Seppala can’t stand the dog, but when he puts Togo into a sled harness after the dog once again chases after and disrupts Seppala’s team, everything clicks into place. The pup is initially a problem for Seppala, who tries to offload him twice (no!!!) to other families due to his small size and rowdy temperament, only for the puppy to escape (yes!!!) and return to the Seppala homestead. That focus is driven home by the flashbacks peppered throughout the film, detailing Togo’s upbringing. The back half of the film centers almost solely on Togo’s health as the grueling run takes its toll the antitoxin barely factors in. Seppala agrees to the initial plan of sending just two teams to complete the race for the sake of the greater good (ultimately, 20 mushers participated), but as the race begins, the most immediate, pressing concern Seppala has is for Togo’s life. The central drama of the film, however, is less about saving human lives than about Seppala’s bond with his dog. Togo serves as something of an excavation of history, giving the overshadowed pair their day in the sun. The dog Togo and his musher Leonhard Seppala (Dafoe), however, covered the longest and most dangerous leg of the run, going almost double the distance of any other team. The relay, which came to be known as the Great Race of Mercy, vaulted Balto, the lead sled dog on the final stretch, to stardom, earning him a statue in Central Park and an animated movie. In 1925, a dog-sled relay transported diphtheria antitoxin across Alaska to prevent an incipient outbreak in Nome. The pleasures of Togo, the latest (and to my mind, best) original Disney Plus movie, largely hinge on the simple joy of watching Dafoe interact with dogs, as a good half of his dialogue consists of “Good dog!” or “Come on, puppies!” Directed by Ericson Core (cinematographer of The Fast and the Furious, director of the 2015 Point Break remake), Togo tells a simple “man and his dog” story built around a real-life 1925 health crisis, and strips away almost everything that doesn’t have to do with the simple pleasures of watching the usually gruff or villainous Willem Dafoe hang out with a bunch of fluffy dogs.

He loves the dogs, the dogs love him, and I love Togo.

“Now run, my pups!” Dafoe yells, as he finishes the speech. Crispin’s Day Speech from William Shakespeare’s Henry V (“We few, we happy few”) to the team of dogs pulling his sled as they hurtle across the ice. In the best sequence of the new Disney Plus film Togo, Willem Dafoe belts an abridged version of the St.

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