Bears

Posted on April 17, 2014 at 6:00 pm

This year’s Disney Nature release for Earth Day is “Bears,” the story of an Alaskan bear named Sky and her twin cubs, Scout and Amber, their trek from the den where they’ve hibernated all winter to a place where they can find enough food to sustain themselves through the summer and the next year’s hibernation. John C. Reilly is the genial narrator in a highly relatable story that has adventure, humor, peril, discovery, and some very powerful maternal love. There’s a reason that we call our toughest human mothers mama bears.

As in the previous entries in this series, the footage is stunning, both the breathtaking grand vistas of snow and mountains in the five million acre national parkland on the Alaskan peninsula to the tiny faces of the brand-new cubs. And it is filled with “how did they get that” moments, with no indication until the final credit sequence of any human presence. The water sequences are especially thrilling.

The narration is less intrusively anthropomorphic than some of the previous entries in this series. While there are many dangers and some animal battles and predators, it is also less sad and scary than African Cats. Parents of younger children should know that it appears at one moment that one of the cubs has been killed, but it turns out that he is fine.

Sky and her tiny cubs wake up in the den she prepared for giving birth and dozing through the winter. She is depleted and the tiny cubs are not quite ready for the week-long trek through the snow to find a place where the salmon are running, and Sky can have access to the 90 pounds of protein a day she will need to survive the next hibernation. The trio face many threats. They reach a pack of other bears (the cubs’ are very excited to find others of their species), but Magnus, the over-1000 pound alpha male, is capable of eating the cubs if no other food is available. An outcast from the pack is also after them. The hunt for salmon takes them to the shore, where there are clams to eat, but it is also dangerous when the tide comes in.

The devotion and persistence of these animals is a powerful reminder that family connections link all species. With this peek into their world, we are more aware of our own.

Parents should know that this movie includes some peril and animal fighting. It appears at one point that one of the main characters has been killed but he turns out to be fine.

Family discussion: Why was Chinook an outcast? How does Sky teach the cubs what they need to know? Who is your role model and why is it important to have one? How would the story be different if it was from the point of view of one of the other animals or the salmon?

If you like this, try: “Chimpanzee” and “African Cats”

Related Tags:

Animals and Nature Documentary

Big Miracle

Posted on February 2, 2012 at 6:00 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for language
Profanity:	Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, character gets tipsy
Violence/ Scariness:	Human and animal characters in peril, references to hunting and eating whales, sad animal death
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters:	February 3, 2012
Date Released to DVD:	June 18, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	B005LAIGQ4

“You’re not as easy to hate as I thought,” an oil man tells an environmental activist in “Big Miracle,” the heartwarming true story of a 1987 effort to rescue three Alaskan whales. It could just as well have been said by any of the more than a dozen lead characters who find themselves part of a “cockeyed coalition.” People who viewed each other with suspicion, if not downright animosity, are brought together to save a family of whales affectionately named after Flintstones characters.

The obstacle for the whales was five miles of ice that had to be cut away in sub-zero temperatures so the whales could get to the ocean. The bigger obstacle was the struggle for the humans to try to find a way to work together.

“Big Miracle” is the story of a rescue operation put together by people who each wanted something different. Native Inupiat whale hunters wanted to “harvest” (kill and eat) the whales. Environmentalists wanted to protect them. The US military did not want to ask for help from a Soviet ice cutting ship. An oil developer wanted to improve his reputation. Two Minnesota entrepreneurs wanted to show off their ice melting machine. Politicians wanted to look good or look innocent. And journalists wanted a story.

Director Ken Kwapis and screenwriters Jack Amiel and Michael Begler deftly keep the multi-character story from getting too cluttered with the help of appealing performances that give us an instant connection to the humans who are literally trying to save the whales. Standouts in the cast include John Krasinski as a television reporter who is tired of being stuck in a backwater where nothing exciting happens, Kathy Baker as an unexpected supporter with inside information, Dermot Mulroney as a frustrated military officer, and John Pingayeck on his first movie role as a grandfather trying to teach his grandson to listen to the world outside his earphones.

When the reporter’s story is picked up for a national broadcast, the first to arrive is Rachel (an earnest and believably bedraggled Drew Barrymore). She is an environmental activist with no resources but a good story. One by one, those who resist getting involved revise their positions when they are in the spotlight. No one wants to risk bad publicity–or pass up the chance to look heroic.

Even as the people come together, the logistical challenge becomes overwhelming and — parent alert — the ultimate rescue is bittersweet, not entirely triumphant.

The people stories, especially a trumped-up romantic triangle, are not as intriguing as the portrayal of pre-Internet news media. With only three network news broadcasts just half an hour each evening, everyone from school children to White House staffers watched the same stories. The archival footage is like the hub that holds all the parts of the story together, and there are some pointed jabs at media focus on the sensational over the significant.

A turning point comes when White House aide Kelly Meyers (based on Bonnie Carroll) persuades President Ronald Reagan, at the end of his term, to call on his counterpart in the USSR for help from a Soviet ice cutting ship. (Be sure to watch for photos of Carroll’s real life wedding to the military officer she met at the rescue over the closing credits.).

Meyers sets up a “Hello Gorby, this is Ronnie” phone call that serves as a literal ice breaker for the whales and a metaphorical one for two nations in the very earliest stages of post-Evil Empire relations. The people saved the whales, but the real miracle was that they learned their differences were small compared to what they had in common with each other and with the giant mammals who needed their help.

Parents should know that this movie includes animal and human peril and references to hunting and eating whales. One of the whales dies (off-screen).

Family discussion: How many different reasons did the characters have for helping the whales? How did the risk of bad publicity or the benefits of good publicity change their behavior? What is different now from the era when this took place?

