[Frederica-l] CTOnline: Arctic Tale

[Frederica at aol.com]

This review of the new documentary, "Arctic Tale," will appear soon on 
Christianity Today Movies:
_http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies_ 
(http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies) 
 
thanks for all the encouraging mail late last week, as I was pondering how to 
write a book that is prayerful and not sappy. We'll be going soon to vacation 
with family in a state park, and while we're sunning and reading and swimming 
in the lake I'll have time to think and pray more about this. I think the 
answer to the "yes or no" question is "yes," but I still have some "how" 
questions--still trying to visualize what such a book would sound like. Anyway, many 
thanks for your support & prayers. 
 
**** 
 
Arctic Tale 
Adam Ravetch and his wife Sarah Robertson spent 15 years filming Arctic 
wildlife in its harsh and glorious habitat. In "Arctic Tale," the results of that 
labor of love have been edited down to 96 minutes and arranged (somewhat 
artificially) to tell the story of a polar bear, Nanu, and a walrus, Seela. The 
movie is aimed at children, particularly the kind of kid who is enthralled by the 
cable channel Animal Planet. These kids have a more realistic view of the 
interdependence of life on earth than we did at that age, educated by things like 
Disney's "Bambi." So, although the film doesn't go for the full horror 
treatment (I haven't quite gotten over the moment in "Winged Migration" where a big 
mower relentlessly advances on a tiny peeping bird), neither does it look away 
from some bracing truths.  
I wonder if the Animal Planet Kid is becoming a recognizable demographic; in 
"Evan Almighty," the youngest son in the family is ever piping up with 
factoids gleaned from its shows. My companion at the screening, granddaughter Hannah, 
is another fan, and at 6 she already knows a lot more about wildlife than I 
do. As an adorable pair of polar babies and their mom emerged from their icy 
winter den, I was surprised at how dark their fur was-more brown than white. 
Though I hadn't said a word, Hannah whispered, "In the spring, polar bears are 
brown; they're white in winter." Oh.  
After we're introduced to Nanu and her mother and twin brother, we meet 
Seela, a baby walrus. Seela will be raised by her mother and another female walrus, 
referred to as "Auntie." It wasn't clear whether walrus babies routinely have 
two mommies, but in general walruses stick together, forming large, cohesive 
herds. Since they weigh from 1800 to 2600 pounds, they're not particularly 
lively while on land, but lie scattered and piled on the rocks haphazardly, like 
clothes on a teenager's floor. I was just thinking that the tusks look like a 
nuisance and wondering what they were for when Hannah whispered, "Did you know 
walruses use their tusks to get out of the water?" Gee.  
Things are not so chummy among polar bears, and one of the first things we 
learn is that the mother must protect her babies from adult male bears, who will 
not hesitate to attack her cubs. Some children may be troubled at the thought 
that, not only is there no polar daddy to help raise Nanu, but daddy bears 
actually kill baby bears. Overall, things are pretty tough for Nanu's little 
family. They travel far in search of food without success, and eventually the 
cold and hunger are too much for her brother. He collapses in the snow, and we 
see him lying motionless, his face soon crusted with ice. Before long, it's time 
for Nanu to leave her mother's side and enter solitary, self-supporting 
adulthood. The mom accomplishes this by growling at Nanu and driving her away, 
another moment kids may find hard to understand.  
So far the film has been tracking lives of polar bears and walruses 
separately, but now the stories come together unexpectedly and poignantly. A male polar 
bear, on the verge of starvation, surprises Seela's family on an island rock. 
As he lunges toward a baby, "Auntie" goes to save it, and ends up "making the 
ultimate sacrifice," as the narration says (which may be putting it too 
obscurely for children). Nanu joins the feast, and "a single death preserves the 
lives of many." This is unexpected but realistic, and presented in a way that is 
unequivocal without being gory.   
