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In Arctic Tale, the success and popularity of March of the Penguins is abused. We are presented with what looks to be a great and beautifully shot documentary on arctic wildlife and struggle to survive in this harshest of worlds. It’s narrated by Queen Latifah, who achieves the goal of telling this harsh story with street cred. She didn’t write the script so I can’t blame her for the orgiastic flatulent walrus scene reminiscent of beans and “Blazing Saddles”. Thankfully, it’s not about penguins (they don’t live in the Arctic and I for one am tired of seeing them on the screen). Instead, we get two other animal protagonists: Seela, a walrus and Nanu, a polar bear. How does storyteller/narrator Queen Latifah know their names? That’s why she’s the Queen.
Don’t come expecting to see the unlikely friendship of “The Fox and the Hound.” Since Seela and Nanu are natural enemies, this is no buddy tale of two rascally animals who leave their packs to seek their fortunes together. Instead, we see two young female animals being shepherded and trained on the rigors of life by their mothers while their arctic environment melts around them. Nanu’s mother raises her and her clumsy and disoriented brother, teaching them to hunt seals through layers of ice and snow. Seela’s mother and aunt teach her to climb onto patches of ice and protect her from predators. It is a tale of family, life-and-death issues, and the price of survival.
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Both the walrus and the polar bear are all about family: The polar bear in a nuclear, single mother-two kids family that wanders as a group. The walrus is in a great big (in more ways than one) family. Fathers in this tale are all but absent they are expected to perform the initial fathering act then disappear. The wizened old grandpa walrus is the only male leadership we see. Otherwise, women are in charge of the action.
The film is beautifully shot with the finesse of National Geographic. The vividness of the footage is worth the cost of admission. Also, a plausible and dramatically effective narrative built around the natural growth process of animal existence is a pretty impressive accomplishment. Queen Latifah’s familiar voice enables some of the more colloquial comments to not sound too corny. Speaking of the walruses, she notes that “when one of them gets hungry, they all do … that’s just how they roll.” Besides these kid-friendly laugh lines, I could see Al Gore being a better narrator. This film is from the studio that brought you “An Inconvenient Truth,” so when there’s a shift in message, from “look at the animals” to “save the animals,” don’t be surprised. As the credits roll the environmentally friendly kids tell the audience “If your parents swap out regular lightbulbs for more efficient fluorescent ones you can save walruses,” and “Get your mom and dad to drive a hybrid car and the ice caps won’t melt.” (Think the ending of Al Gore’s movie with kid narration instead of rolling titles laid over a Melissa Etheridge soundtrack.) Save the animals, save the world, blah, blah, blah.
I know better than most that this world is on a path to destruction and we must be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. However, the eco-friendly tone was not the worst part of this movie. The final lines of the film ask what will happen to the children of these animals if all that they have built their life upon melts around them. Then as if it was the most simple transition in the world it turns to ask what will happen to our children. But polar bears and walruses don’t have children, they have cubs and calves, respectively. And as much as Al Gore wants our kids to ponder the deaths of cute and fuzzy animals sentimentally, they are not the same.
This world and all that is in it is maintained and sustained by our God. He can keep ice caps from melting just as he can keep bridges from collapsing. However, in His sovereign will bridges do collapse and entire species do go extinct. And as Talitha Piper so eloquently stated, “Maybe He let it fall because he wanted all the people… to fear him.” So do ask yourself what will happen to your children if all that they have built their life upon melts and collapses around them? If they have built their life on the solid rock of Jesus Christ they have nothing to fear, because to live is for Christ and to die is gain.
