America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. In this masterful, atmospheric adventure, a courageous young girl (Meredith Salenger) confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her extraordinary odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter (John Cusack). A brilliant, moving tapestry, woven of courage and perseverance.
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
Starring Meredith Salenger, John Cusack, Ray Wise, Lainie Kazan, Scatman Crothers.
Parents need to know that this movie is set in the Depression and depicts the bleakness of extreme poverty. Natty’s mother is dead and her father leaves her because he found work across the country, so Natty must fend for herself. While there’s considerable violence — from a bloody dog fight to a man who tries to assault Natty when he offers to give her a ride — the scarier moments aren’t portrayed as graphically as they could be. Even when a train derails, Natty walks away with only a few scrapes. – Common Sense Media
May be suitable for older children.