take down an elk solo but runs afoul of his antlers. He can’t even catch a mouse. By nighttime, it looks like all is lost until he finds a pack of wolves descending on a frozen deer carcass. Nikki hurries to meet his canine cousins, but they attack him!

Upon retreating, Nikki smells a human. this didn’t go well last time, but the trail’s mixed with the smell of meat and he’s starving so he’ll try anything. He finds a little construction of sticks on top of a chunk of meat, ready and waiting. When he leans in to take the food, a steel trap snaps right on his neck! Fortunately, it doesn’t take him long to free himself. With the trap snapped, he’s able too make off with the food. He figures out that kicking snow over the traps snaps them, so he’s able to negate the risk and eat his fill. He even starts stockpiling extra food so he doesn’t face starvation again! What a smart boy.

Lebeau notices something keeps stealing his bait without having the decency to stay in the trap. He’s sure it’s a wolf, but Makoki knows the wilderness better than that. Only a dog is crafty enough to escape a steel trap. Lebeau doesn’t care what it is, he’s going to put an end to this by poisoning the bait. Nikki returns to the trap line and springs the trap as usual, but this time the meat smells different. He almost leaves it, but curiosity gets the better of him so he returns to lick it. He decides he doesn’t like the taste so he leaves it, but one lick is all it takes for some of the poison to get into his system. I watched a dog get poisoned, guys. Lebeau comes out of hiding to rage over how little the dog ate and how that won’t kill him, but Makoki spots the erratic dog tracks which might just mean they got him. To my enormous relief, Nikki’s fine, he just got sick for a few hours and recovered.

Lebeau has had just about enough of this so he follows Nikki’s footprints back to his den. He sticks his face inside because it’s always smart to put your head in a wolf’s den (he still thinks he’s a wolf). Nikki is a very smart boy who knows Lebeau is no good, so he starts growling. Undeterred, Lebeau sets the den on fire so he can smoke Nikki out. He doesn’t count on how fast Nikki is, nor on how bad of a shot he is, so Nikki easily gets away. All isn’t lost, though. Makoki catches a rabbit for dinner! Well, Lebeau’s already in a mood so he slaps Makoki across the face and steals the rabbit to use as bait in a new series of traps around the den.

At first, Nikki doesn’t understand why the rabbit isn’t running from him. It’s caught in a snare, right behind a trap buried in the snow. This time, Nikki doesn’t see the trap and steps in it, so it catches him on the leg! This. Poor. Dog. A bigger, meaner dog lunges out of the bushes. The dog’s master- Lebeau, of course- gleefully watches the two dogs duke it out despite Makoki’s protests, until everything goes silent. The bigger dog is dead. Lebeau forgives Nikki completely for robbing his traps. He’s got a much better idea than killing him: he’s going to make him dog fight back at the trading post. Dog. Fight. Makoki tries to befriend him and almost succeeds- Nikki is happy to lick his hand, anyway. But then Lebeau grabs a massive stick and clubs him until he’s aggressive towards the world! DUDE. Thankfully, the resulting abuse is only shown via Makoki’s reaction shots and sound effects but this man is still going Michael Vick on us.

This next scene contains all my favorite things: a Western setting, animal cruelty, and bagpipes. There’s a festival going on at Fort O’Fortune, and Lebeau arrives in the middle of the celebrations with Nikki in a cage. It’s a very different Nikki from the adorable fluffy puppy we’ve known this far, though. He snarls and snaps and foams at the mouth at anyone who gets too close to the bars of his cage. It’s horrifying. I mean, it’s probably done with peanut butter or whatever they did for Old Yeller, but it’s still heartbreaking to watch. Lebeau lowers Nikki’s cage into a pit, but there are no takers! It seems the whole fort has come to the realization that dog fighting is despicable, and the new overseer has signed it into law. A sign posted nearby for the view’s benefit declares that said overseer is none other than our good buddy Andre Dupas!

