The Little Polar Bear

Why don’t polar bears eat penguins? Because they can’t get the wrappers off, obviously. But, in ‘The Little Polar Bear’ – the cutesy German animation based on the kiddies’ books by Hans de Beer – they don’t eat seals either, which takes a bit more explaining.

You see, when Lars (the bear cub of the title) makes friends with a seal pup called Robby, the entire polar bear population are forced to realise the error of their ways and start eating fish instead. Don’t know how the fish feel about that, of course – perhaps they’ll save that issue for the sequel.

This harmless but fairly lame little toon is basically three separate stories, all about Lars landing himself in various spots of bother, bless ‘im. At one point, he falls asleep on a chunk of ice and inadvertently drifts all the way to a non-specific tropical paradise. At another, he comes face to face with a gigantic fish-munching sea vessel (there’s those fish getting it in the neck again).

The artwork is nice, simple stuff, and the sporadically CGI-aided animation is of a decent standard. Unfortunately the English dialogue, translated as it is from the German original, doesn’t work particularly well. Excitement and humour are both kept to a disappointing minimum and, while there’s probably just about enough on display to satisfy the target pre-school audience, any accompanying adults can expect to drift repeatedly in and out of consciousness.