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[FAMILY FILM] Conscience rules 'Arctic Tale'

PHOTO: AP

Displaying more corn than is usually found in the North Pole, Arctic Tale documents the travails of a polar bear cub and a walrus pup as they struggle toward adulthood on diminishing quantities of ice.

Cute of face and name, fuzzy Nanu and sleek Seela (played by a variety of animals at different stages of life) dodge predators and heed their mommies while the filmmakers, Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson, spin a global-warming-for-tykes theme around their endangered bodies. This being an American family movie, the pop songs and unbridled flatulence are givens.

Assembled from more than 800 hours of film shot at the Arctic Circle over the last 15 years, this National Geographic production (written in part by Al Gore's daughter Kristin) uses its narrative artifice to serve the greater good. And if you can get past Sister Sledge belting We Are Family over a herd of frolicking walruses - whose mating calls sound a lot like Tom Waits after venturing to the heart of Saturday night and back - the movie's stunning underwater photography (fearlessly captured by Ravetch) effectively dilutes the saccharine tone.

Film Notes ARCTIC TALE DIRECTED BY: Adam Ravetch STARRING: Queen Latifah (narrator) RUNNING TIME: 85 MINUTES TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY

Still, adults may squirm at the film's persistent anthropomorphism and Queen Latifah's cloying narration. "Meanwhile, Seela's tusks have filled out nicely, and the boys are taking notice," she observes. And if "the boys" are anything like their human counterparts, I'll bet they have no idea what color her eyes are, either.
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