STARHOUSTON CHRONICLE � TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020 � SECTION D HH

The anticipationof spring isn’tjust about wait-ing for tenderdaffodils ornarcissus to bolt

from the ground, it’s alsoabout embracing what’s newin home décor stores.

Manufacturers are sendingout lookbooks filled with newplumbing fixtures, furnitureand accessories — even a littlerobot that will clean yourwindows for you. Here aresome of our favorite newthings on the market.

Laura Ashley home décorLaura Ashley is seizing the

day when it comes to bluehome décor. Pantone’s decla-ration that “Classic Blue” willbe its 2020 Color of the Yearfits nicely with many of LauraAshley’s new products andpatterns, including the on-trend Parterre floral pattern.It includes the Caswell Em-broidered Seaspray cushion($78), Parterre Printed VelvetSeaspray cushion ($68), Par-terre Storage Boxes in Seas-pray ($68) and Parterre DarkSeaspray fabric ($54 per yard)and wallpaper ($60 per roll).

Big Chill Mini FridgeIt’s time to amp up the

style in your she shed or man

cave. Big Chill, the maker ofsuper-cool vintage kitchenappliances, has just releasedthe newest piece in its RetroCollection, a mini fridge thatcomes in seven standardcolors and six more premiumcolors, as well as more than200 custom options. Starts at$1,595; bigchill.com

Elements metal vaseJCPenney has added some

fresh new styles to its onlineofferings, including this 24-inch metal vase, embossedwith a white lace finish. $74;jcpenney.com

&Tradition’s Mayor sofa&Tradition designers Arne

Jacobsen and Flemming Las-sen originally created theMayor sofa in 1939 when theywon a competition to design anew town hall, library andtheater in Sollerod, a suburbof Copenhagen, Denmark.This two-seat sofa was meantto be in a waiting area wherecouples would sit beforegetting married. It’s still hand-built by craftsmen using asolid walnut frame and avariety of upholstery options(shown here in Clay). $6,295;amara.com

WinbotThe newest smart-home

innovation from Ecovacstakes the work out of cleaningyour windows. Its Winbot 880window cleaning robot usestechnology that enables it tochoose the best cleaning pathand then travel across theglass, returning to where it

HOME DESIGN

Spring brings fresh décor ideas

Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley’s Parterre Dark Seaspray fabric and wallpaper

Aerin

Aerin’s spring collection includesthe Mirabelle cachepot.

Big Chill

Big Chill Mini Fridge comes inseven standard colors.

Rune Buch Andersen

The two-seat Mayor sofa features a solid walnut frame and avariety of upholstery options (shown here in Clay).

New offeringsput color, styleat the forefront

By Diane CowenSTAFF WRITER

Design continues on D6

Lofty, dense and serious,Lawrence Wright’s “Camp Da-vid” is a historical dramathrough and through.

This production — at the AlleyTheatre through March 15 —begins with the stage opened uplike a boxing ring. The audienceis invited to read about the fourmilitary conflicts that led toIsraeli Prime Minister Menachem

Begin and Egyptian PresidentAnwar Sadat’s decision to at-tempt peace talks in 1978 at apresidential country retreat inMaryland called Camp David,with president Jimmy Carter asnegotiator.

Both the informational plac-ards and the stage — designed asa map of the Middle East — setthe tone for the rest of the eve-ning. Watching the one-act“Camp David,” after all, oftenfeels like learning. The charac-

ters speak in either lofty ide-alism or unadorned exposition,mentioning biographical andhistorical facts that the partiespresent would have alreadyknown. Narration by RosalynnCarter (a lively Rebecca Brooksh-er) tells us how to feel aboutthese events and explains to usthe importance of what occurredduring nearly two weeks ofgrueling negotiations.

Certain moments loosen upLynn Lane

Elijah Alexander, from left, Stephen Thorne and Jordan Lagestar in “Camp David.”

THEATER REVIEW

Alley Theatre’s ‘Camp David’proves to be a learning experienceBy Wei-Huan ChenSTAFF WRITER

Theater continues on D2

MUSIC: Sculpture honors Houston icon Norma Zenteno. PAGE D2

FILM: ‘Call of the Wild’ tries to make digital star a good dog. PAGE D6

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West Elm hempbedding collection

West Elm has added aFair Trade Certified hempcollection to its beddingline. Hemp plants requireless water and land anddon’t usually require theuse of pesticide. The col-lection includes duvets,sheets and a coverlet insolid and striped color-ways that use natural plantdyes. $229-$299; West Elm

