Bears (film)

Last updated
Bears
Bears 2014 film.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alastair Fothergill
Keith Scholey
Written byAlastair Fothergill
Adam Chapman
Narrated by John C. Reilly [1]
Music by George Fenton
Production
companies
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date
  • April 18, 2014 (2014-04-18)(United States)
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million [3]
Box office$21.3 million [4]

Bears is a 2014 American nature documentary film about a family of brown bears living in the coastal mountain ranges of Alaska. Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey and narrated by John C. Reilly, Bears was released theatrically by Disneynature on April 18, 2014, the seventh nature documentary released under that label. [5] It generally received positive reviews from critics.

Contents

Plot

In Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, an Alaskan brown bear mother named Sky gives birth to two cubs named Scout and Amber in her den on a mountain slope. When April comes, the bears are ready to leave the den. As the bears leave, the oncoming summer brings with it a threat of avalanches. The bears are able to avoid the disasters. Upon reaching the lush valley below, the cubs meet the other bears, some of which pose a threat to the cubs; among these bears are Magnus, a big healthy male who dominates the valley, and his rival Chinook, an older male. The family works together to survive the spring, with Sky keeping the cubs safe from Tikaani, a pesky lone wolf. The cubs get to know how to defend themselves in encounters with Tikaani. The family also stays clear of the frequent dominance fights between Magnus and Chinook.

As the spring wears on, the cubs learn about how to catch food. Sky leads the cubs to the mudflats to dig up clams hiding under the mud. The family has a good time until the tide turns. In the chaos, Scout gets stranded on a sandbar. Unable to do much, Sky can only look on as the cub tries to free himself. He finally comes to his senses and swims over to Sky. The family heads back to higher ground, where, after another encounter with Magnus, Chinook attacks again. As Sky fights off the male bear, Amber and Scout hide in a nearby log. After Chinook is driven away, Amber reappears from the log, but Scout is nowhere to be seen. Sky looks for him all day, but to no avail. Eventually, just as Sky and Amber are about to give up searching, Scout comes right back out of the log he had been hiding in the whole time.

When summer comes, so does the yearly salmon run. Dozens of bears gather along salmon streams on the coast & the rivers, especially the Great Falls, where only adult males are allowed, to get the best of the run before it ends. This also leads in an increase in dominance fights between Magnus and Chinook. Sky, meanwhile, is looking for a different place to find food, the Golden Pond, where bears can make the best of the salmon run peacefully. After feasting on washed up mussels and rock eels in a hidden sanctuary, and the cubs having their first taste of salmon while going up river towards, a raven leads Sky and her two cubs to the direction of the Golden Pond just in time to save the brown bear family from their starvation. She and her cubs leave Katmai and head north to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, where the Golden Pond awaits, filled with salmon. After the family fill themselves on the riches of the feast, they head back to Katmai as winter approaches. When the first snow arrives, all the bears head back up the mountains to their dens to sleep out the harsh cold winter. The cubs have learned a lot from their first year which will greatly help them for the rest of their lives.

Production

The central brown bear family was filmed at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. [6] Fothergill and Scholey previously directed African Cats together.

Music

Olivia Holt sang her song "Carry On" for the film. [7] The song "Home" by Phillip Phillips appeared in the trailer and in the film. [8]

Release

Bears was released in the United States on April 18, 2014, four days before Earth Day.

Home media

Bears was released on Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on August 12, 2014.

