Der kleine Eisbar

Description: Fine for the smallest of children, presumably the intended audience. Older children and adults will find it too childish, too long, and not nearly as well executed as, say, THE FOX AND THE HOUND or FINDING NEMO with which it bears some similarities plot-wise. Interesting mix, near the end, of CGI with traditional 2-D animation, particularly in a sequence involving a marine life-devouring submarine, but not enough to sustain one's full interest. It doesn't help that it is a foreign cartoon, either. The English script requires the voice actors to occasionally cram an awful lot of words into a single sentence, much like a Japanese cartoon. Also, as is often the case with foreign cartoons redubbed in English, some of the dialogue is trite, poorly translated or just plain lame. High points: a truly beautiful execution of Arctic ocean waters and some very funny supporting characters in the form of four bumbling lemmings who cannot seem to ever get where theyre going. A prat-falling penguin, which I thought might be this cartoon's answer to the shaky seagull in THE RESCUERS or Dom DeLuise's buffoon-ish cat in A MOUSE TALE or even Robin Williams' hysterically goofy bird in ONCE UPON A RAINFOREST (title?), was simply dreadful and unfunny in his antics. He makes things worse by performing not one but two very bad musical numbers. A subplot, involving the titular hero's inadvertent transportation to a tropical island, completely throws off the movie's momentum, and was absolutely unnecessary even if this subplot came from the book upon which the film is based. Steer clear of this one unless you have a 4-year-old starving for something new to watch. It is, unfortunately, nearly 90 minutes in length, to boot.