Well, obeying the law would mean Lebeau is not the most vile human being ever put to screen. He breaks the sign over his knee and yells to everyone that they’d better let him have his dogfight. For some reason, this persuades the other sheeple to bet on whether Lebeau or another man named Durante will come out on top. This scene is so hard to watch. I told myself that they repeated movie-making tricks from Old Yeller again, muzzling the combatants and playing sounds of snarling over them, but there’s no information whatsoever on this movie to confirm or deny that. That, combined with the glee in the spectator’s faces and voices, makes it agony to watch, and the scene is really long, too. Finally, finally Nikki pin the other dog. Durante pleads with Lebeau to call off his dog but Lebeau is a bloodthirsty beast and refuses until Nikki actually charges the audience. Durante jumps into the pit to rescue his injured dog and Lebeau orders Nikki to attack him!

Andre himself emerges to investigate the commotion. He gives this big, glorious speech on how they all ought to be ashamed of themselves and how barbaric it is to make these beautiful, loyal creatures murder each other in the name of entertainment, then kicks everyone out of the fort. Good. He asks who owns the injured malamute in the pit and warns Lebeau that he’d better look after him. So Lebeau has the reasonable reaction and shoves Andre into the pit with the vicious, foaming dog splattered with blood. This guy is something else. Andre tries to make himself nonthreatening in the face of the mad dog, speaking softly and holding his hands up defensively.

All of a sudden, the snarling stops. Nikki whines and steps towards Andre. He remembers his old master! At first, Andre doesn’t believe it, but after a beat he recognizes the dog he lost as a pup. The snarls become joyful barks as he leaps into his master’s arms and for just a moment, all is doggie kisses and ear scritches. So of course Lebeau has to ruin it. He leaps into the pit to beat the crap out of Andre, with more of that terrible fight choreography we’ve come to know and… well, know. Nikki struggles to help but he’s tied to the cage. After a while, Andre gets Lebeau still on his back, so he turns to take his dog and go. Out of nowhere, Lebeau leaps back up and kicks Andre square in the face. While he’s disoriented from the surprise blow, he pulls a knife on him!

Just like me, Makoki has had just about enough of this. He cuts the rope holding Nikki back, allowing the dog to rush to his masters’ aid. He jumps on Lebeau, snarling again. By the time Andre can pry him off to prevent more bloodshed, Lebeau isn’t moving. Andre orders the spectators to dress his injuries, but it’s too late. He’s gone. And good riddance to bad rubbish. But the spectators don’t see it that way. They see a dog who killed a man, and order poor heroic Nikki shot. Durante aims the gun. For a moment, I almost have to reference Old Yeller again. But at the last possible second, Makoki steps in to reveal that Nikki didn’t kill Lebeau at all. He fell on his own knife! The dog doesn’t die at the end! Andre investigates the cut rope and silently thanks Makoki.

The following spring, Andre and Nikki run for more supplies, in the very same spot where it all began. Makoki can now proudly call himself Andre’s business partner and equal. Suddenly, Nikki runs off again, right to Neewa’s den, bookending the movie. Neewa’s doing just fine, as no one interrupted his winter to turn him into a bloodthirsty monster. Nikki tries to bring his old friend home to meet Andre, but Neewa has no interest in getting near humans. In fact, he doesn’t even remember his old best friend. The two decide it’s best to leave the past in the past and go their separate ways. As Andre’s canoe continues on its way, Neewa watches from a cliff.

This movie would have been perfectly fine it it was animated. It could have been a Fox and the Hound type story about two good friends who grow up together until one of them is kidnapped by an evil man who only sees profit. We wouldn’t have needed a narrator, as we’d be able to hear Neewa and Nikki speak. More importantly, you wouldn’t have needed to hurt these poor animals. I sincerely hope the dogfighting was staged, but even then, they tied a bear cub and a puppy together and let the cub climb a tree! It was horrible to watch.

I mean, I know animal rights still had a long way to go at this point but come on. I kept comparing it to Old Yeller because that movie also did some pretty nightmarish things to its animal cast (that poor cow), but at least that movie had stretches of human action to keep interest. This was just an hour and a half of watching this dog go through hell. What human action did exist alternated between infuriating because Lebeau is just so disgusting and boring because Andre has the personality of a plank of wood. It’s particularly annoying because the book has a subplot all about the liberation of Lebeau’s wife Nanette, and how Nikki helps her break free from her abuse and find true love. That would have been so much more interesting than 45 minutes of “and then Nikki couldn’t find food”.

