Polar Bear Review!

Polar Bear follows the development of a bear family; a mother and her two cubs in the shrinking Arctic.  It is the latest Disneynature documentary which are usually dropped around Earth Day.  We get an overhead shot at the beginning of the blue-green sea and at the bottom is the torpedo-shape of a mother polar bear and her cub.  The narrator, Catherine Keener, speaks about home.  Then, we see the mother bear with her head and snout just above water with her cub behind her.  Disneynature does a combination of beautiful cinematography and story.  It is directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson who also directed Penguins (2019) for Disneynature.  The narrator is speaking as mama bear saying her home is changing with the melting of the ice.  I've been a polar bear up close in an animal facility, this one had a pale yellow coat, maybe because she's been away from the ice or it could be that the light affects its coat to look like ice.    

We get the bears swimming from the side now and later the outcroppings of ice and rock in the distance.  The shelf of polar ice is even further.  Then, we get an aerial view of the icy mountains where the narrators says she was born in an ice cave.  She says her earliest memories were playing with her twin brother and we see the lil’ cubs rolling around in the ice.  Their mother lies down next to them.  Mother bear starts walking as the cubs follow her.  The cubs slide down a hill.  The bear mother stops in mid motion and then sniffs prey.  Then, she races burying her body into the ice.  She tries again, lifting up, and smashing her forepaws down to break the ice.  I like seeing the hunting behavior, but smashing through the ice takes too long and the seal will escape.  Next, we see a spotted seal poking its head up.  The family continues on.  Eventually, mom leads them to a bay and leaps off a patch of ice.  

The cubs climb aboard as she swims as we see snow flakes drift past.  They reach an ice shelf and Mom pulls the cubs to the ice.  We see the icemelt waterfalls.  Mom leaves her cubs to stalk in the water and find a seal out on the ice.  Closeups as we see the head of Mom silently swimming up to a grey seal resting on the ice.  It sleeps as Mom slowly pulls herself out of the water.  The music is tense.  Then, the seal slips away.   Mom continues the hunt.  Next, we have a silver-coated leopard seal on some ice.  The polar bear suddenly emerges and drags the seal into the water.  We see the scattered ice floes of the summer.  Then, there is the sea with only patches of ice, no ice no seals, and no food for the polar bears.  We get an aurora borealis time lapse in winter.  Impressive nature photography is also in these specials.  In spring, the family goes to catch their food for the entire year.  Polar Bear has the threat of a male bear and other struggles of life on the disappearing Arctic world.   

Four Ice Floes out of Five! 

#PolarBear, #Disneynature, #EarthDay, #AlastairFothergill, #JeffWilson, #CatherineKeener