At 1.30 am on a Saturday what do you think a British network station would choose to show ? Something adult with some bad language , sex or violence ? A film everyone has seen on network TV a dozen times at least ? Or as is becoming more and more frequent a British independent movie that is so poor that it deservedly gets buried at a graveyard slot where no one can see it ? None of these things because the local ITV station decided to show WHITE FANG 2 : MYTH OF THE WHITE WOLF which is made by that well known factory of filthy films The Walt Disney Studios . That's right - ITV decided to broadcast a Walt Disney movie at 1.30 am !

First thing you notice is that it's a Walt Disney production ( Even if you haven't seen the on screen credits ) because we're shown wild animals and beautiful natural landscapes and the hero isn't Steven Seagal so it's obviously a Disney movie , in fact the hero is the eponymous White Fang who's a wolf and the humans are somewhat peripheral . Secondly we see for the first time since BLAZING SADDLES a tribe of Jewish Indians led by Moses Joseph and I'm not making this up moi dearz . I don't know what the producers were thinking of either . Moses Joseph ! Oi oi oi

As you might expect being a Disney production there's little in the way of bad language and violence and lots of fluffy mammals and romance and nature studies . Too much in fact because this holds the story up as we see the male hero and White Fang pursue their loves who at first glance ( YAWN ) aren't interested in them but you just know there's going to be a happy ending . As for the adventure element which involves evil gold prospectors ( Makes a change from evil oil barons I guess ) trying to enslave the Hebrew tribe this works in a fairly effective way and found myself wishing the producers had concentrated on this far more than the predictable subplots that we see in countless Disney productions

I also guess that I would have found this film slightly more palatable if the local ITV company had decided to broadcast WHITE FANG 2 at a respectable hour since the last thing you're expecting that time of night / morning is a Walt Disney movie . Despite the shortcomings I probably would recommend this movie as a family adventure even if it isn't 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA .

Ethan Hawke returns for a mute cameo before passing on the lead role to an unknown actor in this pointless film. Henry Casey is looking after Jack's claim and White Fang after Jack finally moves to San Francisco. He meets a native girl who convinces him to search for Caribou. And...that's it when it comes to plot.

It's very, very slow and doesn't really build up to much. There are still some lovely views and scenery but the scope is lost, and even White Fang himself has a diminished presence and function.

Overall White Fang 2 feels and looks a lot like a Disney Channel TV and not like a theatrical movie. Nothing to do with Jack London either, so I can't really recommend it to any particular fanbase the first might have had.

This film is a mixed bag of positives and negatives.

On the good side: The scenery is spectacular! The photography often awesome. It's a basically interesting plot. Disney is one of the few film studios that apparently knows that the only Indians in North America were not Plains Indians! On the down side: The Native American girl -- who is actually Native American -- is just a little too beautiful. They left out the part with her going to the Native American beauty salon!

But the real problem here is the script. At the beginning of the film the young man with the wolf companion are menaced by a bad guy...and that has nothing to do with the rest of the film. Then the young man -- a gold miner -- goes downriver and in the rapids loses his gold. Okay, that's cool. He is rescued by an Indian princess. Cool. Who has been sent to find a wolf her father had seen in a dream that would lead the tribe to the lost caribou -- a major source of food for the tribe, without which they have fallen on hard times. Okay, so you think that's the story you are about to see -- the dog and young man will lead the Indians to the caribou. But then the evil priest is menacing the Indians, and soon we find he is an illicit gold miner who has kidnapped Indian men who had been sent to find the caribou, and they are being forced under oppressive conditions to mine gold. Wait a minute...I'm feeling like I'm in an Indiana Jones film now (and believe me...in the mine sequences it does get quite Indiana Jones-ish). So now the dog and young man have to not only find the caribou (which they do, of course),but also rescue the Indians in the mine...all while also falling in love with the Indian princess, who gets kidnapped. Will Lassie...I mean White Fang...come to the rescue??? Will a small dynamite charge blow away a ridge of rock to allow the caribou to escape? Will Roy and Dale safely jump from a runaway wagon? And of course, Old Yeller...I mean White Fang...HAS to get injured. Will he survive? Just too much unrelated story. And then, as the film comes to a conclusion, would you believe the young lovers run into each others arms...and White Fang and a white female wolf run into each others paws. I kid you now. And who do we have to blame for all of this? Director Ken Olin, who proved he can destroy a television series through his poor directorial skills ("Brothers And Sisters").

Having said all that, I'm not saying to not watch this film. It's fun, even if it's not very believable. And, there's some pretty good acting here...which saves the film. Scott Bairstow as quite good as the young man; Charmaine Craig quite good as the Indian princess. Al Harrington is good as the father of the princess, although why they couldn't use a real American Indian, I don't know. Anthony Ruivivar is very good as the young Indian brother, although, again, why they couldn't use a real American Indian for the role, I don't know. Alfred Molina is excellent as the bad guy. And Geoffrey Lewis -- one of the best character actors around -- is great, as always, although his role is not very substantial.

So, sit back, suspend belief, and enjoy this romp...and curse Ken Olin while you're watching it...it could have been so much more.