It is my humble robotic opinion that it is hard to make a bad documentary, provided that you are interested in the subject and it teaches you something. Arctic Tale isn’t an exception to this rule. This was interesting, and I learned something. Therefore it is worth something.
The film makers seemingly followed a polar bear around for eight years to make this.
On top of the fact that you are learning while you are watching it, it is also entertaining. Watching the animals of the arctic surviving is pretty intense. In fact I was watching this with my seven year old nephew, and he was so afraid at points that he had to leave the room. I felt the same way at points, it is hard to watch something fight for their lives to the extent these animals do. It really makes you appreciate the fact we can watch a movie like this with a bucket of popcorn on a big screen television after eating a large dinner. In fact it makes you feel kind of guilty. (That’s okay though, it’s the good kind of guilt.)
Processing the facts of natural selection it’s a wonder that all the animals of the arctic are so darling, for example the arctic fox. This animal is so cute that every second you look at it it doubles the amount you want to take it home and snuggle it. What is the advantage of that for this creature? I understand how house cats could have cute in their genes, but polar bears? how does this happen.
In either case, it’s a nice easy documentary to watch it has a good message about global warming and I think it’s something that you can get your kids to watch. The only things that I can say that are remotely negative was the fact that they had an entire segment about walrus’ farting, and my next largest complaint was that Queen Latifah wasn’t that entertaining of a narrator.
Since I am reviewing the Blu-ray release of this film, I guess I should mention how good it looked. For the most part it did look good, at other times it seems like the camera men and women were so far away that the digital zoom kept it pretty grainy at any resolution. I guess this is a complaint for the camera people though, how dare they stay out of harms way and use the digital zoom.
The bonus features were pretty limited but when it comes to movies like this that are geared for kids I don’t know what more I would expect. This is one of those things that you will enjoy slightly more on Blu-ray. In fact almost any time you have the money it is worth it to get the blu-ray, except for chick flicks. You don’t need to waste extra money to see high definition chick flicks.