Mostly, though, I just felt terrible for this dog.

CHARACTERS

Nikki is a gorgeous Malamute who grows up wild after being separated from his owner. He’s a very good boy, brave and resilient even through nearly a year on his own. Even when Lebeau tries to break him, he retains his old love and spirit, because no dog is inherently vicious. He’s played by a female Malamute, also named Nikki, though I can’t find anything to say whether or not it’s the same dog when he’s a puppy. Actually, in Nomads of the North, Nikki’s name was Miki, but I guess they didn’t want him getting confused with the mouse. Not sure why they changed his breed from a Airedale-Spitz-Mackenzie hound mutt, though.

Neewa is a stubborn little bear cub. His one drive throughout the movie is to find his mother, which is really sad considering his mother is dead. Eventually, though, his instinct to hibernate wins out and he gives up. He’s the Todd to Nikki’s Copper and I still swear that that would have been a much better movie. He’s mischevious and tends to get his nose into things he shouldn’t like a bee tree.

Andre Dupas is Nikki’s rightful master. He’s a good and loyal owner who takes good care of his dog until they’re separated by no fault of his own. Fortunately for my sanity, he despises dog fighting and calls for an end to it, which was apparently progressive for 1961? What? Possibly because we see so little of him, there’s not much to him other than that he’s a good dude. Maybe seeing more of him being a good dude (like, oh, I don’t know, sheltering Nanette?) would have made the human-centric portions of this movie a lot less infuriatingly boring. He’s played by Jean Coutu, a French-Canadian actor with a very short IMDB page.

Makoki is Lebeau’s reluctant sidekick. He can’t stand his partner, who treats him as a slave solely because of his race, and apparently treating that as a bad thing is also progressive. How have we backslid so much since Tonka? He’s talking in that awful racist pidgin English again, too. Fortunately, Andre takes him in and he gets the happy ending he deserves after saving Nikki. I did like him, he had no patience for Lebeau’s nonsense. But Uriel Luft is from Germany. And we all know how I feel about that.

Jacques Lebeau. Oh my god. I didn’t think it was possible for us to run into a character I utterly despised more than Uncle Wilse, but here we are. The sheer glee he gets out of abusing Nikki and Makoki is truly revolting. His ending is just as unsatsifying as his predecessor, too. I mean, sure, he dies, but it’s by pure accident. There’s no justice in it. I guess making him suffer like he made everyone around him suffer would have been too graphic for a Disney film but god he made me sick. Hopefully Emile Genest is less reprehensible in his other two Disney films.

MUSIC

Oliver Wallace is back to score another nature movie. Unfortunately, the score for this resembles the later True Life Adventures a lot more strongly than the earlier ones. It does what it needs to, but it’s really not memorable. There are some French folksongs scattered through the beginning as Andre sings to his dog, but I don’t remember them well enough after seeing it to know where to begin on looking up information.

ARTISTRY

If this movie has a redeeming quality, it’s the visuals. The team that shot the vistas of the Canadian Wilderness did an impeccable job of bringing out the natural beauty of the Yukon. Everything is bright and luxorious, until we get to the Fort. Then the film gets dark and forboding to represent the horror of what’s happening. They use light and color very well here, and I can certainly see why they won an award for the editing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I actually enjoyed the book that inspired this one. There was a lot of action and some really great character stuff that would have lent itself nicely to an animated movie. What we got instead, though? Congratulations, Westward Ho, you are no longer the worst movie I’ve seen. It’s impossible to get over the ringer they put these animals through. The dogfighting scenes are the tame ones!

Favorite scene: At the very beginning, Andre has a little chat with puppy Nikki where he warns him not to mess with bear cubs while snuggling with him (pictured above). It’s brief, it’s early, but it’s the only thing that didn’t make me cringe.

Final rating: 1/10. I don’t want to give out zeroes because I don’t believe any movie is irredeemable. This one really tempted me.