The Bear was an art film veiled in the guise of a nature film. I never looked at the roving vistas and sharp cinematography, because when I first watched this, I was more concerned with the bear cub. This is certainly a minimalist film, but the execution was so well done, the power of the images speaks more than the occasional piece of dialogue that is spoken throughout the movie. While it can never be described as kids movie, I think kids might be interested in it due to the very National Geographic-like quality of the film (only without the voice overs). While it has been a long time since I last watched this film (about four years ago),the interesting imagery and the simple, yet meaningful story of survival will always stick with me.

Years ago, someone asked the original creators of "Cats" if it was an analogy about the relationship between Queen Victoria and Disraeli. They responded coldly, "It's about cats". Certainly the animal could be changed in either that overrated musical or this brilliant French film about a bear cub and his desperate attempt to survive after the mother dies in a tragic accident. There are two hunters out on the trail for bears and their valuable skin, and the bear cub here, befriending an adult bear, learns how to survive. This however is not a film for children and that means for the segments in the middle that shows the older bear copulating.

Young children would probably be horrified by the amount of blood involving a dead horse and another one gravely wounded, and later in the film scenes with hunting dogs attacked by the older bear which is simply trying to get away from them and their humans. A scene with a gravely wounded dog whimpering in pain is very difficult to watch, mainly because you realize it is not the dog's fault but the hunters who are using them. The wounded horse profusely bleeding is another disturbing scene. In two scenes, the cub eats wild mushrooms, the first time hallucinating about scary looking frogs and then next time about a color changing butterfly.

If you don't quibble too much about the bears here possibly being wounded or abused while filming, you can really get into the story of the cub and the older bear who protects him. The cub licked the bigger bear's wounds after he was shot which could explain why the older bear didn't eat him. Of course the bear cub is adorable, the humans ruthless in their efforts to capture him (possibly to sell to a zoo or circus) and kill the bigger one. The bear squeals are a combination of delightful and silly, and it would be interesting to see a documentary showing the making of this where a human being tries to imitate a bear cub cry. Beautiful photography and a great musical score aides this in becoming a very good film, at least for those 12 and up. There is a reason why this wasn't rated G.

A note to parents and anyone who is creeped out by the sight of bears making babies. Although this is a wonderful film, there is a "bear sex" scene in the film. It didn't bother me but it sure felt unnecessary and probably resulted in some interesting comments from the kids, such as "Mommy--how did those two bears get stuck together".

Okay, apart from that, this is one of the best family films you can find. Unlike MOST made for kids movies, this one will actually interest the parents as much as the kids. This is one of the reasons the movie gets high marks from me.

The story is about an orphaned grizzly cub who is befriended by an adult male grizzly. Now you MUST suspend disbelief here, because in real life, the adult male would have certainly eaten the cub (sorry, I was a biology major and psychology major back in college and I know that is the norm). But, if you ignore this, it is a charming story guaranteed to keep your attention and give you a greater appreciation for nature. Great stuff from this French production company.