The Journey of Natty Gann
by Jeremy Kagan
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jed, John Cusack, Lainie Kazan, Meredith Salenger, Ray WiseDirector: Jeremy Kagan
Brand: SALENGER,MEREDITH
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-21
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Movie Reviews of The Journey of Natty Gann
Movie Review: A Touching Depression Era Story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a quietly touching adult film made by Disney long before they had their Touchstone division. Meredith Salanger gives a star-making performance as a teenage girl growing up with her father during the depression. A young John Cusack has a nice turn as well, already showing the kind of quiet and surprising talent he would become known for in coming years.
Natty's father (Ray Wise) finds the only work he can during the depression and reluctantly leaves Natty with someone who turns out to have no love or compassion in her heart for anyone but herself. He has gone to Washington to cut trees and leaves a letter promising to send for her, along with a locket containing a picture of her dead mother. But when no word arrives she runs away to find him, riding the rails. Ray Wise gives a fine performance as a loving father forced by the depression to leave the daughter he adores in order to support them both and survive.
The great beauty of the Pacific Nortwest is the backdrop for a beautifully filmed and realistic journey of a time and place long gone. It is not the rose-colored journey one might expect from a Disney film, however. The people and places are real and she is met with both kindness and cruelty, including a brief scene when she hitches a ride with a pervert who tries to molest her.
She meets Cusak early on in this film and later when their paths cross again they tramp together, feelings for each other beginning to form. Meanwhile, due to a chain of events which causes her father to believe Natty dead, he is devastated and takes a very dangerous job. A wolf becomes Natty's friend and they travel together, looking out for one another. Though this may sound corny, it is handled in a realistic and believable way.
When Cusak finds work in California she must continue on to find her father. But there are sweet moments when she writes to him and we hope that somewhere down the line they will be together. There are some truly touching scenes which make this memorable, and an excellent film for parents to enjoy with young adults. Sort of forgotten today, this is a really special film I highly recommend.
Summary of The Journey of Natty Gann
A young girl has many adventures with a wolf in Depression-era America as she runs away from her guardian in Chicago to join her father, who has gone to look for work in Washington.Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 21-MAY-2002
Media Type: DVD
A sleeper when released in 1985, The Journey of Natty Gann has since become an enduring family classic. While following a familiar Disney formula (the perilous adventures of a girl and her pet wolf), director Jeremy Paul Kagan adds something fresh at every turn, aided by a first-rate cast and beautifully scenic locations. Then-promising newcomer Meredith Salenger is perfect in the title role--a scrappy kid in Depression-era Chicago who travels cross-country to the Pacific Northwest, hoping to find her father (Ray Wise), who had been forced to leave her with an awful landlady while he took a logging job in Washington. Natty befriends the wolf and a fellow drifter (John Cusack, in an early role), and her journey is a memorable one, intense and realistic but still appropriate for kids. Although Salenger's subsequent film career has been modest (she later graduated cum laude from Harvard), Natty Gann remains a worthy claim to fame. --Jeff Shannon
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