"Arctic Tale" comes from some of the same people who gave us "An Inconvenient 
Truth," Al Gore's 2006 documentary supplying evidence for global warming (his 
daughter Kristen Gore was involved in both projects). The message is muted in 
"Arctic Tale," however, conveyed through comments that winter is coming later 
this year, or that formerly solid ice is now brittle. At the end, a message 
states that "If present trends continue" there will be no ice at the North Pole 
by the summer of 2040; then all the words disappear except for "If." Over the 
final credits, children recite things people can do to protect the 
environment. It's not a hard sell.  
There's nothing to hate about "Arctic Tale" (except possibly a sequence 
acquainting us with the intestinal effects of too many clams on a herd of walruses 
who have gorged themselves). It falls just short of loveable, though, for a 
handful of reasons. The stories of Seela and Nanu are fabricated, and in fact 
many different animals portray these parts. Regularly, an event is similarly 
fabricated, as when footage of a male bear waking up and lumbering to its feet 
are intercut with shots of Nanu and her mother running, and a narrator tells us 
they're fleeing from him. So, if you went expecting a real documentary, you'd 
feel kind of cheated.  
On the other hand, if you went expecting a dramatic fictional depiction of 
life in the semi-frozen north, you'd find the stories pretty thin. This is not 
"The Call of the Wild." You don't get to know distinctive personalities and are 
not gripped by their struggles. There's only the bare minimum of storytelling 
necessary to string the shots together. Excelling at neither documentary nor 
drama, "Arctic Tale" is a polite movie, but not a stirring one.  
Queen Latifah is the narrator, and she is a good actress, but here she seems 
to be trying to portray someone reading a story to children, and the result is 
over-enunciated and stilted. Many reviewers have castigated the sound track, 
but it's actually pretty good: Aimee Mann, Cheryl Crow, the Shins, Pearl Jam, 
and others. But there is a great big blunder, which seems to permanently color 
viewers' impression: a shot of walruses piled up cozily on a rock is 
accompanied by Sister Sledge's over-exposed "We Are Family." If you get past that, 
you'll find the rest of the sound track amiable. Stay for the end of the credits 
and hear a brand-new song by Brian Wilson, produced by Van Dyke Parks: "Live 
and Let Life."  
Talk About It 
Some people disagree about the evidence for global warming, but there is no 
disagreement that energy-saving measures can materially benefit the planet. Of 
the many suggestions made during the final credits, which are you already 
doing? Are you doing some that were not mentioned? Which would you like to learn 
more about? 
When Nanu and her family are desperately hungry, the mother scents a ring 
seal hiding under the ice and tries to catch it. Whose side were you on in that 
scene? Did you want the mother to feed her children, or the ring seal to 
escape? Why?  
No plants or trees are visible in the Arctic; the only thing for the animals 
to eat are other animals. Why did God make it this way, do you think? Is it 
wrong to kill for food? Why did God show Peter a sheet full of all kinds of 
animals, and charge him, "Rise, Peter, kill and eat" (Acts 10:13)? 
The walruses live together as a very close herd, lying literally on top of 
each other when resting on land. Yet the polar bears are extremely solitary, so 
that a mother even drives her own daughter away. Why would each way of life be 
best for each creature? Where do human beings fall on that scale?  
The Family Corner 
No bad language or inappropriate images. Mating is dealt with briefly and 
discretely. The killing and eating of animals is realistic enough - we see a fox 
and bears pulling at a fallen animal - but there are no close-ups and not much 
visible blood. One sequence depicts a group of walruses experiencing a great 
deal of flatulence after an overabundant meal.  

 
* * 1/2 Stars 
Rated: G 
Genre: Wildlife Documentary 
Theater Release: July 17, 2007 
Directed by: Adam Ravetch, Sarah Robertson 
Runtime: 96 min. 
Cast: Nanu (polar bear), Seela (walrus); Queen Latifah (narrator)
 
 
********
Frederica Mathewes-Green
www.frederica.com



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