Arctic Tale

On the land of the Arctic, animals have to fight the cold and lack of food. They hunt, nest and reproduce. We see the loving interaction and teaching skills between polar bear mothers and babies, and walrus mothers take good care of their babies. Global warming has caused baby polar bear Nanu to struggle to survive the lack of food, warning us to protect the environment and protect the homes of Arctic animals.

In 2005, March of the Penguins brought us to the Antarctica, and introduced the life cycle of the emperor penguins to the mass audience. And Happy Feet was quick on its erm feet to seize the initiative and make an animated feature on our non-flying friends. Now, we journey to the opposite pole to visit Polar Bears and Walruses, but somehow, the former proved to be a logical choice for promotional posters. Having the worlds #1 brand use them in their advertisements, and as I recall one cheeky ad involving a bear shaving excess fur, you would have thought that this would make another documentary worth sitting through.

But Arctic Tale is not March of the Penguins. Narrated by Queen Latifah, it relied on similar themes and tactics in its narrative though, featuring the circle of life, and cute offsprings that you just want to cuddle (before they become big and aggressive enough to tear you apart), but apart from those, it's a totally different ball-game altogether. For starters, the focus on Walruses allowed some kind of parallels to be drawn with the Polar Bears, with the common starting point for both species, the threats that they both face in terms of survival, and how intertwined their lives are actually, because one is prey to the hunter.

It's amazing how the footage seen in the documentary were captured. As the end credits rolled, you do see stills on how up close and personal the filmmakers get to the action. But what amazed me more is how a story can be weaved from the footage shot, without being too contrived or artificial about it, despite relying on composite characters created. What I liked too is the observation on the animal species themselves. While the Polar Bears are more independent and don't hunt in packs, the actions of the Walruses, while they live as a community, do not demonstrate that they'll behave likewise when faced with a predator. Their all "man" for himself attitude do seem quite selfish, especially when a reliance on strength in numbers will probably help. But that's the way the circle of life rolls.

While it played out rather straightforwardly, what I thought was a missed opportunity was the very superficial glean on probably an important message these days - climate change, for the worse. With the rising temperatures, the polar caps are melting and shrinking, posing a direct challenge to the animals' habitat and a threat to their survival. The white, snow covered land mass they are living on, are slowly disappearing, and living off a grassland covered rock, doesn't seem to cut it, at least, not for the Polar Bears. Arctic Tale presents the effect of this change, but doesn't address the climate concerns.

Perhaps that's best left as a topic in itself. As far as Arctic Tale is concerned, it has presented and preserved, the way of life of the Polar Bears and Walruses. While not as compelling a story as March of the Penguins, it does serve its purpose, but nothing more. If compared, this one rates a notch lower.

From National Geographic comes the beautiful documentary Arctic Tale, which follows a polar bear and walrus as they raise their babies. You'll only spend ninety minutes watching it, but the filmmakers spent fifteen years creating it, so make sure to appreciate all their hard work. You might be distracted by the cute animals and the beautiful scenery, but keep in mind this isn't a Hollywood movie with special effects to make the polar bears do whatever they want. Nature documentaries take an incredible amount of care, patience, and work.

Narrated by Queen Latifah, you'll see a polar bear mother and her two babies learning how to survive amidst the shrinking ice caps. In the good old days, it probably would have held audiences' attentions to merely focus on the cute white fuzzies, but as Queen Latifah so succinctly says in Last Holiday, "enough is never enough" and there's an parallel storyline to help those who get bored. A walrus mother and her little pup also struggle with the warmer water and longer swims between ice landings. This movie definitely promotes the message of climate change, and it doesn't shy away from teaching children the dangers of global warming. If you're not in the mood for something with such a tragic undertone, try renting March of the Penguins instead.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, one of the animals dies, and you might want to warn your child beforehand or skip the scene entirely.

National Geographic does a documentary with a good dose of cutesy storytelling from the Queen Latifah narration. It starts with a momma polar bear and her two cubs emerging from their den for the first time. They have to navigate the new climate along side a baby walrus within its herd. It's nothing new to tell a nature story from a humanistic manner. Sometimes, it works well like the death of the cub. Other times, it's rather too cute. On that note, I don't like Queen Latifah's narration. It may be old fashion but nature documentaries always sounds better British. I also don't like the music which has singing in it. When it gets to a fart fest, the show takes a giant step down. I appreciate the attempt at something new but most of this is rubbing me the wrong way.

I watched this film at the Seattle International Film Festival; it is a beautifully made documentary on life in the Arctic. The filmmakers followed the life of a Polar Bear cub and a Walrus as they learn about life from their mothers and have to deal with the catastrophic changes in the Arctic Weather caused by Global Warming. The film has a broad appeal, particularly amongst Children, who will find the movie funny, exciting, sad, and touching – quite a few people in the movie theater were sobbing by the end. This fits well with "March of the Penguins" in the way it "dramatizes" the footage and humanizes the wild animals, however it does this in a way that serves the story and helps people sympathize with the plight of the Arctic Wildlife.