Susan Granger’s review of “Arctic Tale” (Paramount Classics/National Geographic)
Venturing into “March of the Penguins” territory – on the opposite tip of the globe – this epic nature documentary follows the parallel stories of a polar bear cub, Nanu, and walrus pup, Seela, from birth through adolescence to maturity and parenthood in the frozen Arctic wilderness.
From the moment curious Nanu crawls out of her sheltering snow cave, she’s surrounded by a vast kingdom of astonishing cold, an unforgiving landscape where she and her brother must learn – from their mother – the skills necessary to survive.
After Seela’s birth in the blue watery depths, her greatest challenge is learning to use her flippers to haul herself up on an ice floe so she won’t die. She’s attended not only by her mother but also by another female, a vigilant “auntie,” who protectively flank her.
They’re joined by tiny white foxes, skittish ring seals, thick-billed murres that fly not only through the sky but also the ocean, watchful gulls and mysterious narwhals, the “unicorns” of the North Pole. For these Arctic creatures, dangers abound, particularly climate change. Only the strongest will survive now that their crystalline habitat is rapidly melting.
For the past 15 years, the filmmaking husband-and-wife team Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson have painstakingly photographed 800 hours of footage, expertly edited by Beth Spiegel to serve a profoundly disturbing environmental warning tale by Linda Wolverton, Moses Richards and Kristin Gore (filially connected to “An Inconvenient Truth”) and narrated by Queen Latifah, whose cloying anthropomorphizing oozes treacle. Discordant notes also emanate from the often distracting sound track, slipping into Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family” as a walrus herd experiences communal indigestion.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Arctic Tale” is an astonishing, adventurous 8, notably for its spectacular photography.
