by John Tillyard, Contributing Writer
Before this review, I should probably clarify this is the first Disney nature documentary I’ve seen. I wasn’t familiar with their format making the animals the narrator and giving everything a narrative. So this will be a review of that format and a review of this documentary.
The story follows a female polar bear (Catherine Keener) growing up with her mother and brother, leaving her mother to fend for herself and becoming a mother herself. The story is primarily linear, with the opening scene showing the narrator with her cub and briefly cutting back them a couple more times about halfway through. Possibly this suggests the story is being told in flashback since the narration tells everything in the past tense. If that sounds like a very straightforward story, that’s because it is, which brings me to a negative aspect of Polar Bear. The actual story is a bit unremarkable. I felt a connection in some parts. The scene where the narrator leaves her mother to fend for herself is pretty emotional, as we see her begin a fairly basic coming of age arc. It reminded me of the winter section in Bambi; maybe that was intentional since it’s a Disney production. Giving the experience a narrative and telling it through the eyes of one of the polar bears will make things more compelling and relatable to a younger audience, so I do like this as an idea, but in this particular case, nothing much seems to happen. I respect the unique problem the makers would have faced, trying to tell a fictional story using their actual footage. For example, I thought they were hoping to capture a brawl with a male polar bear as they were doing a lot to make them seem intimidating. There is one part where the narrator calls a male, “determined and relentless,” which I’m sure was true, but the footage accompanying this narration just showed him walking along; it didn’t fit. The closest thing to a fight is play fighting between the cubs. Watching the cubs playing was probably the most enjoyable part of this. I remember laughing aloud a couple of times. I particularly enjoyed one scene where they eat seaweed, and the narrator talks about how she “hated seaweed” like it’s the polar bear equivalent of broccoli!
Having dropped on Disney+ on Earth Day, appropriately, there is a message about climate change. A clear theme in the story is, life for the polar bears is a lot more difficult due to the melting of the ice caps. Some may feel this kind of message will come across as preachy, but in this case, having a polar bear telling the story helps make the message a simple matter of talking about the problem rather than suggesting any action has to be taken. The only part that could be a call to action is some text at the end that talks about how soon all the ice may be gone.
Judged solely as a documentary showing what polar bears must do to survive and the difficulties climate change brings, this is still a decent experience with many compelling visuals. The endless white of the arctic and the polar bears give a bland look to the visuals. But some scenes, such as one on a cliff face, are set away from the ice and snow to make things more visually interesting. Let’s be fair when filming a documentary that focuses on polar bears. The visuals, mainly being white, is a bit unavoidable. Oddly enough, the opening sequence of shots has almost no white to emphasize how much ice has melted. There are even a decent variety of other animals, including beluga whales and harbor seals, as the narrator’s mother tries to find them something to eat. Drone footage provides probably the most stunning shots giving a great perspective of the vast size of the arctic and the impact climate change has had on it, with many wide-angled images showing colossal chunks of loose ice floating away. The only slight negative I’d say about the drone shots is how many of them were directly overhead, and it looked a little off like one of those top-down video games. One of the most exciting parts was when the polar bears, and later many others, found the carcass of a sperm whale. It showed polar bears doing things I’d not seen them do before and gives the understanding of just how cutthroat the battle for food is between them.
Overall, Polar Bear presents a humdrum but engaging story that is enough to keep younger audiences watching and understanding its message about climate change during the modest runtime of 84 minutes. The visuals are gorgeous and never feel too repetitive that things feel like a drag.
Score: 6/10
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