Bears

The documentary follows a family of brown bears in Alaska across a year. The mother comes out of hibernation with two cubs. They are very small and are only learning to walk in the snow. The family has to get down to the coast; the salmon run there is the only thing they will eat all summer. On the way there are wolves, hungry male bears and the tide. Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill direct. The film belongs to Disney's series of nature documentaries and John C. Reilly reads the narration. The photography is its strongest side; the fishing scenes, the snow sections and the long shots on the tidal flats were all taken in the field. The known preference of this series is to fictionalise: the animals are given names, behaviour is explained through human feeling, and the narration makes jokes. Among viewers of nature documentary that approach is contested. Against that, most of the behaviour shown is real, and the ways bears fish for salmon are seen in detail. It is short, about eighty minutes, and the structure is built with a child audience in mind. Who it is for: viewers who like nature documentary and anyone watching with children. Who it is not for: there is little scientific information, the narration talks too much, and the film presents the animals as a family drama.