White Fang 2: The Legend of the White Wolf

White Fang II - The Legend of the White Wolf is an adventure story set in Alaska in the early 1900's. Henry Casey leaves his played out gold mine for a trip to San Francisco, accompanied by his white wolf, White Fang. An incident along the way prompts an old Indian Chief, Moses Joseph, head of a small starving Indian tribe, to ask for Henry's aid in finding and bringing back the caribou. Through a series of circumstantial occurrences, the chief believes Henry to be a mystical "White Wolf", a shape changer with magic powers, who could kill the evil "Devil Snake" who had taken many of their braves. Henry finally agrees to try , and with the help of the chief's daughter, Lily, he and White Fang discover what's really behind the trouble that has been plaguing the Indian village. There are both simple and intense animal action scenes throughout this picture. White Fang, was played on screen by several dogs. Although some scenes take place in the dwellings of Henry and the Indians, most of the action takes place outdoors.

  • Starring: Scott Bairstow and Charmaine Craig
  • Director(s): Ken Olin
  • Producer(s): Bruce Hendricks
  • Screenwriter(s): David Fallon
  • Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
  • Release Date: Friday, April 15, 1994

Featured Animal Action

In one of the first action scenes, White Fang jumps through an open window in Henry's cabin to stop an intruder outside who is about to shoot Henry. This was a completely open window, posing no danger to the dog. In another scene when Henry and White Fang are on a raft in the river, Henry is swept off of the raft when they run into a rock. White Fang jumps off the raft into the river. He swims in the current but is swept over a waterfall. This scene was shot in many cuts with many safety precautions carefully put in place. The dog initially jumped onto the raft to receive a food reward. When he jumped off the raft, he had been signaled by his trainer with a whistle and clicker and was again rewarded with food at the shore.. Two divers were in the water alongside the raft at all times as a precautionary measure. They were also in the water with the dog. There were also spotters downstream as an additional safety precaution. A fake dog was used for the shot of White Fang going over the waterfall. After that White Fang is shown recuperating, lying on the river bank near the water's edge next to the Indian's fishing wheel. The fish shown in the wheel were fake. White Fang regains consciousness and walks away from the water toward the forest. He sees two wolves standing in a clearing amongst the trees. Then he sees four wolves running and playing. He walks back to the fishing wheel and sniffs around. He follows the river bank, getting close to the Indian village. As the pack of wolves follows him from a slight distance, they stop to drink from the water's edge. White Fang finds a place to hide and recuperate. The packs stays close to him, checking in on him. A white wolf brings White Fang a fish, sensing that he is exhausted and helpless. A prop fish was used for this shot. The white wolf leads White Fang to the other wolves. They run around and frolic, including mild play fighting. White Fang leads Henry and the chief's son, Peter, through the forest. A rider of a horse fires a rifle and shoots Peter. Henry aims a flaming arrow at the attackers' wooden fortress, igniting their ammunition and causing an explosion. This scene was shot in cuts. White Fang is shown running past the flaming fortress and then up some smooth rocks, arriving at a mountain summit where he stands with Henry and Lily, looking down at a herd of grazing Caribou. This specific film clip of White Fang running up the smooth rocks of the hillside and the view of the grazing Caribou is shown several times in the movie. The earlier shots represent the Indian's vision of what is to come. This shot represents the actual fulfillment of those visions. In one scene, White Fang stands atop the air shaft of a gold mine, paws at the opening, and keeps walking around the opening. As a villain reaches for his gun, White Fangs jumps at him, knocking him over a cliff. The dog had responded to his handler's off screen cue and to the actor who was actually holding a piece of meat. The dog was in no danger, had he accidentally gone over the cliff. In reality, the drop was only three feet and had a great deal of padding to break the actor's fall. During the last major action sequence, the main villain is driving a wagon with a two horse team. There are different shots of Caribou running through the passage. White Fang and Henry jump onto the moving wagon from an overhead rock. The villain falls down and can't escape before the Caribou stampede over him. The scenes with the caribou were shot in sixteen takes and combined together through special effects to make the herd of 120 look like 2,000. For action scenes, the reindeer owner commanded the caribou to move away from him. He placed food on the ground in the area where he wanted them to go. For the stampede scene, wranglers merely opened the gate to release the animals. They ran down a slope into a catch pen where there were already two tame reindeer. As the Caribou continue to run, there is a shot of white Fang supposedly injured and bleeding from his last falling jump. The dog had been trained to respond to his trainer's commands. He was not tranquilized. Stage blood was used for this shot. Henry carries White Fang away, who is next shown lying on his side in the Indian camp as Lily rubs him and sings a healing song. In the final scene, White Fang and the other white wolf that befriended him earlier are running toward each other in the forest. The two of them nuzzle and frolic. White Fang, the wolf, Henry and Lily run through the meadow together. The wolves lead Henry and Lily to a litter of cuddling little wolf pups, their own. There are many simpler animal behaviors shown throughout the movie such as a ram running, a mountain goat walking, and horses and mules in the background. In these instances, the animals were simply positioned by their handlers. Some other animal scenes feature a raven flying and a rabbit running. For these scenes, handlers released the animals from their cages while additional handlers signaled the animals from off camera with clickers and buzzers. They were rewarded with food. There is a fake dead duck shown hanging from a rope. There were also animal skins, robes and artifacts shown in the Indian village scenes. These were all provided by the prop and wardrobe departments. White Fang II - The Legend of the White Wolf was a Canadian production, filmed in Canada and distributed by Disney. The British Columbia SPCA oversaw all of the animal action except one brief scene shot in the United States which was overseen by the American Humane Association. After consulting with the BCSPCA.