The White Seal

When I first saw this film, it was ages and ages ago. Obviously, now I clearly recall very little of it, but what I do recall was that it was about a seal who is white (quite unlike all the others), and who wishes to find a new home for all of those of his species. With this, he faces troubles and dangers in the form of sharks and humans on the hunt for seals. And from what I can loosely recall, it was very ethereal and whimsical, with good voices and a strong story line. After that, I recall very little, but from what I can recall, I highly recommend to fans of Chuck Jones cartoons. It would be a very good watch to many people.

In the edition of The Jungle Book that I own - which collects the short stories like "The White Seal" and "Rikki Tikki Tavi" - almost every story is preceded or followed by a poem/song. The one for "The White Seal" is "The Beaches of Lukannon." William Pint and Felicia Dale (www.pintndale.com) have recorded a haunting version of the poem (I was fortunate enough to get a tape of their original concert version many years ago). You can read the poem at http://www.pintndale.com/ by looking under their "Songlist" at the "Round the Corner" album link...and you can catch a brief sound clip (Windows Media) at Amazon under a search for said album "Round the Corner" (link too long to post here).

For some reason that quote popped into my head last night... I remembered it being from an animated film I'd seen when I was a child in the mid 70s, where a white seal thwarted some seal hunters... thanks to the internet, I am reasonably sure this is the film I saw. Can anyone verify this? I probably remember it because at that time I was collecting names and donations to stop the Canadian seal hunt (even though I lived in Florida)... obviously even at the age of ten, the film made quite an impression, if quotes are still coming back to me 30+ years later. (And obviously I remember when the so-called "liberal media" really WAS liberal, if they were showing things like this!)

I love seals, and I love animation by Chuck Jones. Based on the story by Rudyard Kipling about Kotick, a rare white seal who grows from a sweet little pup into an adult who later saves the colony from cruel hunters... I am against seal hunting myself, and I also love a good animal story. As with other Kipling stories like Riki-Tiki, Tavi, and Mowgli's Brothers, Chuck Jones once again made a masterpiece with great animation and storytelling, as well as adding Beethoven's 6th Symphony to the music mix.

I love the scenes when Kotick was a little baby; he's so cute! Especially when he's practicing barking.

First off, let me say that this is rather different from Rudyard Kipling's original story. However, it does have some dialogue from the original story and is in some ways similar.

Secondly, Chuck Jones did a good job on this. There are a few Chuck Jones-esqe touches in this short film including some sweet slapsticky moments. It is a different from his Looney Tunes works, I will grant you that.

Thirdly, I like this short film for the music from Beethoven featured, the interesting background animation, the character behaviour and the surprising similarity to Rudyard Kipling's story.

This short film is about the seals on Nova Scotia beach, who gather in their thousands every year. One day, a baby white seal is born and his mother believes he will stay white forever. He grows up to be strong and wise and manages to do something very special for the other seals...

I recommend this to people who like short animated films with cute animation and to people who like Rudyard Kipling's original story. Enjoy! :-)

7 and a half out of ten.