Disney+’sTogo, starringWillem Dafoe, released a first look image today, as covered byPEOPLE. The streaming service, which launches November 12, figures to be a formidable competitor of Netflix’s. Having already announced themagnitude of their content, this period family adventure is among the ten original films that will be available to stream within the service’s first year.
Togo was a sled dog who, in 1925, helped prevent a diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska by delivering an antitoxin serum through the punishing elements. Nome is a sparsely populated coastal town in northwestern Alaska whose average low winter temperatures hover at about -2 Fahrenheit. In 1925, temperatures dipped to -50 with whiteouts and gale force winds. The work of another Siberian Husky, Balto, brought the town into public consciousness that year. He led his dog team on the final run of that same mission. Universal Pictures released a 1995 animated film, calledBalto, commemorating the courageous canine. That film featured the voice talents ofKevin BaconandBridget Fonda.
But Disney is here to remind us that Balto wasn’t the only dog who played savior in that terrible winter nearly a century ago. InTogo, Dafoe playsLeonhard Seppala, a veteran dogsled trainer and musher (and 1932 Olympian), who chooses Togo to lead the run, in spite of the dog’s old age and small size. “It’s a beautiful story of an underdog (no pun intended) and how we can learn from adversity,” Dafoe told PEOPLE.
Dafoe can currently be seen in a decidedlynotbeautiful performance inRobert Eggers’The Lighthouse, playing a grizzled, flatulent lighthouse keeper tormenting Robert Pattinson.
You can check out the first look image fromTogobelow. The film also starsJulianne Nicholson(August: Osage County),Michael Gaston(The Leftovers), andChristopher Heyerdahl(Damnation). It was directed by cinematographer-turned-directorEricson Core, who previously warmed hearts in Disney’s sports drama,Invincible, starringMark Wahlberg. It was written byTom Flynn(Gifted).
