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Parents' Guide to

To the Arctic

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

Educational documentary explores life in the frozen wild.

Movie G 2012 45 minutes
To the Arctic Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 5+

Based on 1 parent review

lorineo
lorineo Parent of 4-year-old
October 15, 2013
age 5+

Don't bother.

Borrowed this DVD from the library.. really glad I didn't spend any money on it! Sure the photography is beautiful but this is not much more than a propaganda film about global warning (not even offering any hope). The format takes away from the enjoyment of the scenery as there are many mini picture-in-picture segments. The focus switches around a bit and is not always about the polar bears (DVD case/description is very misleading). Too bad they wasted all that great footage on what could have been an entertaining and educational story about a mother polar bear.
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What's the Story?

Narrated by Academy Award winner Meryl Streep, TO THE ARCTIC follows life in the arctic for polar bears, caribou, and other animals that call the frozen landscape their home. Like the BBC-Discovery series Frozen Planet, this IMAX documentary explains how global climate change is thawing the polar ice caps, extending the arctic summer by one month, and wreaking havoc on the habitats of the bears and other arctic residents. Despite their ability to thrive in the icy world, the polar bears are starving, the caribou aren't making it to their migratory destinations to give birth, and the entire future of the arctic is literally on thin ice.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (4 ):

Streep, a master of tone and diction, is a wonderful narrator -- injecting the movie's fairly didactic script with the emotion and urgency necessary to convey just how dire the arctic situation is. With a running time of just 45 minutes, even younger children will be able to follow along as To the Arctic introduces audiences to the industrious mother cub who can sense danger and will stop at nothing -- even growling at a much larger, much hungrier alpha male -- to protect and feed her babies.

Thanks to the participation of Paul McCartney, To the Arctic's score is full of poignant, familiar songs that match the dazzling visuals (all of that white landscape punctuated by the swimming or galloping animals) and the at times heart-wrenching story of the animals desperate to survive in their unforgiving surroundings. This isn't an uplifting story -- the arctic is facing full-on extinction by 2050 if we humans don't help stop global warming -- but it's an important one that will stick with kids long before Streep has uttered her last dulcet-toned sentiment.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the popularity of wildlife documentaries like To the Arctic and how they provide insight into the natural world. What are some favorites? Do you prefer ones with a narrator or those with more interviews and experts?

  • Why are wildlife documentaries well suited to the IMAX/3-D format? Do you think you get more out of documentaries in 3-D or other kinds of 3-D movies?

  • How can audiences take the lessons espoused in the documentary and make changes to help stop global warming?

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