The original "White Fang" had heart and balanced one young man's story of trying to find himself and understand his father with the story of his friendship of a wolf, who is somewhat like him. This time around, the charismatic Ethan Hawke is gone. In fact, his appearance in the opening scene is probably the most satisfying moment of this movie. Scott Bairstow ("Wild America") holds his own as Jack's friend Henry Casey, and his acting is the only decent performance in the movie. Now, this film plays like a mix between "Air Bud" (look at White Fang save the day again and again) and a 106-minute infomercial about Native Americans' beliefs, and why you should believe in them. The movie is plagued by this heavy-handedness, horrendous supporting performances, a flat script, characters written by cartoons, and this really strange Indian mysticism propaganda as fact. Really unlike the original, and outside of the opening sequence and the fact that it's set in Alaska, the "White Fang" name is somewhat out of place. They basically took the final scenes of the original White Fang's elements (White Fang is a hero of a friend) and turned into a whole movie, mixed with Native American beliefs and a sloppy love story. Ironic is that this lamebrain sequel got a better DVD presentation from Disney than the original (which is pan & scan only). For a better Bairstow movie, watch "Wild America." This White Fang II is just bad.