Reception

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a score of 90% based on reviews from 60 critics, with an average score of 7.10/10, with the critical consensus listed as saying: "Sweet, beautifully filmed, and admirably short on sugarcoating, Bears continues Disneynature's winning streak". [9] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 68 based on 20 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [10]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
2014 Golden Trailer Awards Best Documentary TV SpotWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disneynature, Toy Box EntertainmentNominated [11]
International Film Music Critics Association Awards Best Original Score for a Documentary FilmGeorge FentonNominated [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Brother Bear</i> 2003 American animated comedy-drama film

Brother Bear is a 2003 American animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker and produced by Chuck Williams, from a screenplay written by Tab Murphy, Lorne Cameron, David Hoselton, and the writing team of Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman. The film stars the voices of Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Jason Raize, D.B. Sweeney, Joan Copeland, and Michael Clarke Duncan. Brother Bear follows an Alaska native boy named Kenai as he pursues a bear and kills it, but the Spirits, incensed by this unnecessary death, change Kenai into a bear himself as punishment. In order to be human again, Kenai must travel to a mountain where the Northern lights touch the earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Treadwell</span> American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, and documentary filmmaker (1957–2003)

Timothy Treadwell was an American bear enthusiast, environmentalist, documentary filmmaker, and founder of the bear-protection organization Grizzly People. He lived among coastal brown bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska, for 13 summers.

<i>March of the Penguins</i> 2005 French film

March of the Penguins is a 2005 French feature-length nature documentary directed and co-written by Luc Jacquet, and co-produced by Bonne Pioche and the National Geographic Society. The documentary depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age leave the ocean, which is their normal habitat, to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There, the penguins participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months.

<i>Grizzly Man</i> 2005 documentary film by Werner Herzog

Grizzly Man is a 2005 American documentary film by German director Werner Herzog. It chronicles the life and death of bear enthusiast and conservationist Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard at Katmai National Park, Alaska. The film includes some of Treadwell's own footage of his interactions with brown bears before 2003, and of interviews with people who knew or were involved with Treadwell, in addition to professionals who deal with wild bears.

<i>Earth</i> (2007 film) 2007 film

Earth is a 2007 nature wildlife documentary film which depicts the diversity of wild habitats and creatures across the planet. The film begins in the Arctic in January of one year and moves southward, concluding in Antarctica in the December of the same year. Along the way, it features the journeys made by three particular species—the polar bear, African bush elephant and humpback whale—to highlight the threats to their survival in the face of rapid environmental change. A companion piece and a sequel to the 2006 BBC/Discovery/NHK/CBC television series Planet Earth, the film uses many of the same sequences, though most are edited differently, and features previously unseen footage not seen on TV.

Disneynature is an independent film studio that specializes in the production of nature documentary films for Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The production company was founded on April 21, 2008, and is headquartered in Paris, France.

<i>The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos</i> 2008 British film

The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos is a 2008 British-American nature documentary that explores the great gathering of lesser flamingos which occurs every year at Lake Natron in Tanzania and along the salt lakes of the African Rift Valley. It was the first film released under the then-new Disneynature film label through Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It premiered in France on 26 October 2008, with narration by Zabou Breitman. The film was released in theatres in the UK on 29 September 2009 and direct-to-video in the United States on 19 October 2010 with narration by Mariella Frostrup.

<i>African Cats</i> 2011 American documentary film

African Cats is a 2011 nature documentary film about a pride of lions and a family of cheetahs trying to survive in the African savannah directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey. The film was released theatrically by Disneynature on Earth Day, April 22, 2011. The film is narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. A portion of the proceeds for the film were donated to the African Wildlife Foundation and their effort to preserve Kenya's Amboseli Wildlife Corridor. The film's initiative with the African Wildlife Foundation is named "See African Cats, Save the Savanna", and as of May 2011, ticket sales translated into 50,000 acres of land saved in Kenya.

Keith Scholey is a British producer of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. He is currently a joint Director of Silverback Films Ltd and Studio Silverback Ltd.

<i>The Last Lions</i> 2011 American film

The Last Lions is a 2011 African nature documentary film by National Geographic Society, videotaped and directed by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. It was shot in Botswana's Okavango Delta. The film premiered at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2011 and was released in select theaters the following month on February 18. The film follows in the tradition of other National Geographic big cat films, such as India: Land of the Tiger and Eye of the Leopard.

<i>Chimpanzee</i> (film) 2012 nature documentary film

Chimpanzee is a 2012 nature documentary film about a young common chimpanzee named Oscar who finds himself alone in the African forests until he is adopted by another chimpanzee, who takes him in and treats him like his own child. The American release of the film is narrated by Tim Allen.

