“Togo” is a Disney+ original film about a dog named Togo, and it wants you to feel that way too. The movie, directed by Ericson Core and written by Tom Flynn, tells the story of Leonhard Seppala and his sled dog in the 1925 serum run to Nome. It’s a true story, and it knows it. The tagline reads: “The untold true story.” That’s accurate, though the film doesn’t quite deliver the scale its premise demands.
The film stars Willem Dafoe as Leonhard Seppala, Julianne Nicholson as Constance Seppala, and a large supporting cast including Christopher Heyerdahl, Richard Dormer, Adrien Dorval, Madeline Wickins, Michael Greyeyes, Nive Nielsen, Nikolai Nikolaeff, Thorbjørn Harr, Catherine McGregor and Michael McElhatton. It was released on Disney+ on December 20, 2019.
Trailer, via Disney.
From Puppy to Champion
The film opens in 1913, when Seppala and his wife Constance welcome a newborn Siberian Husky puppy to their sledding dog pack in Nome, Alaska. The puppy is small and weak, and Seppala wants to put him down. Constance disagrees, and her support is the engine of the early act.
The dog is close to unmanageable. He refuses to stay at home when the other dogs are working, and he crashes through a window pane to escape the kennel and join the dog team in training. Seppala tries to get rid of him twice. Each time the dog finds a way back.
Seppala eventually gives up and lets the puppy run with the others. To his astonishment, the puppy outruns the other dogs and shows a natural instinct for leadership. Seppala names him Togo, after the Japanese admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, another underdog.
Togo grows into a champion. The film suggests he becomes a standout performer, though the story does not explicitly state he won the All Alaska Sweepstakes.
The Serum Run
In 1925, a diphtheria outbreak hits Nome, mostly affecting children. Mayor George Maynard plans to fly the serum in from Nenana, but the weather makes that impossible. A meeting of town officials hears that air delivery is impossible due to the weather, and concludes that only Seppala has the skill to drive the 600-mile journey in such weather to collect the antitoxin.
Seppala is convinced to collect the serum and race back. He decides to take Togo despite the dog’s age. Togo is 12, which is old for a working dog.
The film’s Metacritic critic aggregate sits at 7.2 out of 10, a general figure. That feels fair. It’s a solid, well-made picture that never quite reaches the heights of its own legend. The story is real, the stakes are high, and the performances are committed. But the film is held back by a structural choice that splits its attention between two timelines.
The Cast Carries the Weight
Dafoe plays Seppala as a man of few words, a stoic figure who trusts his instincts. Nicholson gets less screen time but carries the emotional anchor of the early scenes, showing the love that keeps Togo alive when Seppala wants him dead. The supporting cast fills out the Nome community without much individual attention.
Heyerdahl plays George Maynard, the mayor who makes the call to send Seppala out. Dormer plays Dr. Curtis Welch, the doctor on the ground in Nome. Dorval plays Bill Clark, and Madeline Wickins plays Sally Burdett. Greyeyes plays Amituk, Nielsen plays Atiqtalik, Nikolaeff plays Dan Murphy, Harr plays Charlie Olsen, McGregor plays Sarah Foley, and McElhatton plays Jafet Lindeberg.
The film’s Metacritic critic aggregate sits at 7.2 out of 10, and that feels right. It’s a good movie, not a great one, and the difference is in the details: a tighter structure, a deeper sense of history, and a willingness to let the legend breathe.
Two Timelines, One Story
The film flashes between two timelines: Seppala raising Togo in 1913, and the 1925 serum run. This is a common trick in biographical films, but here it feels like a concession. The serum run is the dramatic peak, and the puppy story is the origin story. Splitting them dilutes the power of both.
The puppy scenes are charming, but they slow the momentum. The serum run scenes are tense, but they lose impact because the audience has already seen the dog grow up. The film would be stronger if it chose one timeline and stuck with it.
| Timeline | Focus |
|---|---|
| 1913 | Puppy Togo, Seppala and Constance |
| 1925 | Serum run to Nome |
Where It Falls Short
The film is at its best when it’s grounded in the relationship between Seppala and Togo. The scenes of the dog escaping the kennel, outrunning the other dogs, and growing into a standout performer are the film’s strongest moments. They feel earned, because they come from character rather than spectacle.
Where the film stumbles is in its handling of the larger historical context. The serum run was a massive, coordinated effort involving dozens of mushers and hundreds of miles of trail. The film reduces it to a single heroic figure and his loyal companion, which flattens the actual scope of the event.
The film also leans heavily on digital landscapes to create the sense of harsh terrain. This is a visual film, and the effects do their job, but they can’t replace the weight of the real journey.
The Verdict
“Togo” is a competently made, emotionally sincere film about a dog and a man who saved a town. It respects its subject and its audience, and it delivers a performance from Dafoe that anchors the whole enterprise. But it’s a film that knows its own legend better than its own story, and that split focus costs it points.
The film’s Metacritic critic aggregate sits at 7.2 out of 10, and that feels fair. It’s a good movie, not a great one, and the difference is in the details: a tighter structure, a deeper sense of history, and a willingness to let the legend breathe. As it stands, “Togo” is a worthy entry in the Disney+ catalog, a solid family film with a true story at its heart. Just don’t expect it to outrun the hype.
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