1 of 3

Eight Below Our rating: Rate this movie   MPAA rating: PG (for some peril and brief mild language) Genre: Adventure, Family Theater release: February 17, 2006 by Walt Disney Pictures Directed by: Frank Marshall Runtime: 2 hours Cast: Paul Walker (Jerry Shepard), Bruce Greenwood (Davis McLaren), Jason Biggs (Cooper), Moon Bloodgood (Katie), Gerard Plunkett (Dr. Andy Harrison), August Schellenberg (Mindo), Wendy Crewson (Eve McLaren), Connor Christopher Levins (Eric McLaren) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

Penguins aren't the only creatures that can tell us a thing or two about sticking together and surviving in the harshest of climates. Eight Below tells the story of eight sled dogs who are stranded in the Antarctic, and the man who wants to rescue them. The movie is loosely based on the 1983 Japanese film Antarctica, which in turn was based on a true story, and it works best when it focuses on the dogs themselves: their trials, their triumphs, even their character arcs. The film is less successful when it focuses on the human characters.

Still, somebody had to get the dogs into their predicament—dogs aren't exactly indigenous to that part of the world—so the first part of the film shows how the dogs and humans work together as a team, before circumstances conspire to pull them apart.

Paul Walker as Jerry Shepard, a guide who loves his sled dogs

Paul Walker plays Jerry Shepard, the research-base guide who takes visiting scientists to their various destinations on the frozen continent, and Bruce Greenwood plays Davis McLaren, an American geologist who hopes to be the first in his field to find pieces of a meteorite from the planet Mercury. Davis thinks he can find these fragments in the Antarctic, and it is Jerry's job to take him to the place where they might be found; but due to complications arising from the secrecy of Davis's mission, Jerry is forced to take certain risks—one of them being that he and Davis must make the journey by dog-sled, rather than by one of the more mechanical modes of transportation available at the base.

To the credit of first-time screenwriter David DiGilio, there is a bit of tension between Jerry and Davis, but no real conflict, as such. Davis is not the stereotypically selfish scientist who's willing to risk other people's lives for his own fame and fortune; instead, he's a family man who shows Jerry the picture his son drew for him, and if he gets so excited at times that he ignores the safety rules that Jerry has laid down, well, who can blame him. Jerry, for his part, is proud of his dogs and of the opportunity to show off the icy landscape that has become his home—and thus he becomes a tour guide not only to Davis, but to the audience as well. Every time he points out a hazard or gives tips on how to survive a life-threatening accident, it's like he's giving safety tips to the kids watching this film.

Old Jack joins Jerry, Katie, and Cooper for a game of poker

But accidents do happen, and to make things worse, a snowstorm heads their way, too. So when Jerry and Davis return to the base, they are not only in dire need of medical attention, they are also under orders to evacuate the base—and when Jerry wakes up a few days later, he discovers there was no room in the transports for the dogs.

If you've seen the trailer, then you might think this is where Jerry puts together a rescue mission to reunite with his beloved animals. But the story doesn't quite unfold like that. The movie branches off in two different directions, one following the dogs and the other following Jerry, who spends weeks and months hopping around from Washington, D.C. to California to Oregon, looking in vain for anybody who will fund a rescue mission before he finally gives up and takes a summer job teaching kids how to ride kayaks and canoes.

Jerry and Old Jack

The real story is, of course, with the dogs, and for the most part, this section of the story is told with a refreshing documentary-like realism, as the eight canines struggle to find food, shelter and even just the will to survive. True, some of the creatures the dogs encounter, both as predators and prey, are pretty obviously CGI, but few in the film's young target audience would probably notice that. And true, there is perhaps an element of anthropomorphism here—particularly in the subplot about Max, the youngest and most impetuous of the dogs, who is disciplined by the pack leader for acting out of turn, and who eventually finds a way to redeem himself—but that quibble pales in light of the story's value as an age-appropriate lesson in maturity, respect, teamwork and sacrifice.

next page... |  1 of 3 | last page