The Bear
The Bear
| 25 December 1998 (USA)
The Bear Trailers

A polar bear breaks out of his enclosure to bring a little girl's teddy bear back to her. While she cares for him, the bear takes her on a magical journey. Based on Raymond Briggs' best selling storybook, this enchanting animated tale is from the makers of The Snowman.

Reviews
Alicia

I love this movie so much

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Stellead

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

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Edwin

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

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Phillipa

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

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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.

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TheLittleSongbird

I love "the Snowman" and "Father Christmas", they are timeless Christmas classics. "The Bear" is a simple, haunting and sublime seasonal film, not quite as good as the other two but an essential nonetheless. The story is simple, and so are the characters particularly the warm and loving bear but very effective. The animation is beautiful, very similar to the animation from "The Snowman" and "Father Christmas" and to the illustrations from the book. The music has a haunting and dreamlike quality, with the end song sung beautifully by a young Charlotte Church.Overall, I highly recommend "The Bear". 10/10 Bethany Cox

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orliorliorli

I love this film and i thought it had so much charm and was delightful to watch. I almost felt obliged to like before i saw it not only because it was my godmother who worked with the producers and animation team to create the film, but also because i had photo's taken of me to model Tilly, but when i saw it i was delighted and was over the moon to have contributed to it. The music is lovely and the atmosphere is simply gorgeous. congratulations to the producers and to Charlotte Church who sang at the end. Well done all! I hope to see many more films of the sort and i am sure they will live up to the same standard at films like The Snowman and of course the Bear.

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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.

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