General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

The Journey of Natty Gann

The Journey of Natty Gann is a 1985 American family adventure film directed by Jeremy Kagan and written by Jeanne Rosenberg, in which a 14-year-old girl rides the rails from Chicago to Washington State during the Great Depression to find her father, accompanied by a wolf and a teenage drifter¹. It was produced by Mike Lobell for Walt Disney Pictures in association with Silver Screen Partners II and released on September 27, 1985¹^•².

Key fact	Detail
Release	September 27, 1985 (United States); 101 minutes; rated PG¹^•³
Director / writer	Jeremy Kagan; original screenplay by Jeanne Rosenberg, her first¹^•²
Principal cast	Meredith Salenger (Natty Gann), John Cusack (Harry), Ray Wise (Sol Gann), Barry Miller (Parker), Scatman Crothers (Sherman), Lainie Kazan (Connie)¹
Budget	Walt Disney initially agreed to a limited $7.5 million budget with half-fees for Lobell and Kagan; the AFI catalog describes it as an $8 million picture²
Box office	Grossed $9,708,373 in the United States and Canada, with an opening weekend of $490,318³
Awards	Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design (Albert Wolsky)¹
Reception	91% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 32 critics; Metascore of 66 on Metacritic⁴^•⁵

Spoilers

Story and setting

The film is set in the mid-1930s, when families drifted apart as faraway jobs beckoned during the Depression⁶. Natty Gann, a tomboy living with her widowed father Sol, a Chicago labor organizer, is left behind when Sol takes the only work he can find, a job at a lumber camp in Washington State¹^•⁷. He promises to send for her once he earns money, but her care passes to a landlady who plans to turn her over to social services, so Natty sets out alone to join him⁸.

On her roughly 2,000-mile journey Natty hops freight trains, survives a derailment, an orphanage, and a man who attempts to assault her, and gathers two companions: a wolf she frees from a dogfighting ring, and Harry (John Cusack), an experienced young drifter who teaches her how to ride the rails¹^•⁸^•⁹. The film ends with her reunion with her father¹.

The setting is treated with more grit than the studio's earlier family pictures. The Los Angeles Times noted that the film unfolds not in a well-lit studio world but against an accurately re-created backdrop of hard times, evictions, bread lines, and Hoovervilles, one of which vigilantes torch on screen¹⁰. Common Sense Media's review flags considerable violence, including a bloody dog fight and the attempted assault, while noting the scarier moments are not portrayed as graphically as they could be⁸.

Production

The project began as Natty Gann, scheduled to film in western Canada in August 1984². Casting director Janet Hirsenson saw over 300 teenagers for the title role, though production notes in the AMPAS library files claimed 2,000 hopefuls were seen before fourteen-year-old newcomer Meredith Salenger was chosen². Producer Mike Lobell hired several Academy Award-winning crew members, including production designer Paul Sylbert, costume designer Albert Wolsky, and cinematographer Dick Bush². Rosenberg's script was her first original screenplay; she had previously co-written The Black Stallion (1979)².

Shooting and design. Principal photography began on August 25, 1984, at the Yaletown-Vancouver Studio Center complex, with twelve weeks scheduled in British Columbia²; IMDb also lists Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, as a filming location³. Sylbert built a vintage Chicago street scene with pushcart vendors, a Hooverville of 60 shacks, and a period logging camp¹. Wolsky relied heavily on photographic research and produced nearly 2,000 costumes, with hats frequently used to disguise the actors' 1980s hairstyles; some scenes involved more than 250 extras¹.

The production pushed for authenticity in the logging sequences. Ray Wise learned to top trees with a big ax as it was done 50 years earlier and climbed 40-foot-high trees for some scenes; local experts awarded him a handmade throwing ax and target when shooting ended¹. Salenger performed most of her own stunts and took boxing lessons before the shoot, saying she had to learn how to be tough and throw a punch¹^•⁶.

The "wolf" was a wolf/malamute mix named Jed, made to look the part with water-based makeup¹. The same animal hybrid had played the sled dog in John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a performance later described by a filmmaker interviewed by GamesRadar as the gold standard for what dog acting can be¹¹.

Studio backing. Producer Lobell had a difficult time getting the small picture made with its unknown cast and original story². While the film was being finished, Disney's leadership changed hands with Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg at the helm; the incoming executives liked the rough cut and approved a large promotional push, support the Los Angeles Times described as pleasantly astonishing given Hollywood's habit of discarding the projects of earlier regimes.²^•¹⁰

Reception

The film earned $9,708,373 in the United States and Canada against an estimated $8 million budget, opening to $490,318³. Critics were broadly favorable: Rotten Tomatoes records 91% positive reviews from 32 critics, and Metacritic assigns a Metascore of 66, with seven positive and three mixed reviews and none negative⁴^•⁵.

Reviewers singled out the period craft and Salenger's performance. The Washington Post's Paul Attanasio wrote that skillful filmmaking takes an almost unendurably hokey premise and makes it charming, praising the photography, design, and James Horner's Coplandesque score⁹. Gene Siskel gave three of four stars, crediting the landscape and the freshness of Salenger⁴. The Christian Science Monitor placed the film in the trend toward strong female characters in major roles¹². Dissent came from the Los Angeles Times's Sheila Benson, who found the film harsh and improbable while handsomely scenic, and argued the missing element was heart⁷.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and released on video in 1986¹. It was later edited into a two-part The Magical World of Disney broadcast in 1987³, and it streams on Disney+ as of recent listings¹³.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026