The Journey of Natty Gann

1985

Directed by Jeremy Kagan

Quick synopsis… 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 confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father.

• I know I watched this when I was a kid.
• I also know that I remember next to nothing about it.
• Though I do remember when Meredith Salenger, who plays the title character, showed up in a guest spot on Dawson’s Creek many years later.
• I knew she looked familiar, so I got to utilize the Google… which was still a pretty new deal in those Dawson’s Creek days.
• We open up in Chicago during the Great Depression.
• Natty Gann is a 15-year-old tomboy whose widowed father is out of work.
• Sol (Ray Wise) is able to find work as a lumberjack out in Washington, but one of the conditions of the job is that he has to leave immediately on the company bus.
• He’s not able to let Natty know before he goes, but leaves behind a letter telling her he’ll send train fare once he gets it.
• The rough part is he leaves Natty in the temporary custody of the shady woman who runs the inn where they’ve been staying.
• Connie, the innkeeper, reports Natty as an abandoned child, so she runs away to find her father on her own.
• On the first train she hops out of Chicago, she meets Harry (John Cusack), who saves her from being pulled under the train car while she’s trying to get on.
• Soon after, Natty saves a wolfdog from a dog fighting ring, who becomes her traveling companion/bodyguard.
• Overall, I’d call this a good movie that has a great way of depicting the hardships that a lot of people had to deal with during the Great Depression.
• It’s worth your two hours if you’ve got Disney+ and are looking for movies to catch during self-quarantine.

Thanks for tuning in to Day Ten of the 2020 A to Z Challenge! If you like Disney movies, then stick with me for the rest of the month. I’ll be doing a movie beginning with each letter of the alphabet each day (except Sundays) all month. And I’ll try to give hints about the next day’s movie in case you want to take a guess in the comments.

Clues for tomorrow’s movie are that it begins with a K and it’s a Disney movie. Just kidding… Y’all tired of that joke yet? Anyway, tomorrow’s movie is one I never saw. It came out in the ’90s and is very loosely based on the plot of a Mark Twain novel. Honestly, I don’t think it’s going to be any good. In fact, I’m pretty sure I never saw it because, even as a teenager, I thought it looked stupid. That probably won’t help to narrow it down, though. Any guesses?