Sunday Review: Bears

Darn, those cubs are cute

By Morris Dean

Disneynature's most recent documentary film, Bears (April 2014, directed by Alastair Fothergill & Keith Scholey), seems to me marred by a cutesy narrative (supplied by the voice of John C. Reilly) that oohs and ahs over the antics of grizzly bear cubs Amber & Scout as though Reilly were their uncle competing with some other uncle. There's no doubt, though, that the cubs are cute. I can quote my unsentimental wife on that point; she meant it admiringly, and she doesn't like cutesy any more than I do.
    We meet the sister & brother what seems like minutes after their birth, they're so tiny, wet, and un-grizzly-looking in the bosom of their mother (Sky) in the den she holed up in at the beginning of winter some months ago. It's high atop a mountain in a coastal range of Alaska (Katmai National Park), peaks away from the ocean where they must make their way through snow and avalanche a few weeks into spring. Their destination will be the coast, in order to find food. There, they will have at whatever they can find (such as clams and mussels) until summer brings the returning Pacific salmon.

    At the coast they join a number of other bears, and a few grey wolves, both species highly predatory – when it comes to bear cubs – during the long wait for the salmon to arrive. The narrative supplies names for the key characters: Magnus, a big male grizzly (over 1,000 pounds and three times the size of Sky); Chinook, a younger male who tests Magnus's dominance; and Tikaani, a pesky, patient grey wolf. Encounters with these individuals provide some scenes so intense you can almost hear Mr. Reilly's panic.

    One scene is particularly worrisome. Trying to evade Chinook, whom Sky had unsuccessfully tried to distract from her cubs, Amber & Scout get separated in their rush to hide among downed trees, and after Amber comes out to reunite with her mother, Scout is still nowhere to be seen. On the point of giving up their search for lost, Sky & Amber see Scout emerge from inside a log where he has been hiding. Everyone is relieved, including the audience.

    A really big disappointment, relative to other Disneynature documentaries I've reviewed, is that the DVD for Bears has no bonus features. I was hoping to learn how the film crew got inside that den to film newly born cubs. The only thing the film showed was shots during the credits of photographers set up very close to the grizzlies – and in the open. How did they manage that? You won't find out from the edition of the DVD that I borrowed from our local public library.

    Of course, Bears wasn't entirely too cutesy for us – we enjoyed being out in the wild with the little family, seeing them interact with other bears and with wolves, and with ravens and sea birds – and with the salmon that Sky desperately needed to find if she were to see her cubs safely through the winter into their second year. And maybe Bears is just the right cutesy for families with children, who will probably delight in this year-in-the-life documentary.

Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean