Arctic Tale (2007) More at IMDbPro »

I say this movie is manipulative only because it seems to promise one thing and deliver another. I rented it because I thought my 4 year old daughter would enjoy what seemed to be the promise of one of those cutesy, kiddie-oriented movies featuring baby animals having fun adventures together. The truth is that she wasn't really enthralled by it, and while there are some baby animals in this (mostly a polar bear and a walrus) the "adventures" related really have more to do with the struggle of the animals to adapt to the changing ice conditions in the Arctic being caused by global warming. I have no problem with the message - I think the fight against global warming is extremely important. I just had a bit of a reaction against what I thought was the not entirely honest description of the movie's purpose.

Having said that, as a nature movie I thought this was not bad (although it has more to say to adults than to 4 year olds.) Narrated by Queen Latifah, and made in co-operation with the National Geographic Society, it's has some things in common with the Antarctic adventure "March Of The Penguins" (although it's not as good). As you would expect from National Geographic, the photography is brilliant, and a wide variety of animals are featured (in addition to the polar bears and walruses, there are arctic foxes, beluga whales, orcas, narwhaals, terns and gulls and possibly a few I'm forgetting.) The message isn't subtle; it gets through very clearly - the Arctic is warming up! - and it's true that you do find yourself drawn into the animals' lives and rooting for them through their struggles. I appreciated that the film anded on a fairly positive note, as the arctic life cycle continued, with what had been the baby animals becoming mothers to new babies.

Manipulation aside, the film is family-friendly and, as I noted, very well photographed, but in the end it didn't accomplish what I had hoped - which was to truly entertain a 4 year old.