Sophie Darlington is a freelance British wildlife camerawoman and producer-director who grew up in England, Ireland and Iran.

<i>Penguins</i> (film) 2019 American film

Penguins is a 2019 American nature documentary film directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson. The coming-of-age story follows an Adélie penguin named Steve, who joins fellow males in the icy Antarctic spring on a quest to build a suitable nest, find a life partner and start a family. The American release of the film is narrated by Ed Helms.

<i>Monkey Kingdom</i> 2015 American nature documentary film

Monkey Kingdom is a 2015 American nature documentary film directed and produced by Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill and narrated by Tina Fey. The documentary is about a family of monkeys living in ancient ruins founded in the jungles of Polonnaruwa in Sri Lanka. The film was released by Disneynature on April 17, 2015, the eighth nature documentary released under that label.

<i>Born in China</i> 2016 American film

Born in China (我们诞生在中国) is a 2016 nature documentary film directed by Lu Chuan. A co-production between Disneynature and Shanghai Media Group, the film was released in China on August 12, 2016, in the United States on April 21, 2017, one day before Earth Day, and in France on August 23 of the same year. The film focuses on a snow leopard named Dawa and her cubs, a young golden snub-nosed monkey named Tao Tao, a female giant panda named Ya Ya along with her daughter Mei Mei, and a herd of chiru. The American release of the film is narrated by John Krasinski, the Chinese release is narrated by Zhou Xun, and the French release is narrated by Claire Keim.

<i>Dolphin Reef</i> (film) 2020 American nature documentary film about dolphins

Dolphin Reef is a 2018 American nature documentary film about dolphins directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey and narrated by Natalie Portman. It is the fourteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released theatrically on March 28, 2018, in France under the title Blue with actress Cécile de France providing narration.

<i>Elephant</i> (2020 film) 2020 American nature documentary film about elephants

Elephant is a 2020 American nature documentary film about elephants directed by Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz and narrated by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. It is the fifteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released alongside Dolphin Reef as a Disney+ exclusive on April 3, 2020.

<i>Polar Bear</i> (film) 2022 American nature documentary film about polar bears

Polar Bear is a 2022 American nature documentary film about polar bears directed by Alastair Fothergill and Jeff Wilson. Narrated by Catherine Keener, it is the sixteenth nature documentary to be released under the Disneynature label. The film was released as a Disney+ exclusive on Earth Day April 22, 2022.

<i>Aftershock</i> (2022 film) 2022 American film

Aftershock is a 2022 American documentary film directed and produced by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee. It follows Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre, whose partners died due to childbirth complications, which were preventable, as they fight for justice.

References

  1. Alexander, Bryan (20 November 2013). "John C. Reilly gives voice to Disneynature's 'Bears'". USA Today. Retrieved 24 November 2013.
  2. "Disneynature African Cats".
  3. "Bears (2014)". The Wrap . Archived from the original on December 3, 2016. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  4. "Bears (2014)". Box Office Mojo . Internet Movie Database. April 29, 2014. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
  5. "Check out a Fun Featurette for Disneynature's Bears". Disney D23. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  6. "Disneynature - Filmmakers to Explore Alaska's Grizzly Bears". The Walt Disney Studios. 26 September 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-11-05. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  7. "Carry On (from Disneynature "Bears") – Single". iTunes. May 13, 2010. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
  8. Sperling, Nicole (August 15, 2013). "Watch the trailer for Disneynature's 'Bears'". Los Angeles Times.
  9. "Bears". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved May 4, 2014.
  10. "Bears Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 4, 2014.
  11. Fleming, Mike Jr. (2014-05-06). "Warner Bros Garners Most Golden Trailer Award Noms". Deadline. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
  12. "2014 IFMCA Awards". IFMCA: International Film Music Critics Association. 2015-02-20. Retrieved 2022-07-06.