‘Adventure’ of Boy and Dog Hits Home

In “Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog,” 14-year-old Angus McCormick and his newfound dog, Yellow, struggle to survive for nearly a month in the coastal Northwest forest after a rough-weather boating mishap leaves them stranded. (Rated PG)

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Calling this saga an “adventure” is somewhat akin to calling the war in Bosnia an “unpleasantness.” Make no mistake--this is high-anxiety entertainment, gritty, realistic and emotional. Parents wept. Kids squeezed their hands.

The McCormicks, a close and loving family, have made a lifestyle move from the city to the country. But while Angus’ father (Bruce Davison) takes his son camping, teaches him survival skills and gives him a pocket knife, the man’s brain must have been back in Seattle when he decided to take Angus (Jesse Bradford) on a 200-mile boating trek in the stormy dead of winter.

The father is rescued after their craft capsizes; the boy and the dog drift ashore. Rescue crews are unable to spot them.

While young viewers worried about the fate of Angus and Yellow, only adults have the life experience to imagine the raw guilt, the frantic terror of not knowing where your child is in the freezing winter or the anger of not being sure the authorities are searching hard enough. Aerial shots of the impenetrable forest drive home the helplessness.

Then, too, perhaps only adults can appreciate the rarity of unconditional loyalty, even when it comes from a dog. The Labrador’s courage is made all the more poignant by his plain vanilla, tongue-hanging-out, happy, grateful and wistful spirit.

The kids said they were most impressed with the nuts and bolts of survival in a hostile wilderness.

David Powers, 5, had a word for all the mouse-roasting, worm- and beetle-eating that Angus had to do to stay alive: “Yuk.”

Once, when Yellow brought Angus a wounded squirrel, David thought he would let it go. He was surprised when Angus killed it and ate it. It was, he said, “a little gross.”

David’s mother, Barbara, said her son squeezed her finger a lot throughout the film. In scarier moments--when, for instance, wolves threatened Yellow and Angus--she said, “He had it bent all the way backward.”

David’s brother John, 7, said the movie made him “happy and sad.”

For him, the movie’s most memorable scene was the film’s climax, when Angus is rescued crawling across a tree bridge over a deep chasm.

While rescuers weren’t able to grab ol’ Yellow when they snatched Angus, some kids weren’t too concerned about the dog’s ultimate fate.

“I knew they would find him,” said Brianna Ang, 7.

Many kids, of course, claim they are so brave that a little movie can’t scare them.

Perrin Chamberlin, who said she is “6 and three-quarters,” said she would never get lost in the woods. And if she did, she would stay in one place until someone found her.

Still, the movie inspired a few pangs of anxiety.

Perrin’s mother, Catherine, said her daughter wanted to know whether her mother would keep looking for her if she ever got lost.

“I said, ‘I’d keep looking for you forever.’ ”