The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

Disney's name drew me to The Journey of Natty Gann when it was shown one afternoon on TV, and although it was made in 1985, the film has a real timeless quality that means it could sit quite comfortably alongside older Disney movies like The Incredible Journey (1963). The plot is encapsulated perfectly in the title - young Natty Gann makes her way across America with the aid of a wolf to find her father, who has gone to find work in Washington state during the depression of 1935. 

For a Disney movie with a plucky young heroine and her animal companion, I thought it was quite a dark tale. Depression-era Chicago looks grimey and unemployment is rife, while Natty is slapped, shoved in an orphanage and even falls prey to a potential rapsit. At her father's logging work one of his co-workers is seen falling from a tree to his death, while Sol Gann is apparently blown up at the film's climax. Of course, Natty has life easier than most and manages to avoid many pitfalls and is reunited with her father at the end, mainly because of her wolf friend's assistance (in another darker moment, she meets the wolf when it is being used in a dog fight). 

Meredith Salenger is a solid lead as Natty, and Ray Wise emotes well as her troubled father, who thinks Natty may be dead and knows nothing of her journey. The movie was promoted in the review as starring a young John Cusack, and he is in it, for maybe 30 mins in total, more than halfway through, as Harry a bum who happens to be travelling on many of the same railroads as Natty. 

I enjoyed The Journey of Natty Gann as a part of the Disney canon, and as a gentle yet 'realistic' portrayal of the era, well as realistic as a tame wolf allows. I liked that it didn't shy away from the seedier parts of life, and Natty was a good companion in a journey-with-an-animal movie much as the Iron Will or White Fang Disney movies of the same decade.