Fantini Nice faucetMatteo Thun and Anto-

nio Rodriguez bring sur-prising pops of color intothe Nice plumbing fixturecollection for Fantini.Handles show differenthues from thin strips ofcolor at the bottom of eachknob, making them looksaturated with color. Thefaucet is available withred, black, blue, turquoise,green and white knobs.$978 for the two-hold wallmount fixture, $1,151 for thethree-hold deck mountand $231 for handles; Ele-gant Additions, 104 W. 12th

Hay’s Uchiwa chairHay’s Uchiwa lounge

chair takes its soft shapefrom the traditional Japa-nese hand fan. It comesin a softer quilted versionfor residential use and inmolded foam for com-mercial use, with a basein natural or stained oak.$1,900; amara.com

Tom Dixon diningtable

Tom Dixon’s tube-basedining table is meant tobe minimalist and sub-stantial at the same time.The base and stem, brass-plated tubing, bring agolden shine to an indus-trial shape; the 35-inchtop comes in white orgreen marble, or in birch,black oak, natural oak orfumed oak wood grains.$1,775-$2,050; amara.com

Ethan Allen concretefire table

There’s somethingmesmerizing about fire-table flames — even inHouston summers. Whilewe still have some coolnights, stay warm out-doors with Ethan Allen’s40-inch square fire tablemade of ultra-light con-crete and topped withnatural beach stones.Take your pick of naturalgas or propane fuel op-tions. $4,500; EthanAllen stores orethanallen.com

Aerin Mirabellecachepot

Aerin’s spring collectionof decorative accessoriesfor the home includes theMirabelle cachepot, a bowlwith a fluted opening, justwaiting for fresh flowers. Itcomes in a cream or goldfinish. $500 or $800; Nei-man Marcus, Kuhl-Lin-scomb or Longoria Collec-tion

Native TrailsMendocino bathtub

Beautiful bathtubs havebecome the showstopperin many master bath-

rooms. Native Trails’ new-est freestanding soakingtub — the NativeStoneMendocino tub — is madeof sustainable jute fiberand cement and is stain,scratch and crack resis-tant. And it comes in fourrustic finishes: ash, earth,slate and pearl. $8,800;Acero Bella, 8560 Inter-state 10 W., Suite 160

diane.cowen@chron.comSign up for Cowen’s AccessDesign newsletter, deliveredto your inbox Tuesdays, athoustonchronicle.com/accessdesign

JCPenney

Ecovacs takes the workout of cleaning windowswith the Winbot 880.

Fantini

Fantini’s Nice plumbingfixture collectionfeatures pops of color.

Ethan Allen

Ethan Allen’s 40-inch square fire table ismade of ultra-light concrete and topped

with natural beach stones.

West Elm

West Elm has added a FairTrade Certified hemp

collection to its bedding line.

Native Trails

Native Trails’ Mendocino tub is made ofsustainable jute fiber and cement.

Tom Dixon

Tom Dixon’s tube base dining table is meant to beminimalist and substantial at the same time.

Tom Dixon

Hay’s Uchiwa chair takes itsshape from the traditional

Japanese hand fan.

Laura Ashley

Laura Ashley’sCaswell Embroidered

Seaspray cushion

DESIGNFrom page D1

D6 | Tuesday, February 25, 2020 | HoustonChronicle.com | Houston Chronicle HH

6401 Woodway/77057Woodway@Voss (Right of Sylvia’s)

713-706-FOOT (3668) • www.ShoesThatFeelGreat.com

C’mon Spring!

STAR

In the 1935 movie “TheCall of the Wild,” the ca-nine protagonist, Buck, wascast as a burly St. Bernardalongside a mustachioedClark Gable. In 1972, he wasplayed by a stoic Germanshepherd, and in 1997, by ahulking Leonberger.

In 2020, Buck is playedby a 51-year-old formerCirque du Soleil performernamed Terry who wasdigitally transformed into aSt. Bernard-Scotch shep-herd mix. He walks like adog, he barks like a dog,but — as many viewers willrealize within seconds — heisn’t a real dog.

The new Buck is able todo things on screen thatBucks of yesteryear couldnot. He can lick a snow-flake off his nose withprecise comedic timing. Hecan pull the meat off aturkey leg in one smoothgulp, and he can glancedisapprovingly when hishuman companion, playedby Harrison Ford, drinkstoo much liquor.

“That’s why we use CGcharacters,” said RyanStafford, the visual effectsproducer on 20th CenturyStudios’ “Call of the Wild,”which opened Friday. “Youcan craft a performance.You can make it an emo-tional experience or acomedic experience orwhatever the scene callsfor.”

But at first look, someviewers found the leadingdog to be more distractingthan nuanced; some com-plained online that theywished the studio had

taken a different route.

