Matialth
Good concept, poorly executed.
Billie Morin
This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"The Bear" is a 26-minute animated short film that was made for the Christmas holidays back in 1998, so this one will soon have its 20th anniversary already. The team behind this are the ones who worked on "The Snowman" and "The Snowman and the Snowdog" and you can easily see it from the animation style. And as with these I just mentioned, there is also no (or hardly any) spoken dialogue in here, no voice acting, at least not in the version I saw. Apparently Judi Dench is the narrator for the American version, so if you are a great fan of her then check out that one. I can imagine her voice going pretty well with the atmosphere. Anyway, in terms of the story it is pretty decent as well without ever reaching greatness really and same goes for the music. I personally was not too fond of the way the human protagonist looked, but I liked everything else. This is entirely subjective of course. All in all, this short film at slightly under half an hour is certainly a good pick to check out when there is a lot of snow outside your house that gets you in the spirit. Apart from the very general plot idea, the film scores through realism and love to detail. I think it's a decent watch for the young ones and those still young at heart.
Leofwine_draca
THE BEAR, an enchanting 30-minute animation about a young girl's relationship with a polar bear that escapes from the local zoo, is very much a spiritual follow-up to that timeless Raymond Briggs classic, THE SNOWMAN. The two productions look and feel very similar to each other and, while THE SNOWMAN has the edge, THE BEAR comes close to reaching the same level of quality.As usual, there's far more going on than meets the eye, something that makes these Briggs stories suitable for adult viewers as well as the kids. On the face of it, it's simply a humorous tale about an unlikely relationship, but underneath it's all about friendship, being comfortable in your own skin, the tribulations of finding one's place in society, mysticism and nature versus technology and progress.Needless to say it's also touching, thought-provoking and magical, with expert, hand-drawn animation and beautifully realised characters.
Jackson Booth-Millard
If you liked The Snowman or Father Christmas, then here is another Christmas film from Raymond Briggs. It doesn't have any dialogue, but the music just makes it just as good as The Snowman, it even appears a tiny bit from it. Basically a little girl really loves bear's, especially polar bears. When she loses her teddy bear in the polar bear sanctuary, she is one night visited by a polar bear that returns it. Together that night they go through the snow, follow a large ghost polar bear, have a bath and much more. The animation is just quality, the music is perfect and the end theme sung by young Charlotte Church makes this one of the essentials for Christmas television. Very good!
Ron Oliver
THE BEAR, huge and gentle - which makes its way from the London Zoo into the bedroom of a lonely little girl - takes her on a magical journey across the Wintertime landscape.Haunting & evocative, this lovely little animated film - told entirely without narration or dialogue, is a most fitting successor to author Raymond Briggs' earlier triumph The Snowman, to which, at one point, it pays subtle homage. After enjoying the broad comedy of the Polar Visitor trying to hide in the proper English home, the viewer is swept into the Northern sojourn which fulfills the Bear's quest.Howard Blake's score propels the fanciful images onward; the final song is sung by Charlotte Church.
