Arctic Tale
by Adam Ravetch, Sarah Robertson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Katrina Agate, Kwesi Boakye, Preston Bailey, Queen Latifah, Zain AliDirector: Adam Ravetch, Sarah Robertson
Brand: LATIFAH,QUEEN
Producer: Adam Leipzig
Producer: Chris Miller
Producer: John Bard Manulis
Writer: Kristin Gore
Writer: Linda Woolverton
Writer: Mose Richards
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-04
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Paramount
Movie Reviews of Arctic Tale
Movie Review: Great Footage, Horrible Narration & Writing
Summary: 2 Stars
It's no secret the makers of Arctic Tale were aiming for a March of the Penguins repeat. Nor is it a secret that with Arctic Tale they missed the mark almost entirely. Granted it still stands as about 90 minutes of high definition nature footage that blows the mind at times, but the magic of March of the Penguins remains unmatched.
Arctic Tale follows two separate animals through the harsh arctic wilderness. Nanu, a polar bear, starts her adventure under the protection of her mother with her brother by her side. Struggling to find food in an ever changing environment, the polar bear trio works hard tracking down seals, fish and whatever else they can find to sustain them. Meanwhile, Seela, a baby walrus, experiences similar plights as her family swims and waddles about looking for safe places to relax on land. Both Seela and Nanu experience a few hardships here and there but, and to be fair, the loss suffered by Seela may be the best part of the entire film.
If you thought March of the Penguins suffered from the occasional dry spell, Arctic Tale will bore you to tears. Unfortunately, in this case we can't blame the animals for living existences "too mundane" for filmed entertainment. If you think about it, March of the Penguins without a narrator would have been excruciatingly boring. Morgan Freeman saved March and Arctic Tale has no such savior. Instead, Arctic Tale has Queen Latifah. The very fact that Queen Latifah was chosen for a role first filled by Freeman demonstrates a seeming ignorance of the hierarchy of Hollywood nobility. Queen Latifah, despite her titular implication of royalty, is less than Morgan Freeman. Always has been, always will be. Casting her as the voice over comes as a near smack in the face to audiences expecting a high-quality narrated experience. I can just imagine the producers saying "She's got spunk! Her attitude will bring life to Arctic Tale!" Arctic Tale is already brimming with life. It's got the whole "life" thing down. It doesn't need an infusion of large, sassy woman voice to do that.
As a mild defense of Queen Latifah's meager talents, the script for the narration was miserable. Abandoning any semblance of informative dialogue, Arctic Tale just goes full out in the direction of "cute" and never looks back. Maybe they realized it, maybe they didn't - but in doing so Arctic Tale isolates the older audience by offering them little more than pretty pictures of nature. The footage they captured (which apparently took more than four years if you trust the extras on the disc) has brilliant moments but in no way does it hold its out without narration - and Latifah's performance ruins it.
Even with a better narrator (say Michael Caine, Glenn Close, Denzel Washington, hell even Big Bird) Arctic Tale had a lot to overcome. The "tale" shown here just never grips the audience all that tight. There are a few moments of emotion and a few of genuine tension, but the other 60 minutes is just Queen Latifah attempting to draw out drama that isn't all that interesting. The best moment of the film comes at the sacrifice of one of the walruses the film had been following and instead of fueling the "that's awesome" angle, we're bludgeoned into thinking "Awesome - I mean, heartbreaking. I feel for that blubbered-up sabretooth seal". Arctic Tale, with all of its environmental messages from children during the credits, makes no effort to hide its agenda. It's environmentally minded through and through and takes great pains to convert your children to their cause. That unto itself isn't a bad goal, but it'd be a shame to give the credit for such an achievement to such a poorly conceived film.
Blu-ray Extra Features:
It's actually funny how much better the "Making of Arctic Tale" is than the film itself. Sure, it dwells much more on the human factor and the toils of trying to get footage in the unforgiving environs of the north - but it's actually interesting. The filmmaker who devoted all his time to the endeavor is downright likeable and feels like a much saner version of Timothy Treadwell (see Grizzly Man if you haven't). Besides the trailer, the only other extra feature is "Are We There Yet? World Adventure: Polar Bear Spotting" which, like the other extra feature, surpasses the film in quality. It might not rely so much on the "aww, look at the cute polar bear" factor, but the kids who star have their act together and its presented in a way that's entertaining and blissfully short.
Arctic Tale pales in comparison to its penguin predecessor. Add to that problem the fact that once Nanu and Seela are grown they're not really all that cute anyways (not that walruses are ever really "cute"). In fact, unlike penguins, these are two animals that are neither cute nor all that friendly. Even Coca-Cola has the good sense to import CGI polar bears. The bottom line: Arctic Tale has value for its nature footage, but as a dramatic or narrative piece it suffers from poor narration and no real story.
Summary of Arctic Tale
Set in the vast snow kingdom at the top of the world, Arctic Tale is a real life adventure from the people who brought you March Of The Penguins. Join narrator Queen Latifah as she follows two very different arctic creatures, Nanu, the polar bear cub and Seela, the walrus pup, through exciting and harrowing struggles for survival. Armed only with their natural instincts and mothers' guidance, these inspiring animals face countless trials and challenges in a beautiful icebound world that is rapidly melting beneath them.The frozen Arctic is home to polar bears and walruses, two very different types of animals whose struggle to survive against the elements is only being made more difficult by a changing climate. Directors Adam Ravetech and Sarah Robertson filmed walruses and polar bears in the Arctic for 15 years in order to create this amazing story about the lives of Nanu the baby polar bear and a newborn walrus dubbed Seelah. Striking footage from land and sea is combined with effective narration by Queen Latifa and pop music by Joby Talbot to chronicle these creatures' lives from the babies' first days of existence, through two years of training in hunting and fighting by their respective mothers and the changes in the icy world that are necessitating new adaptations by these animals, and a contemplation of the chances of both species' continued survival. Like March of the Penguins, the footage of the animals of the Arctic and the formation and breaking up of the ice is exquisite, but perhaps even more striking is the clear evidence of climate change in the delayed formation of the ice in the autumn and its progressively earlier thawing and breaking up each spring. The polar bears' and walruses' resilience and instinctual ability to adapt and change in the face of the negative effects of global warming in order to survive is stressed, and viewers are left pondering why man cannot similarly adapt and change his ways in order to positively affect the world. Bonus features include an interesting "making of" featurette with Adam Ravetech and Sarah Robertson that describes their travels, trials, and enormous gratitude for the assistance of the Intuit people and a fun Are We There Yet? World Adventure: Polar Bear Spotting mini-adventure for kids in which Molly and Sam go looking for polar bears in a tundra buggy. (Ages 5 and older) --Tami Horiuchi
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