POLAR BEAR
Cert PG ★★★
On Disney+ now
From the makers of Disney’s Penguins comes this environmental family documentary about a very worried polar bear.
Catherine Keener voices a hairy new mother who is concerned about the grim future awaiting her cuddly cub among the melting ice sheets.
As our unnamed heroine reminisces about rolling around in the snow with her mum and brother, we flash back to less apocalyptic times. But, while her first two years were idyllic, her third winter was grim as the ice melted early and Mum was forced to go inland for food.
There are slightly upsetting scenes featuring a soon-to-be-scoffed walrus pup (captured in a mercifully fuzzy aerial shot) but there are joyous moments too.
A marvellous sequence shows the narrator, now a young adult, coming across a male bear while trekking through a desolate landscape.
As parents fear an adult-only encounter, the hairy strangers roll back the years to play a game of hide and seek in a half-frozen lake. The future may be bleak but sometimes bears just want to have fun.