Each Earth Day Walt Disney studios releases a live-action nature film, and I look forward to seeing them.  They always feature amazing photography and usually offer remarkable glimpses into areas on our planet which most of us will never explore or experience.  Bears does both, although sometimes insipid narration by John C. Reilly diminishes its impact.

Creating a narrative of a mama bear trying to keep two young cubs alive during one summer would seem to be simple, what with the threat of other bears, wolves, the weather, changing climate and other factors.  It is simple, and effective, except that Reilly’s narration is occasionally clichéd, often cloying and sometimes intrusive.  The beauty and wonder of nature, seen close-up and in incredible detail, does not need to be so obviously anthropomorphized.  In other words, we don’t need to be told in breathless fashion that mama bear Sky realizes that she needs to eat a bellyful of salmon to keep her cubs, Amber and Scout, alive through the winter, twice.

The scripting of the film is its weakest part.  The cinematography is stunning, and the animals themselves are magnificent.  The issue of erspective is intriguing; from the bears’ point of view, this narrative is one of noble survival.  But from the perspective of salmon, which are seen swimming against the current upstream, over waterfalls and past the bears to their spawning grounds, this is a horror film.  Bears avoids gratuitous violence, although dozens of salmon are seen being caught and devoured.

The film, directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, is an earnest entry in Disney’s ongoing “get to know your planet” series.  Back in the 1950s and 60s, Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures centered on specific animals usually being forced to adapt to our encroachment into their territory.  Now technological advances allow film crews to delve deep into the wilderness of Alaska, a rain forest, or other exotic locations, to witness how these animals live on their own.  The result is a recurring testament to the beauty and power of nature, even if a bear cub’s antics are turned into comedy fodder by a lazy scriptwriter.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  2 May 2014.