Building a canine moviestar

From the beginning, thefilmmakers behind “TheCall of the Wild” knew thattheir lead needed to becapable of more than atypical movie dog, Staffordsaid. Previous versions ofthe film focused on thehuman in the story, JohnThornton, when, in fact,the 1903 novel by JackLondon portrayed Buck asthe main character as hewas wrenched from domes-tic comforts in California tobe sold as a sled dog innorthwestern Canada dur-ing the gold rush of the1890s.

At first, the filmmakerschose to model their dogafter a Bernese mountaindog. But weeks into theprocess, it became clearthat the breed’s black furwould get lost in the shad-ows of night scenes, Staf-

ford said.Then, Jessica Steele-

Sanders, the wife of themovie’s director, ChrisSanders, found a rescuedog online: he seemed likea possible St. Bernard-Scotch shepherd, the samemixture of breeds as thenovel’s version of Buck.She adopted the dog (whohappened to be namedBuckley), and soon, he wasbeing scanned and pho-tographed so that visual-effects specialists couldcreate a digital imitation ofhim.

Hundreds of people hada hand in getting Buck justright. A group of staffersvideotaped Buckley andabout a dozen other dogsin a warehouse in LosAngeles while they played,creating reference footagefor the movie’s animators.

Most of the time, oneman stood in for Ford’sfurry companion. To playBuck for motion capture,

Terry Notary, a formerUCLA gymnast who isknown in the film industryfor his animal mimicry,wore a tight gray suit, agray skull cap and carbonfiber arm extensions thatallowed him to walk on allfours. For some scenes,Notary wore a syntheticrubber muzzle over hisface.

In a film that hinges onthe relationship between adog and his owner, Fordhad Notary to hug, pet andtalk to.

“It was surreal,” Notarysaid, “Here’s Harrison Fordtelling me, ‘I’m going totreat you like a dog!’ ”

Buck’s digital ancestorsIn July, the filmmakers

behind “The Call of theWild” were closely watch-ing the release of anothermovie packed with com-puter-generated animals.Although “The Lion King”took in nearly $1.7 billion at

the box office, criticismarose online that the ani-mals lacked emotionalexpressiveness.

Stafford said that asBuck’s character came tolife, the filmmakers noticedthe opposite problem. Helooked too expressive, tooanthropomorphic. Thefilmmakers worked tomake Buck seem moredog-like.

Because the visual ef-fects were handled byMoving Picture Company,which also did “The LionKing,” “The Call of theWild” was able to benefitdirectly from the techno-logical advancements of itspredecessor.

The same phenomenonhas been powering theevolution of CGI animalssince the early 1990s, whenSteven Spielberg went all-inon the technique for “Juras-sic Park.” More than twodecades later, the samevisual-effects company thatworked on “Jurassic,” In-dustrial Light & Magic, builtthe computer-generatedgrizzly bear that attackedLeonardo DiCaprio during“The Revenant.”

The risks of messingwith man’s best friend

Visual-effects specialistsrecognize that moviegoershave a different relation-ship with dogs than bears,apes or pigs. The emotionalstakes are higher.

“Show me one personwho didn’t ugly cry at ‘OldYeller,’ ” said Lori Boyle, ananimal trainer from Canadawho has worked with mov-ie dogs for decades.

Boyle said she was skep-tical about whether “The

Call of the Wild” could pulloff that distinct canine-to-human connection with acomputer-generated dog.

Recent dog-centric filmsopted for the real thing. InDisney’s live-action “Ladyand the Tramp” (2019), areal cocker spaniel andmutt are made to look as ifthey were talking by use ofvisual effects. “A Dog’sJourney” and “A Dog’s WayHome,” both released lastyear, used real dogs, too.

In the animal-rightsworld, activists are split onwhether computer-generat-ed dogs should one dayreplace real ones entirely.The Humane Society of theUnited States prefers CGIbecause they see it as theonly foolproof way to en-sure animal safety on set,the group’s president said.But American Humane, thenonprofit that gives the “noanimals were harmed”stamp of approval in theend credits, backed thecontinued use of real ani-mals paired with visualeffects.

Boyle, who recentlytrained animals featured inthe Disney sled dog movie“Togo,” said that one of thedogs playing the lead huskywas thrilled to be at work,where his favorite rewardwas a brisk run around theperimeter of the building.That joy and determinationtranslated on screen, Boylesaid.

“It’s a difficult thing topull off with a CGI animal,”she said. “The personalityisn’t there.”

The people behind “TheCall of the Wild” triedmightily to make sure itwas.

FILM

‘Call of the Wild’ tries to make digital star a good dogBy Julia JacobsNEW YORK TIME S

20th Century Fox

Harrison Ford stars alongside Buck, the CGI dog, in “The Call of the Wild.”