Tarka the Otter is a perhaps dark and bleak film, but I also think it is a poignant one too. And above all in my opinion, it is wonderful. Tarka the Otter is a beautifully filmed movie, the cinematography is lovely and the scenery is gorgeous, and it is appropriately scored too with some very pretty and haunting themes. The narration is both droll and literate and the story is touching. Tarka is adorable and Peter Ustinov is absolutely brilliant in this film with his distinctive voice serving him well. Oh and the ending has me bawling, even after countless times of seeing the film. The film may be a little overlong perhaps, but it is a wonderful movie all the same and well worth catching. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Although I really wanted to love TARKA THE OTTER - I'm a massive wildlife buff, spend my spare time watching the likes of SPRINGWATCH, and adore RING OF BRIGHT WATER and the books that spawned it - I feel that it doesn't really work as a film. An ostensible adaptation of the Henry Williamson novel, it charts the life and misadventures of a precocious young otter cub called Tarka.

My enjoyment of the production came from the absolute ton of nature footage included here. Grey herons and barn owls figure predominantly, and there's all of the footage of otters playing, frolicking, hunting, and fighting that you could wish for. The production suffers from being a little overlong and repetitive in the mid section, but Peter Ustoniv's narration, although aimed at children, just about holds things together.

No, what it didn't like was the darkness of the story. I'm all for darkness in children's material and I have no problems with stories showing the viciousness of nature, like WATERSHIP DOWN. What I didn't like here is that most of the running time is preoccupied with Tarka being chased by a pack of brutal dogs. There's no happy outcome here; either he'll manage to escape until the next time, or he'll be torn to shred. It makes for an aggressive, upsetting production, one that I found ultimately depressing rather than exciting. I hate seeing the cruelty to animals done by humans and there's just simply too much of that here.

This British animal film details the life of an otter called Tarka and his daily obstacles to survive. His main dangers come from human beings perhaps unsurprisingly, in the form of poachers and, mostly, huntsmen and their pack of hounds.

The influence of the previous year's Watership Down (1978) seems quite pronounced here, with its story focusing on the trials of animals from the British countryside and the grim reality of the horrors they encounter. Both movies share a peculiar unsentimental approach to their material, and both are hard hitting for family movies. The biggest single difference of course is that Tarka is based squarely on reality, with no talking animals or animation. As such, it utilises a lot of nature style photography, which are edited together into a narrative, the result is something of a hybrid of fiction and documentary. The nice narration from Peter Ustinov helps expand upon the story elements but this is a film which almost exclusively gets by without dialogue. The English countryside provides a lovely backdrop and is very well photographed here. There is an unmistakeable anti-hunting message, which remains absolutely pertinent to this day. The idea that grown adults get their kicks out of terrorizing a little wild animal minding its business in the countryside, is perplexing indeed. But even without the message, this remains a great little movie, with the real star being the gorgeous little otter itself. This is definitely a film which remains compelling and is one which should continue to be passed down to future generations of children.