If you like this, try: “Free Willy” and “Whale Rider” and the book about the real-life rescue by Tom Rose

The Real Story: ‘Big Miracle’ and the Alaskan Whale Rescue

Posted on February 2, 2012 at 3:59 pm

This week’s “Big Miracle” is about the real-life story of the 1988 rescue effort to save three trapped whales in Alaska. The film is based in part on Big Miracle, the book by journalist Tom Rose, who covered the story. As portrayed in the film, the rescue became a national news story and the turning point was an unprecedented phone call from President Ronald Reagan to the Soviet Union to get the cooperation of a Soviet ice-cutting ship. And as also portrayed in the film, the story attracted more than 150 journalists from around the world to tiny, frozen Barrow, Alaska, lat. 71°23’N and long. 156°30’W, where the locals charged them outrageous amounts for transportation, lodging, and equipment. The affectionate nicknames given to the whales were not the Flintstones character names depicted in the movie. The rescuers called the whales Crossbeak, Bonnet, and Bone. Possibly the most improbable story in the movie is the one that is closest to the truth. The White House aide working on coordinating the President’s involvement and the military officer working on the rescue in Alaska did fall instantly in love. Stay through the credits and you will see their wedding photo.

The film focuses on the challenges of the arctic conditions and the bigger challenges of finding a way for the humans to set aside their differences for a common goal. It also touches on some ot the darker themes Rose addresses more extensively in his book, as indicated by its original title: Freeing The Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event Rose points out that the Soviet ice-cutting ship portrayed in the media of the time and the movie of today as the whale-saver was actually in Alaska as a part of the USSR’s whale-slaughter industry, the largest in the world at the time of the rescue and for many years after. Rose’s book explores the role of the media in what a cynical character in the movie calls “cat up a tree” stories. The rescue of the three whales had enormous public appeal, but all around it were stories the media overlooked that were more important by any measure. Rose calculated that the cost of the rescue and media coverage was more than $5.7 million.

“e came to tell the world about a common occurrence,” he wrote “the routine stranding of three whales under a patch of ice. The only thing that made this stranding extraordinary was that it happened just 20 miles from a satellite uplink earth station. Had the facility been located far away, these whales, like dozen of others each year, would have died ordinary deaths.”

The movie shows how all of the participants in the rescue used or tried to use the media for their own purposes, including Greenpeace, which had to bring in more people to answer phones as calls came in from all over the world and the oil man portrayed in the film by Ted Danson. Rose writes:

The $500,000 ARCO spent on Operation Breakout was one of the best investments it ever made. A $20 million public relations campaign couldn’t have bought a tenth the goodwill ARCO earned helping free the three trapped whales. It seemed to be perfect timing. ARCO cashed in at a critical juncture in the history of the slumping Alaskan oil industry. No oil company in Alaska ever received more favorable press coverage than ARCO did during its two week investment in Operation Breakout. Usually the rich whipping boy of the environmentalists, ARCO now worked side by side with Cindy Lowry and Greenpeace. In the game of P.R. Pac-Man, ARCO swallowed any hint of criticism by pouring tremendous resources into a rescue destined to save three animals endangered by nature, not man’s insatiable carving for fossil fuels.

Of course, ARCO’s work on behalf of the three whales stranded in Barrow did nothing to clean up its share of the more than 11,000 acres of North Slope Arctic tundra the Environmental Protection Agency said were ruined by oil drilling.

We don’t know what happened to the whales who made it out. We do know that the media has changed in many ways since 1988 but still focuses on cute, upbeat, human (and animal) interest stories instead of big, complicated, less upbeat stories. The same could be said for “inspired by a true story” movies, but this one has enough respect for its audience to include a witty coda that is sure to spark some worthwhile conversations.

Related Tags:

The Real Story

Smile of the Week: Hallelujah Chorus from Quinhagak, Alaska

Posted on November 29, 2011 at 8:00 am

Thanks to Roger Ebert for sharing this adorable video from the 5th graders of Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat in Quinhagak, Alaska.

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Smile of the Week

List: Alaska Movies (and one television show)

Posted on August 30, 2008 at 8:00 am

In honor of the new Republican nominee for Vice-President, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, here’s a list of movies that take place in Alaska:

1. North to Alaska This easy-going comic “Northern” (that’s a western set up north) stars John Wayne and the lovely Capucine

2. The Gold Rush Charlie Chaplin memorably turns shoelaces into spaghetti in this Klondike classic.

3. Mystery, Alaska Russell Crowe is a hockey player on an underdog team from a small Alaska town that takes on the pros.

4. Insomnia If you have insomnia, going to a place with no nights is probably not a good idea, especially if you’re investigating a murder. Three Oscar-winners — Al Pacino, Hillary Swank, and Robin Williams — star in this remake of a Norwegian thriller written and directed by “The Dark Knight’s” Christopher Nolan.

5. Grizzly Man Werner Herzog’s tragic documentary about a man who wanted to live with grizzly bears is a thoughtful meditation on the impulse to go to extremes.

6. Into the Wild Sean Penn wrote and directed this fact-based story of a young man who wanted to leave everything behind and died in the Alaskan countryside.

7. Balto Kevin Bacon provides voice talent in this animated film based on the true story of the dog who saved the lives of Alaskan children by delivering essential medicine. There’s a statue in his honor in New York’s Central Park.

8. Road to Utopia Hope and Crosby’s “Road” travels take them to Alaska in this silly comedy.

9. The Simpsons Movie Homer Simpson leaves Springfield for Alaska in the first feature film from this record-breaking comedy classic television series.

10. Northern Exposure This beloved television series about a naive young doctor is well loved for its endearing characters and understated humor.