The Little Polar Bear (2003)

Am I Missing Something?

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

"Der kleine Eisbär" or "The Little Polar Bear" is a German animated movie from 2001, so this one already had its 15th anniversary last year. If you check the crew list, you will see that quite a few people worked on this one. I won't list them in detail, but lets just say that the original books this is based on are by Hans de Beer. The movie is really short, runs for under 70 minutes not counting credits and the protagonist is of course the title character, which means that the film plays in the arctic ice for most of the time. It is a bit on the generic side when it comes to the characters, friends, foes and the story in general, which is mostly about a bear making friends with a seal and as a consequence there is a bit of a ceasefire between these two groups of animals. Which is on the other hand very unlucky for fish, but that's just a side-note. There are some okay moments about the story too and I somehow liked the retro look as this one looks a lot older than 21st century. The prestige of this project can easily be seen in the cast list here as the likes of Busse, Lück, Stelter, Krüger, Bach, Biedermann, Petruo, Völz, Engelke... are very known here in Germany and the No Angels song during the credits is kinda nice too, even if I am not so sure how well its fits the subject of the film. So overall, this was a good film I guess, nothing great and "ausbaufähig" when it comes to story telling, but the cuteness, harmlessness and innocence of it all makes up for that. I will watch the sequel at some point too and I hope that one is on the same level. We will see.

I found the Little Polar Bear a cute and charming animated tale, that teaches the values of friendship and accepting others. The animation is mostly beautiful with imaginative Antarctic landscapes, and a colourful portrayal of The South. I also loved the soundtrack sung by No Angels, and the sweeping incidental music beautifully played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The central characters, Lars and Robbie are very likable and sweet, their friendship adding to the film's appeal. The three "villainous" polar bears are quite nasty, and I will say all the characters are well voiced. I have two complaints, one being Caruso, while he is well animated and provides some of the humour, the humour got a bit too much, particularly over serious scenes. The film is also too short, so the secondary characters could have been developed more, had it been 5-10 minutes longer. Despite these complaints, I found it very charming, and I would definitely watch it again. 8/10 Bethany Cox.

This could be a cute movie for kids My grandson watched it once. he was watching it a second time I was watching some of it with him.When the little bear gets lost on the ice burg and he is in the water he is trying to get to a piece of ice it says "Come back stupid ass fool".I don't want my 3 year old grandson watching movies with words like this in it.That is why its rated for children. Should be child friendly. That is what I would expect. put out by warner brothers and G rated I would expect this to not have cuss words in it. The words don't even fit the movie in most places as it seems added later. And the movie drags out in many parts.

This is a very fine movie for children. No violence. A few exciting scenes, bit breathtaking, but relief is quick to follow. This means that small children can watch it over and over again, with great pleasure.