Friday, February 17, 2006

Eight Below (***)


This Antarctic adventure about sled dogs and their bond with their owner is a family film that the adults can enjoy too.

When I saw it, I had no idea what this Disney movie was about except snow, and I was happily surprised. So I’m not going to say what eventually happens in the movie, except that there are a lot of scenes with sled dogs. Paul Walker is the loving owner of the dogs. He spends a lot of time in Antarctica escorting people around like the scientist (Bruce Greenwood) who hopes to find a meteor near the American base. Danger ensues for both humans and dogs. This is a remake of a 1983 Japanese film called Antarctica that was based on events in 1958. It was directed by Frank Marshall, who directed the equally snowbound Alive. So even though this is a family movie, some realism is retained. The dogs don’t talk or do things that real dogs don’t do. They’re even shown killing for food. Disney made another movie about snow dogs a few years ago. It was called Snow Dogs. Maybe the racing story in that movie was easier to follow for kids, but the ones in the theater when I saw Eight Below seemed interested anyway, and I think anyone over about ten years old will like this a lot better.

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