L'Ours

THE BEAR, huge and gentle - which makes its way from the London Zoo into the bedroom of a lonely little girl - takes her on a magical journey across the Wintertime landscape.

Haunting & evocative, this lovely little animated film - told entirely without narration or dialogue, is a most fitting successor to author Raymond Briggs' earlier triumph The Snowman, to which, at one point, it pays subtle homage. After enjoying the broad comedy of the Polar Visitor trying to hide in the proper English home, the viewer is swept into the Northern sojourn which fulfills the Bear's quest.

Howard Blake's score propels the fanciful images onward; the final song is sung by Charlotte Church.

I love this film and i thought it had so much charm and was delightful to watch. I almost felt obliged to like before i saw it not only because it was my godmother who worked with the producers and animation team to create the film, but also because i had photo's taken of me to model Tilly, but when i saw it i was delighted and was over the moon to have contributed to it. The music is lovely and the atmosphere is simply gorgeous. congratulations to the producers and to Charlotte Church who sang at the end. Well done all! I hope to see many more films of the sort and i am sure they will live up to the same standard at films like The Snowman and of course the Bear.

An Animated tale in the style of Raymond Briggs' "The Snowman" and "Father Christmas", This tale is about a girl named tilly who visits the zoo and accidentally drops her teddy bear into the polar bear exhibit. Crying herself to sleep she wakes to find the polar bear in her room with he teddy bear. Tilly cares for the polar bear and hides it from her parents, which is no small feet. But he call of the wild bear constallation takes her on an adventure accross the night sky.

This is a must have Briggs' movie, all the charm and warmth of the first two animations are contained inside. Children and adults watch spellbound through another half hour of music and storytelling.

My best to the author and producers, please make more.

This film doesn't quite have the structure that the films of the Snowman/Father Christmas/Snowdog trilogy do. It's more of an interpretive dance than a story and that probably makes it quite artistic and beautiful for some. Children may enjoy it for it's simplicity and pretty style and without thinking too hard about it, but as an adult I find that it poses a lot of questions.

Firstly, it's unclear how the Bear got to her house? I'm sure the zoo would have noticed it's absence and I'd like to have seen him sniff out her location to give a tad more information to start.

Also, the music could have been a little bit less like The Snowman in the same way that the 'Superman', 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones' themes are all a bit similar. It kind of took me out of the story as I tried to remember which bit I was recognising from the other festive favourite and which scene it came from.

As I say though, if you're just watching it to show your child a special little picture of fun and adventure and can get past the music issue (Maybe you haven't seen The Snowman at least 300 times), then it's a nice piece, but I tend to want a little bit more, even for a children's film, as they are an important way to teach them new things. I'm not sure this shares much of anything.

319.63/1000.

Ever since the evergreen hit of Raymond Brigg's The Snowman Channel 4 have tried the formula again and again in attempt to replicate the strange melancholy and success of the original. Here it's another Briggs book, The Bear, which replaces the snowman with a colossal polar bear. The plot is almost identical, including a misjudged sequence with the child trying to hide the monstrosity crashing around the house. They even watch "The Snowman" on TV as the Bear looms improbably over them. Some of the "arctic bear spirit dancing over London" sequences are really beautiful but it feels a hollow sort of affair. A cash-in. A far better successor is the goofy and vulgar "Father Christmas" which I always watch as a double bill. It's the polar opposite, rather than a polar clone.